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Started by Funt Solo, 19 October, 2021, 02:40:32 AM

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Barrington Boots

You shame me.

I kind of figure that this might be my last serious run at these books (not for any sinister reason - just that my enthusiasm will definitely wane at some point also) and therefore I'd like to see the end of as many of them as possible.
I think of the nine I've played here, the only ones I've done first time have been Scorpion Swamp and Starship Traveller. I'm not sure many of them can be done without max stats, but skipping the battles in CotSW did make me feel a bit dirty...
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Richard

Enthusiasm wanes, but it also waxes. I thought I had played my last gamebook years ago, but I still kept about half of them, and this thread has got me back into them again. It's not even the first time that I've got back into them after a lengthy break. I gravitate back to them every few years. Something to consider before you flog them all on eBay.

Funt Solo

I'm not sure I'm actually capable of playing the books without finger-cheating. Hrmn ... maybe I'll try it.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Richard

You should be flogged or made to wear a hair shirt or something.

sheridan

Quote from: Richard on 03 May, 2022, 03:12:30 PM
Enthusiasm wanes, but it also waxes. I thought I had played my last gamebook years ago, but I still kept about half of them, and this thread has got me back into them again. It's not even the first time that I've got back into them after a lengthy break. I gravitate back to them every few years. Something to consider before you flog them all on eBay.


This is about my fourth time of interest - first was during the original era - not sure of the exact date but the copyright info in my copy of Deathtrap Dungeon suggests the seventh printing in 1984.  Second was about five years later when i found somebody at school who really liked them (their favourite was Freeway Warrior), third was some time this century and fourth is now.

Barrington Boots

#245
Dare you enter the HOUSE OF HELL? I did, and it didn't end well! Read on!

My starting stats:

Skill 12 (yes!)
Stamina 20
Luck 10
Fear 8

The adventure begins with me stranded in the rain and looking for shelter in the titular hellhouse. Approaching the house, sodden and miserable, I see a light on at the rear of the property and squelch round to see if I can alert anyone there instead of ringing the main doorbell and waking the house up. There are two men in the kitchen, but their conversation is decidedly odd and a little sinister. To be honest it's at this point I should resign myself to a night in the car, but instead I decide against trying to enter here and go back round to the front where the butler coolly invites me in. As I wait in the hall I pass the time by examining the portraits only to get a horrible shock when one speaks to me! Dire warnings are imparted - not least against wine...

Before long Christopher Lee arrives with his butler and offers me dinner and a glass of brandy, which I drink, restoring my shaken FEAR score to its maximum. I'm offered a choice of wines, but I heed the portraits warning. Oddly the Earl joins me for a midnight roast dinner and tells me about his family history. I choose to follow my meal with cheese and coffee, which is the wrong choice as next thing I know I'm waking up bound in a strange room. HELP!

I'm soon free, but not without cutting myself badly on the broken windowpane. Thankfully the Earl has forgotten to lock the door, so I slip out onto the landing and head left. The Balthus room sounds unpleasant, as does the Diabolus room, so I avoid them. Looking out the window I receive a mysterious message. It seems that some - force - here in the house is trying to aid me? Returning to the landing I secure a sharp kitchen knife and some garlic, which comes in handy when I encounter a VAMPIRE. Luckily, I just chuck the garlic at him and escape via a scooby doo style revolving wall door and then a magic mirror, eventually ending up in the kitchen. Someone has left keys on the stove but when I grab them it turns out the stove is on - I burn my hand on red hot keys, my scream attracts the house residents who pile onto me. I am captured and meet an undefined but certainly sticky end.

For my second attempt I decide to restart after I picked up the knife. This time instead of going to face the vampire I return to the landing and continue creeping about: trying doors at random I getting a horrible shock when I open a door and a body falls out on me. When I've calmed down, I find another sinister barred bedroom where I look out the window, only to get an even nastier shock when I see a familiar face on a hanging corpse outside the window! By now my heart is pounding in my chest and my fear score at dangerous levels. I decide against going to bed (why would I even do this?) and instead return to prowling the corridors where I discover the Abbadon room. Remembering the clue I had earlier I enter and try to wake its sleeping occupant only to discover this is another corpse: the shock brings my Fear total to 8 and I die on the spot. My adventure ends here.



It's been a long time since I've had a bash at House of Hell. As a kid I really did NOT like this book: whilst not scary per se, I found the theme and art unpleasant and the book frustratingly hard. In particular I seem to recall there's no way to save the innocent district nurse, despite a friendly ghost telling you that you should, and if you try you get a slightly sneering 'you deserved that' paragraph before insta-death which rather stung.

Playing it now, I'm more into the theme - I prefer a fantastical one, but I'm more into the horror concept now than I was back then and approached it thinking I might appreciate it more. I'm not sure it's especially well executed however: looking at it critically it's a bit of a mishmash of Hammer Horror tropes all kind of stuck together and I think it would work better if it stuck to one concept - eg. the Satanists and / or the haunted house- and didn't bother with stuff like zombies or the vampire who seems very out of place. It reminded me of the first Resident Evil game where the plot is zombies and experiments but also there's stuff like a giant snake because we need to get more monsters in.
I really don't like the FEAR mechanic at all.

I still don't like the art: I've got more time for Ian Miller's cover but I find the interior art both grotesque and unevocative.

Mechanically it's definitely a book that needs mapping as I was quickly lost in the maze of rooms upstairs. It did seem quite fitting and interesting that up to both deaths I didn't face a single combat and in a way that's quite nice after the very hard fights in IotLK and CotSW. I seem to remember however that this book is amazingly difficult to complete.

Having gone to the trouble of completing every other book so far via multiple playthroughs and maps I should do the same here but it's the first book where I find myself not really interested in doing so. Having recently played the Night Shift gamebook I have to say that did the whole concept a lot better, both thematically and mechanically, (in fairness HoH was published 35 years prior to Night Shift). Will I return to the house? Probably. Perhaps mapping it out will reveal it's secrets and it's charm to me.

I always thought this was one of the most highly regarded FF books so it's interesting to see a few other guys here come out and say they don't like it either: I'd be interested to know why.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Barrington Boots

Also this really bugged me: why is one type of wine drugged and not the other? And the same for only one of the post-dinner digestifs?
Given the implication is that I've been manipulated into the house (wrong directions / ghostly car crash) and that the evil Earl is going to use me as a sacrifice, you'd think it'd be easier to just drug everything on my plate and knock me right out rather than see which I take and risk me wandering about opening doors at random.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 04 May, 2022, 10:34:39 AM
Playing it now, I'm more into the theme - I prefer a fantastical one, but I'm more into the horror concept now than I was back then and approached it thinking I might appreciate it more. I'm not sure it's especially well executed however: looking at it critically it's a bit of a mishmash of Hammer Horror tropes all kind of stuck together...

The series dabbles a lot more with gothic horror as it goes on, but marries it very successfully with the fantasy theme (most of Stephen Hand and Jonathan Green's books, plus a lot of Keith Martin's.)

As a kid the horror ones were by far my favourite - but even then I didn't really like House of Hell. I'll try and pinpoint why in a few playthrough's time. Maybe the modern-day setting? Maybe because it was too damn hard to be any fun?
@jamesfeistdraws

Richard

A great write up as usual!

As a kid, I found the modern day setting very off-putting, although once you enter the house it stops being relevant. I hardly remember this book at all now, so reading it again should be interesting. I might still give book 9 a try first.

Interesting point about the randomly drugged wine. I'm going to assume that's down to the theme of giving the reader choices taking priority over plot or common sense. (But in the spirit of finding in-plot explanations for apparent errors, maybe a feature of the Satanists' evil religion is you have to give your victims a sporting chance?)

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Richard on 04 May, 2022, 11:18:26 AM
I hardly remember this book at all now, so reading it again should be interesting. I might still give book 9 a try first.

Don't worry, you've not fallen behind. CotSW next for me, too.
@jamesfeistdraws

Krakajac

#250
Thought I might make a small contribution to the thread.

My daughter is 2 - going on 3, so I figured I'd track down some game-books for when she gets older (I'm 51 and enjoyed them as a kid).  Yeah, an old Dad!

Thought I'd start with a gateway drug and track down the first 10 CYOA titles - all vintage.  Some very spooky-style illustrations by Paul Granger.  Should get her on the right path...



Once she's had her fill of CYOA - she can graduate to the first 5 of the Fighting Fantasy books - again all early editions.  Even obtained some nice fantasy-style D6's to pair with the books.



That should keep her out of trouble - and I can relive my youth at the same time.

Colin YNWA

Ohhh we had 'The Cave of Time'. Am I right in thinking these didn't have a combat system? If so I think that's why we never (we being my brother and I) never got into them.

Krakajac

Correct - no combat system.

Funt Solo

The other main difference is that CYOA books tend to be multiple linear branches and have lots of different endings, whereas FF books tend towards the complexity of side quests, but with a common core thread that leads towards a shared finale.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Barrington Boots

I cut my gamebook teeth on those CYOA books, lovely to see them again. But look at those FF books - first editions? Glorious. Ace dice too!
You're a dark horse, Boots.