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Sorcery! 2 is a fantastic adventure game for iPhone and iPad
Inkle's Sorcery! 2 for iPhone and iPad (US$4.99, universal) is a fantastic take on Steve Jackson's (not that Steve Jackson) adventure gamebook series of the same name. Despite a cumbersome, yet necessary spell-casting mechanic, Sorcery! 2 retains the fun of an old-school adventure book and feels at home on a modern device. Here's my look at the charming Sorcery! 2. Jackson's Sorcery! series was a collection Fighting Fantasy adventure books, published between 1983 and 1985. Four titles were published: The Shamutanti Hills, Kharé: Cityport of Traps, The Seven Serpents and, finally, The Crown of Kings. Sorcery! 2 tells the story of Kharé: Cityport of Traps. Before you ask, there is a Sorcery! app, based on The Shamutanti Hills, and future releases will feature The Seven Serpents and The Crown of Kings. Gameplay You play as a young adventurer in the port city of Kharé, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Traps, n'er-do-wells and deception abound, so stay sharp. You've got to find an ancient gate, and your actions affect the story, much like Edward Packard's Choose Your Own Adventure books. As you approach the city gate, you meet an elderly and mildly threatening guard. Right away, you have options: talk to him, fight or cast a spell. A scroll of text appears, describing the scene and your options. Background noise emphasizes the atmosphere and adds to the fun. At the end of the scroll are your options. Tap your choice and see what happens. Note that this will affect the overall story significantly. The guard is old, so be nice (you just might see him again). This game is beautiful. The art feels like prints made from woodcuts. There's a fantastic 3D effect as you move about the city, and your hero looks like a miniature you might use for a tabletop role-playing game. The developers have done a fine job of preserving the spirit of the books, the feel of a board game and an immersive atmosphere. This is very apparent in combat. When you fight a bad guy, you enter combat mode. You and your foe stand toe to toe. A slider lets you choose the type of attack you're after, as well as how much force you'd like to put behind it. The turn-based action is accompanied by dramatic music and fun animation. You can opt for diplomatic solutions, of course, but they don't always work. And then there are spells... Spells played prominently in Jackson's books. They're a bit chaotic in nature, and that's by design. Each spell is cast by using a three-letter magic word. The words are constructed one letter at a time. It gets interesting because you don't always know what any combination of letters will produce. It might be a fireball. It might be increased stamina or a thick fog. Not knowing is part of the fun. Except when it's not. I was rather frustrated when I needed an offensive attack spell and got something altogether useless for the situation. Perhaps I'm just a party pooper, or maybe I'm too used to D&D 4th edition. However, you can browse the spell book and memorize the incantations if you like. When you opt to cast a spell, the scene drops away and you're presented with a spinning globe of letters. Tap one to begin your magic word, another to continue and a third to finish it off. Then the spell is cast. You can "rewind" if you make a mistake or die, or even play again. With so many options, I imagine I'll play Sorcery! 2 several times. It's really a lot of fun and will appeal to those who like adventure stories and games alike. Pick it up.
Sorcery! Part 2 to weave its tale in November, Part 1 gets update
The second installment of Sorcery!, the choose-your-own-adventure collaboration between developer Inkle and Fighting Fantasy co-creator Steve Jackson, will continue its battle-savvy story on the App Store this November. The game's introduction has also been granted an update in preparation for the incoming continuation. Part 2, also referred to as Khare: Cityport of Traps, will "double the narrative content of the first game," introduce "new enemy types, more complex story branches" and add other "gameplay enhancements," the related press release states. Part 2 can be played on its own, but this week's update to Part 1 will allow saves to be implemented into Part 2 in November. The update also introduced the option of leading a female protagonist through the quest, as well as a "3D spellcasting system" to replace the initial spellbook.
