TouchArcade: Inkle has gained all sorts of critical acclaim with their most recent release 80 Days [$4.99], including multiple awards just this week and Time's Game of the Year for 2014. However, it shouldn't be forgotten that they took digital gamebooks to a whole new level with their mobile adaptations of Steve Jackson's classic Sorcery! gamebook series. As a huge fan of both Sorcery! [$4.99] and Sorcery! 2 [$4.99], I was more than a little excited to get a glimpse at the forthcoming Sorcery! 3 here at GDC. And let me tell you it did not disappoint. Some of the major new features in Sorcery! 3 include a fully non-linear progression system, massive boss fights, and the ability to peer into the world as it was in the past, which can in turn affect the present. Check it out.
GG:
I reviewed Sorcery! Part 1 & 2 back in March, and I quite enjoyed it. Coming back to play Part 3 now, my interest in the story is waning. Sorcery! Part 3 despite being listed as its own game on Steam, it’s more of a ‘next chapter’ of the entire Sorcery! story, and I highly advise you pick up the other two as well.
This week Gaming Steve gives you the latest gaming news. Reporting on the Sony Neo, tons of Blizzard news, and DLC released two years late.
Hardcore Droid - Sorcery! 3 continues the trend in mobile gaming of combining videogames and choose-your-own-adventure novels, and while it takes few risks, it is an awfully big adventure. While there have been a good chunk of choose-your-own-adventure games in recent years, few have created a world as engaging, expansive, and changeable as Sorcery! 3. Sorcery! 3 eschews tension-ratcheting gameplay and detailed animation in favor of world-building and choice complexity. This makes the game immersive, but it also makes it less of a game. In fact, it could almost be a browser-based text adventure rather than a mobile game. The elements that make it more than a massive branching novel are often unpolished and cumbersome. It does have gameplay, however, but there are no controls to master, no level-ups, and few skills to speak of. Conflict is solved, instead, by cunning, intuition, and memory. The right choice could leave you with a new, powerful spell, but the wrong one could leave you robbed, injured, or even outright dead. It is sometimes hard to know which decision is the right one, but that’s part of the fun.
