Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!

Hearken to me, ye olde Homedudes and Handmaidens!

Steve Jackson Games, the brilliant minds behind table-top hits such as Ogre, Munchkin, and it’s hundreds of spin offs,  breathed new life into their 1980s adventure gamebook series Sorcery! written by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Blanche, and have thrust their classic story into a new era in the best way currently known. Making an app for it.

Billed as an innovative blend of RPG, table-top game and interactive story, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! from developer inkle is a blur of epic fantasy adventure genres in which every decision counts and you are the hero.

“You have walked the wilds of Kakhabad: throught Khare and the spiteful Baklands, all the way into Mampang.
You have survived traps, thieves, serpents and vengeful Gods,
And now it is here.
The Crown of Kings!“

Well that sounds awesome. Why can’t I play through that stuff?

Some crown, which is referred to as “The Crown,” was according to lengend never actually forged. By a happy chance for him, some solider called Chalanna found it and decided, “Hey, you know? I don’t really feel like being on the low end of the monarchy, our wages suck and I’d really just like to rule everything.” So he takes this crown (“The Crown”) and suddenly became Emperor of the Eastern World.

The sense of things not boding well in this land are apparent. Crowns are dangerous things to covet, you guys.

Just ask Viserys. He’s seen how that goes.

Like it’s paperback predecessor, Sorcery!s story has a natural flow that never feels forced and progresses through your own choices that, for good or ill, affect the world and your place within it. Sprinkled throughout with touchscreen sword fights, an interesting magic system with 48 different spells in your arsenal, and tabletop tactics make Sorcery! worthy of at least three play throughs to master the Spell Book alone.

You do it then, if you’re so clever.

That isn’t to say that Sorcery is without it’s drawbacks, because what game doesn’t have at least one instance that leaves the player frustrated?  Cue several instances of the game crashing straight out of choosing my adventurer. “Sorcery! Isn’t responding. Would you like to close it?” was the phrase plastered across my screen that had me seriously considering chucking my mobile device at the wall.

Couple a few crash issues with the fact that, like its 80’s storybook predecessor, Sorcery!s app version is just one book of four parts rather than a means that the player should not be too hopeful for a conclusion within the few hours of gameplay.

However, with most mobile games fizzling out of a daily ritual about a month in (I’m looking at you, Words With Friends), Sorcery!s decide your own adventure theme and thousands of choices for every different motive have the added bonus of replay value, which makes Sorcery! a rare gem in it’s genre.

Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is available to purchase for Apple and Android devices. And be sure to keep an eye on their Facebook page for Sorcery 2!