Daily iPhone App: Steve Jackson's Sorcery is interactive e-book bliss
I have to say -- the iPad is a terrific platform for interactive e-books, but so far, I haven't been very impressed by the options out there. I do use my iPad for reading a lot, but the vast majority of my reading is done in either iBooks or a comic book reader. It's very rare that I will pick up an app that's designed to work as just one single book, no matter how many extras or interactive features are included. However, I'm happy to say that Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is a clear exception to the general rule. It's excellent, and mostly because the book it is based on (actually a "gamebook" released back in the '80s) was already interactive to begin with. Add in iOS interactive touchscreen, some excellent graphical flairs and a whole lot of polish, and what you end up with is something very akin to playing a Dungeons and Dragons game, where the few game elements present are really just intended to ignite your imagination, and get you role-playing in the game's world. Sorcery's story is pretty basic: You're a hero who sets out into a dangerous world, hoping to either save or conquer it. And the combat gameplay is extremely simple as well -- you essentially guess whether your opponent is attacking or defending, trying to mirror their actions to do damage as you can. But the real meat of Sorcery! is in the inbetween. You travel from town to town, talking to various NPCs and even solving a few puzzles, all while exploring this world through the game's scrolling text. I really have no problems at all with this app -- I was fascinated by the story's well-written text, and while the gameplay isn't extremely innovative, it's paced well enough to keep the action rolling. The one hitch might be that you need to use your imagination on this one, so if you're expecting a game like Skyrim, that will draw out the world for you, you might find this a bit boring. But as a die-hard pen-and-paper RPG player and a fan of Steve Jackson's work, I think this is an excellent adaptation that's well worth a purchase. You can pick it up from the App Store for US$4.99 right now.
Steve Jackson's Sorcery! gamebook coming to the App Store
Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is an old series back from the early 1980s where you "played" through a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure-style story, except that instead of just flipping pages, you actually cast spells, fight in combat and do other fantasy-based activities. These books were reprinted back in 2002, but it's been announced that they're coming to iOS soon, as fully interactive books to play with. Most interactive books on the App Store are either meant for children or show off only a limited amount of interactivity, but these seem different -- they're heavily dependent on text, but they do offer some nice interactive touches from the original books. There's even some fun procedural stuff: When you do combat in the game, the book creates custom-made text for you to read about the outcome of the battle. It all looks very cool, and it's a nice throwback for those of us who played with these books all those years ago. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is set to be submitted to the App Store right away, so we should see it for ourselves very soon.
Fighting Fantasy games leaving the App Store
Big Blue Games has released four games based on the Fighting Fantasy series of roleplaying books by legendary game creators Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Now that the licensing agreement is about to expire, they're leaving the App Store forever as of tomorrow. Creature of Havoc, Citadel of Chaos, Deathtrap Dungeon, and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain are all set to expire, so if you have wanted to pick them up (or are just hearing about them), now's the time. They are all set at US$2.99. Tin Man Games is reportedly going to be handling the license for these books from now on, though it's not likely that they'll re-release these same titles. So if you've got fond memories of "playing" these, or just want to see what the Big Blue versions are like, grab these now. Even though they'll disappear from the App Store, you'll be able to keep them on your iOS device. You just won't be able to redownload or reinstall them (except, of course, if you sync them with iTunes on a Mac).
Macworld 2010: Adam Savage re-enacts the EFF's history
We visited a lot of parties last night (and the TUAW bloggers are nursing hangovers because of it), but the best was undoubtedly the Electronics Frontier Foundation's 20th anniversary bash at the DNA Lounge. It wasn't strictly Mac-related, but Mythbuster Adam Savage was in the house, and he led a hilarious re-enactment of some of the major moments in the EFF's history, assisted by various objects and people "found around the club". Of course, since there were quite a few luminaries in the house (including the founders of the EFF, the crew from Steve Jackson Games, and other tech who's whos), the re-enactment actually ended up being re-enacted by most of the actual participants. We captured video of the event, and it's both informational and hilarious -- you can catch it in two segments after the break below. Stay tuned for more from Macworld 2010 all this week -- the floor opens today, and we'll have live streaming video right here on the site, as well as hands-on, interviews, and news from the show in San Francisco all week long. For the iPhone-friendly YouTube video, click here.
Big Blue Bubble developing Warlock of Firetop Mountain for DS
Canadian developer Big Blue Bubble is working on an action RPG for the DS named "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain." Sound familiar? Some of you may recognize it as the first book in Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy book series -- portable gaming for the pre-Gameboy crowd. This game, based on the book, will be published by Aspyr Media and will release this holiday season.Jackson and Livingstone have both been involved with the project, helping Big Blue Bubble nail the look and feel of the Fighting Fantasy universe. While the last Fighting Fantasy book to be made into a video game, Deathtrap Dungeon, wasn't particular successful -- or good -- Warlock of Firetop Mountain looks to remain much more faithful to the book. Hey, games industry. You know what else would make a good transition from book to game? The Lone Wolf series. You should get on that.
