Gamebook Adventures 8: Curse of the Assassin

Australian studio Tin Man Games has done a remarkable job of resurrecting the classic Gamebook Adventures on iOS and Android.

It's done so well, in fact, that the company has recently ported the Fighting Fantasy titles to smartphones - the series which provided inspiration for Tin Man's own range of stories.

The latest is Curse of the Assassin, which is a direct sequel to An Assassin in Orlandes - the studio's first Gamebook Adventure.

Flush from your success in the original story, you find yourself in a position of privilege and about to marry the Archduke's daughter. Your world is thrown into disarray when you learn of the murder of a close friend, and being the noble sort, you vow to track down his killer and bring the murderer to justice.

What follows is a gripping and incredibly well-written romp through the dusty and sun-bleached land of Orlandes, where you'll meet both friendly and hostile characters and do battle with a wide range of beasts. As with Tin Man's other gamebooks, combat is decided by throwing virtual dice - just like the old books from your childhood.

Curse of the Assassin isn't as relentlessly unforgiving as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series, and there are fewer sudden deaths to contend with - this allows the gripping storyline to truly blossom. It really is fantastically constructed, and peppered with neat set pieces and memorable characters.

It's a shame that there are so few illustrations, but the text is so descriptive that you could argue that visual accompaniment isn't really very important. Of course, the biggest issue is that once you've completed the quest there's little reason to return - save for experiencing every single pathway through the world of Orlandes.

With such a compelling tale to tell, Curse of the Assassin can't really fail - Tin Man's gamebook game engine is so finely tuned that only a dodgy plot can really let it down.

Like the previous entries in the series, this release doesn't really put a foot wrong, and serves as a fine tribute to the classic dice-and-pencil quests we used to know and love during our misspent youths.