The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales

Just wish it was longer. That's it. A concept that I haven't seen so far, very creative and just so many different settings. People compare it to Disco Elysium but it isn't that, if Disco Elysium was a deep dark hole and very vertical, this is very horizontal. A lot of different stories.

A faily creative twist on the proven formula of Point'n'Click adventures this game is all about the question whether new generations can truely create new art or if any new art is just a derivative of existing art. Here books are the stand-in for today's remix culture. Writers are unable, it seems, to come up with new ideas so they hire people like our protagonist to steal exciting McGuffins from other writer's works. With every level we puzzle our way through we encounter those mashed-up ideas, some being more familiar than others, but always with the recognisable link to an old tale of myth, legend and popular literature. The art style of this game is tremendously charming while functional at the same time. The contrast between the "overworld" our protagonist inhibits and the "book world" we travel through enhances the fantasy-driven level design of each "level". I could not help but be reminded a lot of "Disco Elysium", be it the interface, the dialogue window or the overall approach to characters and their portrayal. So one might argue that The Bookwalker is derivative even in this regard. But if so: it is truely an innovative approach, at least in my perspective. Play this game if you really dig detective CRPG games and/or look for games which tell a story, multiple stories in fact, and if you are an at least avid reader of popular fanatasy, sci-fi or classic mythology stories.

I’d like to start with that I have not finished the game and unlikely to do so. It is a half-arsed point-and-click adventure game. Every aspect of it is made poorly, from the 1-option dialogues to puzzles to settings (none). Even saving - the game has 1 auto-rewriting slot. The accessibility options are non-existent as well - the fonts cannot be adjusted, the controls cannot be rebound or even shown, and it is not possible to highlight the interactive objects on the screen while you need to vacuum everything to find the next quest item. The protagonist and the sidekick yap relentlessly and not helpfully, with the former purposefully and automatically making bad choices (e.g. responding with “No spoilers” when the sidekick offers information). There is technically a turn-based combat system and it includes only a very few abilities and no positioning. The game is VA-free and the visual style is appealing, though the technical aspects, again, are lacking. There are FPS drops in some sections and no graphical settings. The space required (11.9GB) seems too high for the game. I would have refunded it if I could.

Like it very much!