Item - The Battle of Astar

(review based on the Spanish translation)

Unfortunately, this book is weaker than books two and three. While the fact that there are two evil armies running rampant in the mountain range helps build a feeling of tension successfully (since in the middle of the war there are many treacherous characters, and the player is never sure who to trust), the adventure is nonetheless a failure in many respects. The descriptions of characters, creatures, encounters and situations are painfully lacking in detail. The few fantasy creatures that appear are not really very interesting, and while this adventure is the only one to feature a personal appearance by the evil tyrant Karg, this does not contribute anything significant to the plot (he doesn't even get to say anything, and is only seen from a distance). All this means the book is considerably below average for the series.

On the positive side, the book's challenge level is rather high, as there are many obstacles and hurdles for each of the several goals the character must achieve in order to complete the adventure. While for the most part the only player concern in the Escape from Tenopia series was to find a way out of the game universe, here the player gets to participate in a mission that will be very important for the triumph of the rebel forces. Contributing to the tyrant's defeat and finally escaping from the mountain range are two goals which produce a lot of satisfaction once achieved, especially considering their difficulty.

Overall, while being a rather weak book, I believe it can be recommended if you have played the previous ones and want to see how the Frome saga ends.

More reviews by Guillermo

[Rating: 2/10]
[Recommended? NO]

Based on my pre-existing familiarity with the Escape From Tenopia series, and as such the preconceived understandings I had going into those titles as an equivalent sort of spin-off to the popular yet awful Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, my expectations for the more fantasy-rooted Escape from the Kingdom of Frome series were kept well in check before taking on the series' follow-up title, "The Battle of Astar". And while the formulaic tendencies and the flaws of its predecessors were definitely the dominant takeaway I had from this sparingly-detailed, underwhelmingly-written adventure, I was nevertheless at least a little relieved to discover how much more comfortable this book was with the format it had than its science fiction counterpart in Tenopia. Sure, the characters are completely threadbare (and are introduced without an ounce of considerable memorability), and yes, there are significant repetitions of what I would call an assault of information for the reader to figure out what to do with (even though it all, in general, doesn't actually mean anything within the reading experience or path-choosing). There's nothing conclusive or climactic with the puzzles - nothing there to put all this information to good use - just as there is little sense of purpose within the escape sequence. And above all else, there's the return of the infinitely striking feature where the reader is unable to lose - and one must circle around until getting it right - in one long "can you find a way out" structural cycling exercise. But this book (and the series) seems a little more comfortable in its own skin than the other "Escape" stories, and as such this ends up reading just a little more immersively (though due to its many shortcomings, unnecessary difficulty for one's memory and generally short length, this doesn't save the book all that much in the end).

At the end of the day I found this book dissatisfactory and not worthy of recommending in the end; while the book (and series) held legitimate storytelling potential it was wasted due to the stylistic, structural and executive shortcoming of its design and featureless lack of intrinsic atmosphere. This is little more than a shallowly escapist enterprise to encounter - and you're not missing out if you pass on (or, shall I say, escape from) this largely forgettable escape sequence. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart