Reviews by ChanceOfFire

...and we're back to Deathtrap Dungeon. Everyone's favorite Baron Sukumvit has returned with another dungeon and a much larger cash prize. But this time, there's a catch. You're not entering as a willing volunteer. Instead, his evil brother has captured you (along with a large bunch of unlucky fools) and is putting you through an arena challenge to find the best of the bunch. Someone who will beat the new dungeon and humiliate his brother. It was pretty good to see that there is some extra story over just simply signing up for the second challenge, and the ending also presents another twist.

Your first stage is to survive the gladiatorial games and rise to the top of pile, over a mountain of dead bodies. This is quite challenging and death is possible. Furthermore, the dungeon itself also pits you against a lot of enemies with pretty high stats, some which can't be avoided. (That sound was me surreptitiously flipping the dice to a six when rolling my stats.) There are also no provisions in the game, so high personal stats are even more of a must here.

I prefer Deathtrap Dungeon to this one, although it's also pretty good, with an interesting selection of encounters and challenges in the dungeon. You will need to collect certain key items and find the one true path, and this will only be revealed to you as the story goes along. The true path, again, also has you (Spoiler - click to show)running into every other unlucky contestant, who are on average less nice than the ones in the first book. It requires you to find every single one of the key items with zero margin for error. Sukumvit was really tough when designing this one.

It's an entertaining read, but finding the true path can be challenging and will still require you to deal with a gauntlet of high stat enemies. Of course, you could simply pretend that number on your dice was a six, but you didn't hear that from me.

Island of the Lizard King was one of the first gamebooks I beat on my first attempt. Looking back, it's not hard to see why. Unlike most other books in the series, you will only need one of two items to defeat the final boss (but finding both helps more) and one of said items is impossible to miss.

The premise made my head spin, with some mad ruler using an island (run by Lizard people) as a prison colony, before realizing that his plan is falling apart as he has way too many criminals in his domain, and that it would be cheaper to put the lawful people on Fire Island. Anyway, he abandons the prison colony, and the lizard people, now out of a job, run the island as a slave colony and start abducting more people for the slave labor.

I liked the setting a lot. Set on a tropical island, with dinosaurs, primitive warriors, as well as all manner of mutant plants and beasts from the Lizard King's experiments, there is much to like here. It's a breath of fresh air and pretty interesting.

There are a couple of difficult enemies, although some can be avoided with luck or the right items. The final boss is tough, but again, the fight can be made easier if you had managed to stumble on the right things.

It's an uncharacteristically easy book in the Fighting Fantasy series, but also a good bit of fun.

I had complained about the premise of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain in another review (and I'd do the same for a few other of Ian Livingstone's gamebooks.) Still, this one is solid.

Baron Sukumvit has built a fantasy obstacle course and is offering a reward for anyone who emerges successfully. While there are no cameras and televisions to entertain the hordes of people which visit Fang for the grand occasion every year, I guess the mystique is more than enough to entertain medieval folk.

Along with yourself, a few other contestants are also vying for the chance to win. Along the way, you can work with them or fight them, although the game doesn't really give you many options in that regard. (Spoiler - click to show)Interestingly, the true path has you running into every other contestant and seeing their untimely demise.

It's an entertaining adventure, with interesting encounters. There is only one true path to beat this game, and the specifics only revealed to you while walking through the dungeon. I remember playing several times to find the one true path and had plenty of fun with the encounters. This one is definitely great for the nostalgia.

Now for another piece of my ancient childhood. The Citadel of Chaos largely improves upon The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in terms of premise and plot. A evil sorcerer plans to destroy the good folk of the nearby town, so it's up to you to stop him. It's not the best premise in the world, but it's definitely a drastic improvement over the first book.

There are plenty of interesting encounters in the citadel, and also visits to various rooms as you snoop around and try to find your way to the evil sorcerer. As with other books in the series, there is only one true path to victory, which you will only find through luck or trial and error. There are two must-have items you will need to reach the sorcerer, but once you encounter him, there are plenty of options to fight, such that a character with poor stats might still prevail. Still, it can be pretty unforgiving, with plenty of bad-ends in the battle if you are not careful.

