In the first of what might be a few 'I have Covid' playthroughs I revisited one of my favourite gamebooks of youth, Avenger!, from The Way of the Tiger series today.
The worldbuilding in this book is glorious - it's stuffed with detail that you don't get in the early FF books, enough to make you really feel like you've stepped into a fully realised world. It's helped tremendously by there being a solid plot: you play a character with a defined background and motivation rather than 'generic sellsword'.
It's also got a nifty little combat system that gives you a choice of various fighting techniques - generally you can use punches or kicks, which are riskier but do more damage, or throws that do no damage but may give you a huge advantage on a follow up attack. Because the damage is calculated via dice roll the fights are much quicker and feel more brutal, and because the enemy's attacks can vary as you do they feel a lot less abstract.
As a ninja you can also pick 3 of 8 special ninja skills which can alter your route through the tale. (I can't stress this enough: always take poison needles and climbing. A couple of the others, like feign death, didn't even crop up in my playthrough)
Plotwise it's a revenge story / assassination role into one as you set off to kill the evocatively named trio of Manse the Deathmage, Honoric, Marshal of the Legion of the Sword of Doom and Yaemon, grandmaster of the monks of the Scarlet Mantis and the man who murdered your adoptive father. It encompasses a battle on a pirate ship, a visit to the famed Arena of Mortavalon (later seen in the Arena of Death duelmasters series), a trip overland and finally breaking into Quench-Heart Keep. The latter part is excellent, as with the smart choices it's possible to assassinate two of your targets without restoring to combat before a final epic showdown on the top of the keep itself.
I did get auto-killed by some lions at one point but being fairly familiar with the book I was able to otherwise finish it without much difficulty. It's very different to a FF book - there's no need to map it, no 'shopping list' of items needed at the end, and no dead ends, only paths that make your journey easier or harder. Most of the choices you make can be made based on the lore or things you've observed or been told in the text which makes you feel a little more in control of the story. I know I've a lot of nostalgia for it, but the differences, combined with the lore and writing making it so immersive, meant I really really enjoyed this. If I were to critique it I might say that, outside of combat, it may be a bit easy, but that might be because I've played it many times before (many years ago)
I never played another WotT book - back in 1986 I only read gamebooks that were either in the library or on sale at the big Martins on Rayleigh high-street - but I'm tempted to look these out. It looks like there were new editions funded on Kickstarter, but the older ones hold the charm for me!
The worldbuilding in this book is glorious - it's stuffed with detail that you don't get in the early FF books, enough to make you really feel like you've stepped into a fully realised world. It's helped tremendously by there being a solid plot: you play a character with a defined background and motivation rather than 'generic sellsword'.
It's also got a nifty little combat system that gives you a choice of various fighting techniques - generally you can use punches or kicks, which are riskier but do more damage, or throws that do no damage but may give you a huge advantage on a follow up attack. Because the damage is calculated via dice roll the fights are much quicker and feel more brutal, and because the enemy's attacks can vary as you do they feel a lot less abstract.
As a ninja you can also pick 3 of 8 special ninja skills which can alter your route through the tale. (I can't stress this enough: always take poison needles and climbing. A couple of the others, like feign death, didn't even crop up in my playthrough)
Plotwise it's a revenge story / assassination role into one as you set off to kill the evocatively named trio of Manse the Deathmage, Honoric, Marshal of the Legion of the Sword of Doom and Yaemon, grandmaster of the monks of the Scarlet Mantis and the man who murdered your adoptive father. It encompasses a battle on a pirate ship, a visit to the famed Arena of Mortavalon (later seen in the Arena of Death duelmasters series), a trip overland and finally breaking into Quench-Heart Keep. The latter part is excellent, as with the smart choices it's possible to assassinate two of your targets without restoring to combat before a final epic showdown on the top of the keep itself.
I did get auto-killed by some lions at one point but being fairly familiar with the book I was able to otherwise finish it without much difficulty. It's very different to a FF book - there's no need to map it, no 'shopping list' of items needed at the end, and no dead ends, only paths that make your journey easier or harder. Most of the choices you make can be made based on the lore or things you've observed or been told in the text which makes you feel a little more in control of the story. I know I've a lot of nostalgia for it, but the differences, combined with the lore and writing making it so immersive, meant I really really enjoyed this. If I were to critique it I might say that, outside of combat, it may be a bit easy, but that might be because I've played it many times before (many years ago)
I never played another WotT book - back in 1986 I only read gamebooks that were either in the library or on sale at the big Martins on Rayleigh high-street - but I'm tempted to look these out. It looks like there were new editions funded on Kickstarter, but the older ones hold the charm for me!