Gamebook Adventures 2 is the second in the series of adventure game books set in the fantasy land of Orlandes. Developed by Tin Man Games, most of the basic mechanics roll over from the first title, with new additions this time around. It’s great to see developers taking our advice and putting the effort into creating a better product, and now the book has the status bar when you activate the menu; perfect for when you only have a few moments to play.

The basic plot is that you have returned to your home town that has become overrun with goblyns, amassed from afar by a necromancer by the name of Erid Buul. You break into the stronghold which he has captured and try and defeat him with any means necessary. Although there’s much more to it than that we don’t really want to spoil the book itself!

The quality of the writing here is superb. Like the first game the author manages to keep your interest held, with the vocabulary rich and the writing witty and descriptive, holding an element of tension throughout. There are many different rooms for you to explore, and many different consequences and choices that you have to make along the way; some irreversible, some red herrings and others that allow you to return to where you were previously and try something else. The bookmark system is particularly good as it can reverse the consequences of a particular action, or allow you to try a tough battle again; you only get three so you have to be careful not to waste them. It becomes quickly apparent that multiple tries at the game are necessary, even if you manage to find the ultimate ending on your first try; there are a broad array of achievements to collect as well as finding all of the images hidden within the story. Choosing to start the book over erases all the bookmarks and starts you at the beginning but you keep your achievements.

One thing that lets the game down is the battle system which, like before, heavily depends on random chance via dice rolls. Sure, you can cheat the system a little by either hitting the home button during a battle if you’re about to lose, or simply by letting the dice fall and then shaking to re-roll if you’re not happy with the first result, but this honestly feels cheap and it doesn’t help you enjoy the game. Even when dice rolls go in your favour battles can still take forever to complete, especially once both you and your opponent have high offensive and defensive stats. It contrasts badly to modern RPG battle systems, and while you could argue that the dice based approach retains the purity of the traditional game book, there’s no sense why it shouldn’t be possible to have levelling and further abilities or magic to deepen and improve the combat. The current system of just affording you new weapons at predetermined points is good, but it should be possible to level up your character in order to prepare for the final battle. In any case, battling needs to be improved.

As before, the presentation really marks this title out. With full 3D dice rolling; two choices of textured paper; a selection of three fonts; a rousing orchestral soundtrack; gorgeous black and white illustrations available to view full screen (they make good wallpaper); and a reading experience that is comparable to reading an iBook with slick page turning effects, the book is a joy to read and experience. The menu slides slickly over the screen to access the status bar and heal vitality, check your inventory or place a bookmark that again slides onto the page. There’s a lot of effort gone into the development of the book engine and it really shows throughout.

We have thoroughly enjoyed Gamebook Adventures 2, despite the random battles. Hopefully the developer can improve the battle engine, and then we truly wouldn’t have anything to complain about! We’re eagerly waiting for the third installment of the series and also the iPad editions which you can read about on the developer’s blog. Let’s hope that they improve further upon this series, too.

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Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes , B

Review by Tom Grimes, February 22, 2010