Item - Wild West Rider

This is a good book, though it's just about average quality for this series. There's a bit of challenge towards the end, but it's not too hard to get through the book fairly quickly.

More reviews by Demian

Another great entry in the Time Machine series. Wild West Rider suffers from somewhat childish writing at times, a flaw inherent in gamebooks of this nature which target audiences of obviously younger readers. However, this gem of a book makes up for it in other aspects. A fascinating topic is found in the book and even if you’re not a big fan of the Western genre, finding the reason behind the resulting failure of the Pony Express is still something that should be able to grab the attention of most readers. Wild West Rider sheds a little light on the true importance of the Pony Express in the annals of history and left me feeling satisfied by the time I'd reached the end. Things can get a little tricky toward the end of the book and it's possible to get caught in a loop, but all in all it's fairly easy to reach the end.

A satisfying read and a must have for fans of Westerns or the Time Machine series in general. Wild West Rider has gone on to become my second favorite entry in this amazing series.

More reviews by Nomad

[Rating: 0/10]
[Recommended? NO]

While the promising potential of the premise in the Time Machine adventure "Wild West Rider" 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 1862 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 VERY 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