Item - Quest for King Arthur

I thought this was a weaker entry in the series. The writing was too simplistic, and many scenes fell into the pattern of: See historical event, listen to exposition pushing towards the right choice, make the right choice, repeat. This made my choices seem obvious and therefore pointless. There were times that clues were too oblique, however, but many choices led right back to the option I didn't choose after a few steps. Finally, the choice of bringing matches or sugar along in the beginning doesn't work at all; if you choose matches, you’re stuck in a loop starting at page 78 — which means you have to choose sugar at the beginning, making the choice at page 94 pointless (and impossible). You can see my map of the book here.

More reviews by DavidSky

The writing of this book was more or less inevitable; how long could a time travel series go without bringing King Arthur in somehow? Fortunately, despite the somewhat familiar subject matter, the book is well-done and interesting, even managing to have something of a message at the end. The game design is also quite challenging, requiring the reader to think carefully about where and when to go on several occasions. My biggest complaint is one that I've had about a couple of previous volumes -- if you pick the wrong item before starting the adventure, you get stuck in an infinite loop with no hope of escape! Once again, I wish the books had made better use of inventory management....

More reviews by Demian