Item - Eye Spy Aliens

There are some good, creepy ideas here, and it's interesting to play a gamebook in the third person - and you don't always play as the same person! It's also nice that choices list where they came from, and the fact that no two choices lead to the same outcome makes re-reading more enjoyable. Also, most results followed logically on the choices I made, although a few lead to some abrupt, inconclusive endings. But the writing can be a little childish, and the lack of consistency can be shocking - depending on choices you make, you find out things about your surroundings and yourself that are totally irreconcilable with what other choices lead to. This significantly got in my way of enjoying the book, and it's kept me from reading other books in the series. You can see my map of the book here.

More reviews by DavidSky

It may simply be because I'm partial to the subject matter, but I found this to be the most enjoyable book in the series so far. The book takes the central plot device from John Carpenter's They Live (an object which reveals the identity of aliens hiding among us) and uses it to tell a number of familiar but enjoyable (and sometimes intertwined) tales of visitors from space. Most of the choices are interesting, some of the outcomes are at least a little bit unpredictable, consistency between paths is high if not absolutely perfect, and I appreciated the fact that the book takes itself more seriously than the average Give Yourself Goosebumps title (though the names of the various alien races are awfully cheesy). Although not a classic for the ages, this is an above average entry in the simple horror gamebook niche.

More reviews by Demian