Item - Sail with Pirates

Like many of the books in this series, this is a very well-written gamebook. It's also quite challenging, with lots of opportunities to get stuck in a loop.

More reviews by Demian

Yet another great entry into a series I'd love to see return, Sail with Pirates probably stands out as my favorite of the Time Machine books. I still haven't decided if my opinion here is biased as to the fact that this was the first entry in the series I read as a child or the fact that it's just that well-written, providing a decent challenge for the reader while covering a fascinating area of subject matter. I've probably read and re-read this book more than any others in the series, and it's never managed to disappoint me aside from the fact that the reader gets only a short segment of time within the actual story to become a pirate (Arrrrrr). That flaw aside, it's possible to be stuck in a loop, though I found it easier to break the cycle than in other entries in this series. A must-have for Time Machine fans.

More reviews by Nomad

[Rating: 1/10]
[Recommended? NO]

While the promising potential of the premise in the Time Machine adventure "Sail with Pirates" is at least partially well-handled, there were particularly few redeeming components to save the quest from its prominent, pitiful weaknesses. It's unfortunate how the dangers are kept at arm's length even though the era's appealing visual-oriented choice-based design system fares well as far as reader immersiveness goes. The writing drifts from uninspired and clunky to very much aware of the narrative's potential, but - as with the majority of the books in the series - I think the adventure would've been more enjoyable had it avoided limiting itself to a single correct path; the inventory selection at the start is a bit arbitrary, I might add, and less seamlessly woven into the story compared to the databank, use of setting and handling of "characters". While the year it take place in may be 1684 AD, you won't find too many pointers suggesting a whole lot of imagination was put into the writing of this quest apart from what had commonly been covered in existing documents/research books or documentaries at the time this was written; though the research isn't exactly dated, per se, retrospectively there are parts scattered about here and there which feel a bit incomplete.

These books, which in all truth are merely self-indulgent and hard-to-find excursions into a different point in time, appear hyper-focused on their short-lived novelty value - a real shame, since the design and the execution of the linear quest itself isn't all that great to begin with. With the exception of collectors of the series or the most ardent of pseudo-history buffs, I'm afraid I can't recommend this title or any of its time-traveling trepidations. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart