If you’re of a certain age, chances are that you grew up reading (and playing) a variety of gamebooks. Most popular in North America were the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ series, but there were many more, including Endless Quest (from TSR, purveyors of Dungeons & Dragons), Lone Wolf by Joe Dever, and of course, the plethora of books from Steve Jackson Games.
Steve Jackson was a household name in both gamebooks and for those who played tabletop games. From Car Wars to Ogre, and Illuminati to Fighting Fantasy, any kid who was into game books had heard of Steve Jackson Games. Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is an integral part of that history as well. Sorcery! was originally a four part gamebook series from the mid-80s and was part of the Fighting Fantasy series. It was later republished in the early 2000s and now the time has come to revisit Sorcery! once again!
In the video game version of Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! from publisher No Gravity Games, you are an adventurer searching for the Crown of Kings. Your search takes you through the Shamultani Hills and into Kharé. From there the third and fourth books take you through the Baklands, eventually leading you to defeat the Archmage and reclaim the Crown of Kings, assuming you survive that long. Developer Inkle has taken the original gamebooks and placed them directly into the video game version of Sorcery!, adding a host of conversions to make the gamebooks come alive as you play.
This formula has been attempted and tweaked over the course of the last few years in the digital gamebook genre throughout gaming. Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf has released a moderately successful game of the same title, and a few years ago, Omen Exito: Plague (review here) as an attempt to rekindle the love of gamebooks in a digital format. Other games such as Curious Expedition (review here) have also used spins on these formulas but Steve Jackson’s Sorcery is one of the granddaddies of all of them!
Gameplay largely consists of selecting text options and combat. As you’re actually reading a book that was originally a physical paperback, settle in for a large amount of reading here. Sorcery! starts you off small, forcing you to select your provisions and options, then giving you a taste of what’s to come with some combat practice and spellcasting. This isn’t your standard visual novel. Instead, much like the original books, this is a more interactive experience where you’ll have actual combat, cast spells, and be required to obtain food in order to progress. Your decisions have weight in Sorcery! and just like in the original gamebooks, your character has hit points, stats, and gear that can be obtained. Fortunately, there’s no need to keep a written list of everything like the original and the streamlining is excellent here, but it definitely pays to pay attention!
The majority of the game plays out on the map screen, where you’re given a 3D topographical map of your surroundings, choosing points and moving your character much like a traditional board game. Each point you can visit has a flag with your possible option on it and ones you have passed leave red markers. You can zoom in and out on the map screen depending on your preferences for map details, a nice design feature that works extremely well. This means you can already see the terrain you’ll be traversing, even if there’s no hint as to what dangers each area might hold.
Once you’ve made your selections, you’ll move on to combat training. In old gamebooks, you often used a six-sided die (D6) or other dice to roll combat attacks for both yourself and the enemies, but the process is a bit different here. Instead, there’s a slider on the left of the screen and you move it up and down, selecting the amount of stamina you’re willing to use with your attacks. After selection, your choice is shown next to the enemy’s and the lowest one takes damage. It’s an interesting conversion to an accessible digital alternative to dice and combat is surprisingly strategic. Use too much stamina too soon or fail to block because you weren’t reading the dialogue from each attack and you’ll soon be defeated. If you take enough hits, the game even mocks your skills, reminding you that every hit point matters by shaming you.
In addition to combat, there’s spell-casting. Each spell consists of three letters and some require additional ingredients. You can cloud enemy minds, fire lightning bolts, unlock doors, and much more. There are a total of 48 spells but the only ones you can actually perform are ones you have the ingredients for. When it is time to cast a spell, a globe of letters pops up and you select three from the available options, winnowing your options down to the correct spell. While later on memorizing spells will be useful, initially you can pretty much wing it and figure out what they do. Spellcasting can use up stamina, special items, and even health so it pays to be circumspect before choosing magic because unlike most games, it isn’t always the best option.
By this point you may or may not have noticed that there are two distinct control schemes for Sorcery! One is the controller, selecting shaded options with the face buttons and left stick, and navigating to a new point on the map with the shoulder buttons. The other is a fully integrated touch system, designed for using the Switch undocked. Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! can be played in tablet mode, no controllers required, and the feel of playing a digital game book is even stronger this way, reinforcing the importance of touch design on Switch games. Inkle has put out an absolute masterpiece here in terms of control design and all touch controls are elegant and intuitive, far more so than their controller counterparts.
There’s one more key aspect to Sorcery! and that’s the rewind button. One of the most integral parts of old school gamebooks is…well…cheating. In most gamebooks, players would bookmark multiple pages with their fingers or scraps of paper, allowing them to move backwards from an undesirable outcome (usually death). This eventually led to you having around 5-6 fingers in various pages of your book while you read, attempting to backtrack and find the best way to proceed and get to that good ending. Sure, you’re supposed to start over if you die, but who wants to do that? Inkle created a novel way to well, back up in Sorcery! Instead of fingers as bookmarks, there’s an actual rewind system allowing you to simply choose how far back you want to go with no penalties, make different choices, and then proceed again, refining your decisions until you survive. It’s a valid way to play even if not everyone might like to play that way, and its inclusion in Sorcery! affirms the deep personal love the team over at Inkle has for this style of gaming.
But what’s most interesting here is the overall flow of gameplay. Each part of Sorcery! blends with other gameplay aspects to make a cohesive flow that has clear sense of direction. You’re never unsure what to do and the combat and spellcasting feel natural. Jumping between combat, spellcasting and story segments feels like Sorcery! was designed for a digital interface right from the start and except for the charmingly antiquated art, you’d never know this was a series of books that’s about 40 years old. It’s one of the most intuitive and fun designs for this sort of text adventure yet and the friendliness will appeal to audiences of all ages.
That’s not to say that Sorcery! is easy however. Between challenging combat which is highly tactical, item and ration management, and the myriad of possible options available, you might end up at the end of a book with limited resources, significantly increasing the challenge of the game in subsequent sections. In fact, Sorcery! actually tells you exactly how well you did at the end of each book (and we won’t show that here because spoilers), talking about alliances, items, and your adventures before sending you on to the next section. But with the rewind function, it’s easy to just back up and find the path of least resistance and if you do want a real challenge, you can simply choose not to rewind.
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is a unique addition to the growing lexicon of gamebook video games. It successfully converts a classic series to a modern and fun digital version while maintaining everything that made the original gamebooks great. On top of that, it’s a solid story with interesting characters, a plethora of choice allowing for excellent replay value, and the vintage style of the game is charming. While it might be a bit of a nostalgia trip for some, Sorcery! might also be the best example of how to convert a classic single player game to a modern format yet released and it’s definitely worth every bit of the $25 price tag attached to it. The game is enjoyable and fulfilling and while there could have been a bit more detailed soundtrack, every other aspect of the game is simply outstanding. Whether you’re an old hand at these gamebooks like some of us or a newbie who just loves fantasy, reading, and gaming, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is definitely for you!
This review is based on a digital copy of Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent in both. Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is also available on PC, Google Play, and the Apple App Store.