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Back to Basics
18 February 2021
tSeriously, I cannot believe how easy this gamebook was, though it might have something to do with aiming for a younger audience. Like, I managed to complete it without having to go to a solution site (well, okay, I missed the eye, which is pretty important, but I’ll get to that). In a way, it reminded me of the earlier books, the ones that I remember pouring over when I was a kid. Mind you, that isn’t all that surprising considering that this one was written by Ian Livingstone himself, and it certainly shows it because, well, there was so much of Warlock of Firetop Mountain in this book that it was not funny.
tWell, being his style, you sort of have a quick tour of a number of places that you have visited before. Like, you start off Fang and are about to go into Deathtrap Dungeon when you are approached by some dude who wants you to go and steal this golden dragon that is worth a lot of money. You agree, and to make sure you return he poisons you. So, you head off, and discover that the dungeon is in the Forest of Doom, and to get there you walk past Firetop Mountain. So yeah, there is a bit of reminiscence here.
tAnother thing that stood out is that you meet a companion, and he actually stays alive. Seriously, this guy hung around until the end of the book. Now that is something different because as I mentioned in another review, your companions tend to die off, and die off pretty fast. Not this guy, which I have to admit is pretty cool. In fact, I suspect that you can’t complete the adventure without picking him up. Then again, I’m one of those guys that stick my head into every door I come across, so finding him wasn’t an issue.
tThe problem with this book is that there are an awful lot of items, and pretty much most of them are useless. As such, you end up forgetting that you happen to have something, which was the case with me. I won’t say what, but it was pretty important, but because I tend to leave no stone unturned, I would have found it, and it would have helped me complete the game.
tOh, and there are keys in this one as well, but then again it wouldn’t be a Fighting Fantasy adventure without keys with numbers on them (though technically you could complete it without all of them, you have need an awful lot of luck). However, that is the only hidden numbers that you have to worry about in this book. Sure, Livingstone could have put numbers on all of his items, but I suspect that he wanted this one to be easier, and to also remind us of what the earlier gamebooks were like.
tYeah, this was fun, easy, but fun. Honestly, with a lot of the others that I had read, I’m pretty glad to have come back to something like this.
18 February 2021
tSeriously, I cannot believe how easy this gamebook was, though it might have something to do with aiming for a younger audience. Like, I managed to complete it without having to go to a solution site (well, okay, I missed the eye, which is pretty important, but I’ll get to that). In a way, it reminded me of the earlier books, the ones that I remember pouring over when I was a kid. Mind you, that isn’t all that surprising considering that this one was written by Ian Livingstone himself, and it certainly shows it because, well, there was so much of Warlock of Firetop Mountain in this book that it was not funny.
tWell, being his style, you sort of have a quick tour of a number of places that you have visited before. Like, you start off Fang and are about to go into Deathtrap Dungeon when you are approached by some dude who wants you to go and steal this golden dragon that is worth a lot of money. You agree, and to make sure you return he poisons you. So, you head off, and discover that the dungeon is in the Forest of Doom, and to get there you walk past Firetop Mountain. So yeah, there is a bit of reminiscence here.
tAnother thing that stood out is that you meet a companion, and he actually stays alive. Seriously, this guy hung around until the end of the book. Now that is something different because as I mentioned in another review, your companions tend to die off, and die off pretty fast. Not this guy, which I have to admit is pretty cool. In fact, I suspect that you can’t complete the adventure without picking him up. Then again, I’m one of those guys that stick my head into every door I come across, so finding him wasn’t an issue.
tThe problem with this book is that there are an awful lot of items, and pretty much most of them are useless. As such, you end up forgetting that you happen to have something, which was the case with me. I won’t say what, but it was pretty important, but because I tend to leave no stone unturned, I would have found it, and it would have helped me complete the game.
tOh, and there are keys in this one as well, but then again it wouldn’t be a Fighting Fantasy adventure without keys with numbers on them (though technically you could complete it without all of them, you have need an awful lot of luck). However, that is the only hidden numbers that you have to worry about in this book. Sure, Livingstone could have put numbers on all of his items, but I suspect that he wanted this one to be easier, and to also remind us of what the earlier gamebooks were like.
tYeah, this was fun, easy, but fun. Honestly, with a lot of the others that I had read, I’m pretty glad to have come back to something like this.
