The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales

Combination of FPP (few minutes) and TPP (~6 hours) exploration of books. Game is just about visiting worlds, talking to characters, finding items, combining them and progressing further thanks to found information, keys and crafted tools. There is also simple turn-based combat mechanic where you choose to drain ink (mana), attack or defend. You can craft ink potions and find healing items to make fights easier. All items are removed from your inventory after you finish mission. Between missions you have option to upgrade 1 skill, imposed by game. I forgot about this upgrade mechanic (you have to use book in real world) and almost finished game without it. So fighting is not really a challenge, but fun little “activity” to mix into gameplay. Greatest thing in this game are different worlds and story – I find it VERY hard these days to get engaged in 90% of games. This game worlds and main character glued me to screen and forced me to complete this game, just to know what will happen next. Characters were not very memorable but feeling of exploring new world with every new book was unforgettable. This reminds me of great old RPGs like planescape torment, baldur’s gate or witcher 1 where you sank into fantasy worlds and were overjoyed with feeling of exploration. I hope they will release many great games in future. P.S. If I had to point out any flaws: a) problems with visibility – sometimes you can miss possible path due to camera positioning b) no ability to auto-zoom camera. You can zoom in manually after every screen transition, but default is unnecessarily zoomed out even in 1080p c) there is no button to highlight all possible interaction points. This is not pure point and click adventure game so I guess it is not realistic to expect it. d) game has illusion of choice like telltale games. In reality choices do not matter and lead to same outcomes, except for player morality state which might be slightly better or worse after doing specific interactions.

The game looks really nice and has some interesting mechanics, like: - switching between the first-person 3D "real" world and the 2.5D isometric book world. - different "worlds" (books) with their own story - interacting with the neighbors, borrowing stuff and never giving it back, is kinda funny. However, overall it's not very satisfying: - The game is _very_ short. 6(.5) books sounds like a lot, but each is very short. Completed it within a few hours. - The story is very linear. Every step along the way there is only one real option. And at some points in time there seems to be some ethical choices, but none affect the story. There's just one solution to everything and thus just one ending. Apart from dying, but you always get a new chance (there's no save game, so that's the only mechanic to handle errors/mistakes). - The puzzles are very simple. Also related to/caused by the linear gameplay: by just following the single path that you get, you already solve all the puzzles. - The stories in the books are very shallow. You get a short glimpse of a world, but there's no real build up. It's just: get in, get to your target and get out. You don't get immersed in the stories. - The side quests, like getting stuff from locked boxes don't relate to the story at all. It just some resources. That's dissatisfying. - The 3D engine requirements are high. On my GTX1660 Super in 4k I got more lag/lower fps than games with comparable graphics. - the menu gives no settings to change the graphics quality (e.g. to get more fps). It all feels "rushed". They spend a lot of time on graphics, so no time was left for the story. Nice to play once, but I'll never play it again. 15 euros seems ok-ish for such a thing.

This game is fantastic in the way it innovates with the idea of exploring books. It's only shortcoming really is the medium length story, however, that doesn't mean it wasn't finished or thorough. The story is very much complete at this length and extending it would have been a welcome extra. If anyone is reading and the game is on sale, then by all means, go ahead and treat yourself to something new.

This is a story-driven adventure with nice visuals and good atmosphere. Of course, one could argue it somehow lacks on the gameplay side. No real choices, no real puzzles, and you can't really fail. So it is not a game for eveyone. But if you are looking for a set of original stories with nice visuals, you could do much worse than spending a few hours in this universe. So the pitch is a bit similar to Jasper Fforde books (the Thursday Next series, for those who know them...) You will have to entrer 6 books/stories, in order to steal an artifact from each of them. These settings are quite pleasant and offer some nice variety. They are mostly inspired by classic tales with a twist (eg : famous sacred medieval item in a science fiction environment) I did enjoy my run. The writing has some originality for once, and does work pretty well. The visual make it a pleasant visit. I would have appreciated it more with some more gameplay, however. This is sub-par to any decent point and click adventure. Here you basically simply walk and explore, and that's about it. There is a combat system, and it is not bad, but really too limited. I would be interested in another episode with more gameplay. That could make a really, really good game.