Item - Beyond the Nightmare Gate

This is a great book; it lives up to the quality of writing found in the previous volume, and it's full of interesting settings and puzzles. I also found the story more compelling than usual for this kind of gamebook -- while it's still the usual "solve the puzzles and collect stuff" sort of mission, it has a number of dramatic moments strong enough to create an almost cinematic tone at times. Good stuff! The game design is also interesting -- the emphasis is on making wise choices rather than on making good rolls; during my trip through the book, my point scores barely fluctuated, though I did instantly die quite a few times before becoming victorious. On a whole, I think this is a good thing; it's certainly less frustrating than book one was. Nonetheless, it did seem a bit too forgiving towards the end. I'm not sure how anyone's scores could possibly go low enough to fail certain conditions presented by the book. I also have a few other minor complaints. Most importantly, I was rather disappointed that no character advancement takes place at the start of this book for players who have finished the first two adventures. While I admit that it wouldn't make much sense in the context of the story, I missed the satisfaction of being rewarded for completing book two. There's also a bit of rules ambiguity -- the book keeps saying that keys are special items kept in the backpack. I'm not sure what this means, but my best guess is that they are kept in your backpack but don't take up a slot of space, so they're instead put on the special items list... If this is the case, though, it should have been stated more clearly. Additionally, there's a minor bug towards the beginning in which you can keep returning to a locked door (section 118) even after opening it. Finally, I thought the "Story So Far" section at the start of this volume was decidedly lousy. Not only is it written in a different tense than in previous books, but it's too brief to be particularly meaningful. Overall, though, I'm quite pleased with this adventure, and I'm glad to be returning to this series.

More reviews by Demian

Another excellent entry in the Grey Star series. In this book, you leave the world of Magnamund and enter another plane of existence, Dazkim. You are continuing the quest for the moonstone, the artifact that should aid you against the evil Wytch king. One big plus the Grey Star series has over Lone Wolf is the overarching story arc rather than the latter's individual one-and-done missions.

The writing is generally atmospheric and it feels like a generally open-ended world, even if that is not completely true.

If you have completed the first two books you are powered up quite a bit, having extra willpower points and all the magical disciplines save one. This did make me less cautious about saving willpower points, as they are easy to use up quickly with spells, and there are few opportunities to regain them.

The book has a lot of insta-deaths, particularly near the start. I think I died about 4-5 times before getting anywhere in the story. I do appreciate that the insta-deaths are early in the story, making me less frustrated about starting over. This did tend to make me extra cautious and I didn't have my first combat until more than halfway through the book. But as Grey Star is a wizard, it makes sense that he can use his magic more often to avoid combats. And using the magic system is one of my favourite parts of the book.

In earlier books, Grey Star's companions tend to have the same survival rate of 00 operatives not named James Bond. But this book reunites you with the most interesting companion from book 1, the witch girl, Tanith. Tanith was a witch with divided loyalties who appeared to die in book 1 when a demon Kleasa banished her to another plane, which turns out to be this plane. I'll admit this took me by surprise (which we learned of at the end of book 2). Tanith is a fun character and I wish there had been more interaction with her (although she proves useful a few times in the story).

(Minor spoilers): There is also one of the more interesting opponents in the series, a kind of doppleganger of Grey Star, who the authors manage to make particularly evil and scary. I only wish the authors had used this descriptive prowess a bit more throughout the story.

Overall, a really fun book that encourages me to move on to book 4.

More reviews by Kveto