Ratings and Reviews by ChanceOfFire

Charming and endearing choicescript stories are pretty hard to come by, and don’t always get the vibe right. Nevertheless, Demon Mark creates this fairytale feel pretty well, in a setting said to be inspired by Russian folklore.

The plot isn’t entirely a new concept. A family member has been abducted by the big bad, and we’re off to rescue them. On the way, we meet the nobility and royalty to possibly obtain some help, fight various mythological creatures and eventually take down the villain and rescue our family member. But what I really enjoyed was how the game had managed to weave the charming fairytale feel into the story, starting from the player’s childhood days and continuing into the main story. That said, with scenes of violence and horror, this isn’t entirely a game for children.

On my playthrough, I managed to beat most stat checks and complete the game successfully, while being careful to avoid using the demon mark if possible. I got a pretty good ending, and as a causal player, I suppose the difficulty was just right.

I don’t think there is any romance in the game, although I didn’t quite mind, and it might have detracted from the plot to save your family member, in any case.

On a negative note, the game does have a good number of ‘how are you feeling?’ choices, but a lot of these seem to be pure fake choices and felt meaningless. There were also times where the game presented skill checks, and I was struggling to figure out which choice was supposed to correspond with which skill.

Overall, minus a few complaints, I liked the writing and the charm of the story in this fairytale setting.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s a very interesting concept, where you play as someone gifted with psychic powers, with the ability to take control of other humans with a touch. However, when your own body is taken from you, you find yourself caught up in a larger plot as you try to recover it, with plenty of opportunities to jump to another person and take control of their body.

The writing is good and the game also asks some thought-provoking questions about motivations and morals every now and then. However, the story’s pacing is fast and tends to jump from one point to another quickly. I found myself losing track of the story at several points.

The stat system is another strange beast. I picked the skills I wanted to specialize in early on, but I saw very very few choices which appeared to be skill checks. Maybe there were more… but in that case, the signaling could have been clearer. Also, halfway through, I found all my stats reduced to minimum levels. I’m not sure if this was a glitch, a penalty for some bad choices made, or a storyline thing, but when I finally did find some choice which I thought was a skill check and returned to check the stat screen, I found all my skills at minimum levels, basically meaning my character was now useless.

There is a character whom I romanced in the game. She was fairly interesting, and I had a mixed relationship with her. That said, I got her (Spoiler - click to show)killed at the end due to a miscalculation, and wasn’t quite in the mood to replay the game again to see if things could have turned out differently.

I don't think this game is bad, just that it probably wasn’t the one for me. That said, I think the pacing and plot points could have been more forgiving.

Werewolves exist alongside other humans. Also, they have certain demands in terms of rights and laws. Still, all is not well with that group. Some folks see werewolves as a threat which requires a tighter leash.

You begin this tale as a junior staffer for a congressman or congresswoman, but get a quick promotion when something unfortunate happens to your boss. (A higher-ranking staffer, not the congressman or congresswoman.) Once that happens, it is up to you to tackle mountains of paperwork, phone calls, late nights and stress, all to bring the campaign to an electoral victory.

There are four candidates you can choose to work for, two republican and two democrat. I ultimately picked one by trying to translate their description to gameplay stats, and trying to guess which would work best with my character build. Speaking of which, unlike other CoG games, this title keeps your gender ambiguous rather than allowing you to specify it up front. Personally, it wasn't something I minded.

There is a simple but pretty interesting management minigame, where you decide to how you will allocate campaign funds towards different endeavors. Interestingly, I removed the pollster to save money halfway down the line, and stopped receiving reports on predicted results. (You'd think I couldn't find at least one news website which does that for free.) I did run dangerously low on funds twice without being a huge spender, so the challenge is there.

You'll need to tackle the issue of werewolf related legislation, along with a ton of other bread and butter issues like the economy and unemployment. Annoyingly, especially at the start of the game, people will ask/ambush you about different positions your candidate has, but you can only give them a solid yes/no or a solid brush off. Some way to say 'I'll need to discuss this with my team' or 'I'm not sure yet' should have been available even if it might not have pleased the other side fully.

There is some romance in the game. Still, I did betray the trust of that RO (I was trying to do the right thing for someone else, and the game suggested I could be discreet about it), but I got caught anyway and sent our relationship to the bottom of the sea. But eh... that's life, I guess.

The ending was somewhat unsatisfying. After a personally horrifying incident which put my character out of commission towards the end, my congressperson still won the election by a wafer-thin margin. However, there is little detail on what happens later, whether people got the jobs they were promised, how said congressperson made things better/worse and so on. There were a few loose ends such as decisions on certain bills and a personal secret of the congressperson which were also seemingly unresolved. I did not speak to the congressperson later, so I'm not sure if they followed up with me or helped me secure future opportunities. (C'mon, I helped you win this. Shouldn't I at least get a B+ on my report card?)

It's an interesting story with an interesting concept, just that I wasn't quite satisfied with some parts of it. The writing is good, and also conveys some really harsh realities of the job. But if you're into politics, go ahead and give this a try.

Another mission to destroy an evil wizard who wants to destroy the world.

Your task here is to head to a temple in a lost city and retrieve five Dragon artefacts before the bad guy is able to do so. In the world of Fighting Fantasy, this means another semi linear adventure where you need to pick up all five key items or lose the game at the very end.

Unlike other FF gamebooks, there is a simple magic system here. You get to choose from a small number of spells you can master, and can cast them during the game at the cost of a small amount of stamina. Magic helps in some areas, although there is one spell which doesn't appear to be used anywhere.

Finding all five Dragon items can be a challenge, and the one true path does require you to go down a route which takes away a huge chunk of your money and beats you up in various ways. When you reach the temple, there is also an interesting adversary which can kill you if you trigger a certain number of events. Some enemies here also have high stats, so be prepared to roll the dice hard.

As with Caverns of the Snow Witch, you do not learn much about some of your adversaries here. (Spoiler - click to show)There is Malbordus, whom you fight at the very end. There is also the High Priestess of the temple, who is supposedly a secondary antagonist of sorts, but all you do is chase her until she vanishes somewhere. Still, the setting, with the middle eastern vibe, is pretty interesting.

There are some interesting ideas here and there, and I remember having a bit of fun with this one. Still, there are other titles which stood out to me more.

An evil undead prince threatens the town of Silverton unless the Mayor agrees to his demands. You are tasked to slay the undead fiend. But first, your adventures take you to the infamous Port Blacksand.

Port Blacksand is full of criminals ready to screw you over at every corner. On the other hand, you do get choices to break into houses and rob people in the game as well, so I guess the player fits in just nicely. Some encounters didn't make much logical sense, but that's a Fighting Fantasy gamebook for you. (Spoiler - click to show)Like two old ladies dressed as kids fighting with each other and asking for toys.

Anyway, as this is a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, your job here is to figure out the right path and find a set of key items, or meet a game over at the end. You'll need a total of five things here, and on top of that, you will need to make an entirely random decision near the end, of which choosing wrongly will also cause you to lose the game. You'll either need a lot of replays or a lot of luck. Honestly, this game didn't interest me as much, and I pretty much made my way to the finish line by pretending that I had the right items and made the right choices, since I just wasn't in the mood for legit replays.

This was one of the later titles I tried as a kid, and I didn't really like it as much. A decent gamebook, but there are others I liked more.

On another note, a certain nasty character who gets a mention in Deathtrap Dungeon shows up here.

Bloodbones is tough to rate. Compared to your average Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Bloodbones is well written with creatively made gameplay elements, as opposed to the more linear Livingstone style. Some parts of the game allow you to explore different areas in a more sandbox style as opposed to walking down the slightly branching road. I would say Green brings plenty of interesting ideas to the table.

Nevertheless, this game is also fiendishly difficult, with plenty of dead ends, checkpoints which will happily annihilate you if you failed to find the one key item and enemies with very high stats, some impossible to avoid. You'll probably want to cheat on dice rolls here since the game stacks the deck against you anyway, and is one gamebook I have never completed legitimately due to the difficulty.

Otherwise, the game is well written, with free exploration elements we really ought to see in more gamebooks. The plot is a somewhat basic revenge plot, but I loved the pirate and tropical setting. Just be prepared for the fiendish challenge. (And anyone who wants to cheat in this game should feel free to do so.)

The dwarves of Stonebridge have lost their magical Warhammer, and it's up to you to retrieve it.

The forest setting is not the most unique one, but it provides a fairly entertaining environment for this gamebook. As with other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, you will need to collect some key items (in this case two) to win. The objectives are laid out pretty clearly from the start. Additionally, you start with some gold and can purchase magical items at the start of the game to help you on the adventure, and some do come in useful.

This gamebook is surprisingly forgiving, as far as enemy difficulty goes. One really noteworthy part is that if you fail to find the key items at the end of the game, you are given the option to continue (restart) with (presumably) all your items and stats intact, as long as you beat a few dice rolls at the end. This simply means returning to section 1 and starting all over again, and will mean continuity issues down the line, as you have the same encounters, fight the same enemies and find the same items all over again. Still, enjoy this while you can, for other later gamebooks aren't anywhere as forgiving.

The plot and setting is solid even if not spectacular, and it's less harsh on players than other entries. It was a solid read for my much younger self, and could still get something of a recommendation from me today.

Caverns of the Snow Witch feels like a bunch of smaller adventures roughly put together to form a larger whole. Don't quote me on this, I might be wrong, but I think this was orginally a smaller adventure which got expanded somehow.

Your job is initially to take out some unknown creature, but you eventually get sidetracked and find yourself on a mission to fight the Snow Witch. Even by Fighting Fantasy standards, the Snow Witch is one of the most underdeveloped villians in the gamebook series, with your first encounter with her being short and quick if you survive, and your second encounter being a short luck based game you must win to beat her. (Spoiler - click to show)You get a pair of companions as well in the process. Afterwards, you escape her lair and find yourself on yet another mission to save your life. The events do not feel like a fully formed and solid plotline.

The icy setting makes for a fairly good change of pace from the usual fantasy settings, but I think this game could have been better with a plot fully around the Snow Witch as an adversary. As far as difficulty goes, there are some tough enemies, but also with ways to avoid them. As with most other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, you will need to find the one true path by finding the 'right' items to secure a victory.

It was one of the first few gamebooks I played, but also one of the weaker ones in my opinion. It was a fair bit of fun, but I think there are better titles in the series out there.

...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.