In addition to the combat system, there is also a magic system which allows you to pre-select some spells to bring with you on the adventure. I strongly prefer the magic system in the Sorcery series, but this one is functional.

It is a solid adventure in the series. Again, it's true value to me lies in the nostalgia, but it was still a pretty good read for another piece of Fighting Fantasy history.

Long, long ago, when I was a kid, a family member gave me their used copy of the very first Fighting Fantasy gamebook. This marked my very first foray into Interactive Fiction. (I have another interesting story of how I played my first parser game, but that's a tale for another time.) Anyways... to the review.

The first gamebook serves as a foundation for the Fighting Fantasy system which other gamebooks in the series are built on. It's a simple but elegant system which provides a solid gameplay experience with a book, pencil and a pair of dice. This is the true prize this book offers: a fantastically simple system which gives it its place in history.

Now, for the bad. The premise is dumb. A powerful warlock with a massive treasure chest is minding his own business in his mountain home. As the 'hero' of the story, your job is to head in, kill him and take the treasure for yourself. Other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have improved on this, but sometimes not by much.

The game is largely a mishmash of random dungeon style encounters, which do not quite build a coherent story about the warlock's residence. Enemies in the game are fairly forgiving in terms of skill checks (but this does not carry over to later books at all.) There are a few powerful enemies (stat-wise) in the game, but most of these (including the final boss) usually have alternate ways to beat them, so starting with low stats isn't strictly a killer.

This book is notable for being the one which started it all... but by itself, it's not a great entry in the series. Still, I read it again for the nostalgia, if nothing else.

After pitching your glorious idea for a movie to a studio which (of course) goes on to reject it, you walk out with as much pride as you can muster and decide to make your own. By that, the game means making your own studio, hiring your own staff and doing everything from the ground up.

The starting sequence is pretty interesting, where you get a chance to customize many aspects of your movie, like genre and so on. As far as I can tell, these decisions are cosmetic, but still fun. As with a regular CoG game, you get to specify your strong stats as well as customize your name and gender.

My playthrough went pretty well. I threw points into screenplay and producing, and worked to play to those strengths. Just as things seem to be running smoothly, the game does throw a couple of scary and infuriating disasters at you, including a very damaging incident at your studio, a near bankruptcy, and criminal investigation and so on. You’ll end up feeling low for some time before the movie finally crawls and splutters to the finish line. Still, it ended on a strong note, perhaps really showing the real ups and downs of the business. After feeling down about the suffering I dragged myself through to reach the premiere, the positive reviews started rolling in and I happily collected my award.

The characters aren’t very deep here. Romance doesn’t seem to be a big part of the game, and I didn’t put in a lot of effort into romancing any characters as they didn’t appeal to me much. Eventually, I romanced my assistant, which felt more like a consolation prize for missing the other ROs.

The writing and storyline is strong, and I enjoyed this game quite a bit. I wish more went into the characters, but overall, I could still give this a recommendation.

First things first, how did I get here? I noticed IFDB had a 'pornographic' tag, was curious, found out that a senior intfiction member had a game under that tag, was even more curious, and the rest is history.

I will start by saying that the writing is genuinely hilarious, with plenty of seriously funny parts which poke fun at the wonderful world of sex and dating on a spring break trip. The music and the limited graphics do a good job of matching the overall vibe of the game as well.

The game is pretty short and seems to be somewhat linear even as it seemingly presents a lot of branching at the start. Still, the writing is funny enough to keep one entertained even as the game funnels you to the game's romance interest. After a couple of (sexy or otherwise) misadventures, you find yourself in a long conversation with her, where you can get to know her more, all while slowly but surely getting the intensity up. I messed up a good number of attempts, but even the bad endings kept me laughing (in a good way).

There is some character customization, in that you can make choices for the appearance of your character and that of your romance interest (which comes with more sexual references than you can think of). As far as I can tell, it has no major impact on the game, but it still adds to the entertainment.

If you want a short but entertaining AIF, this game has it right here.

Hanon is clearly a much cooler guy than I thought he was.

In Choice of the Deathless, you follow the path of a newly minted law student, fresh from college with academic credentials (and student loans!) and ready to start work at the bottom of the corporate ladder, while working on your steady rise to the top.

In this setting, your employer is a demonic law firm, giving you all sorts of assignments to arrange infernal contracts and make deals with the demonic and undead world. It is actually very cleverly done, showing all sorts of amusing and insightful parallels between the corporate world and themes of the occult. It shows some of the usual real life challenges, such as renting an overpriced apartment in the big city to be close to the office and deciding how much of your student loans to pay with that surprisingly huge salary you're starting out with. Your goal is (hopefully) to ride from a lowly associate to partner, while making plenty of demonic deals to climb to that goal. Who knew the infernal universe was so similar to the corporate one?

On my latest playthrough, I dumped everything into Charm and Craft. I think I was able to beat most of the skill checks, but still ended the game being (Spoiler - click to show)turned into a skeleton. I think there is a way to avoid this ending, but I haven't found it yet, and I'm not sure if I want to do another replay for it.

The romance is ok, although I was only mildly interested in the character I finally picked to romance. I think the other non-romance aspects of the game were better done.

In short, this is a pretty solid and interesting game, and also feels pretty long for the number of words.

I was a little skeptical of this game during the opening chapter. Thinking that I would be wading into another run-of-the mill story, expectations started off low. You mess up your current heist, make a messy getaway and set your sights on the next score, while recruiting the usual selection of specialists first. I was pretty sure I’d seen this before.

Still, the rest of the story is engaging, presenting twists and turns and keeping you on your toes. It gives you a constant sense that danger is around the corner, and keeps you weighing your next move carefully, figuring out which skill gets you through or whether you should take the low risk, low reward approach. The writing is actually quite engaging here, and it kept me focused on every twist and turn.

The stat screen and stat system could use some work. It would have been good to have a dossier of NPCs and their respective strengths. Some of the skills also aren’t very well-named, leading me to lose track of what they actually do halfway down the story. More descriptions could have helped.

The romance in the game is solid for what it is. Romance isn’t a major part of the game, but my chosen RO was likable and there were a fair number of encounters to build a relationship and get to know them more.

It took me two attempts to complete the heist successfully and escape. Failure is possible here, so careful decision making is necessary to get to the good endings.

Overall, this is a pretty fun and solid title, even if a little on the short side.

I don't claim to have played every game in the Heart's Choice library, but I've played a fair number of games, and this magical school story is, in my opinion, the weakest of all that I've played. There are plenty of romantic options, bits of romance and spicy scenes here. So what's wrong?

In Freshman Magic, you've earned a spot in the prestigious Briarthorn University on a scholarship. Your objective is to get through school while doing well enough to keep your scholarship. There is also a secondary plotline where you investigate some disappearances. And of course, this is a HC game, so finding romance also places highly on your priority list.

The writing has a tendency to ramble on about all manner of inconsequential things without ever getting close to the point. There are plenty of words and winding passages of text, but the game still succeeds in telling you little about the setting and characters. The main plot is a pretty generic slice of life tale where you make decisions about studying, slacking and hanging out. This part is just functional. However, the second plotline to investigate student disappearances felt really half-assed. There are few scenes covering this plotline, and the game pretty much seems to forget all about the disappearances a moment after it occurs.

I got a pretty good ending in my game, where I kept my scholarship, went for further study, romanced my chosen RO and beat up the villain causing the disappearances. Yet, it was hard to feel satisfied. I was just glad it was over when I finally reached the end, and the second plotline was so underdeveloped with so little buildup that I felt nothing even as I pummeled said villain with successful skill checks.

The romance aspects are better, but just by a little. The characters are mildly interesting, and if you're here for erotica, the game certainly has that in large quantities. However, the spicy scenes could have been more meaningful and enjoyable if backed by stronger characters and writing.

This game checks most of the boxes of a HC game. However, the poor execution all around makes it hard to recommend. Unless you really want the erotica and wouldn't mind wading through the sewage for it, there are better titles in the HC library to get your romance fix.