GA1: An Assassin in Orlandes App Reviews

Like Choose Your Own Adventure books on steroids. I bought all the Gamebook Adventures and havent regretted any of them.

I cannot think of a better format for the gamebook. Its nearly seamless. The illustrations are quite good and, of course, very welcome (the bookmark is a nice touch --I didnt realize the bookmarks given out at PAX were replicas). I enjoyed the narrative quite a bit. It had a very strong old-school feeling while avoiding some of the nastier tropes of the bad ol days. The app could, perhaps, benefit from a wider variety of music (some shifts in bgm would really add to the atmosphere and break up the feeling of "same-ness" one gets from hearing the same tune, no matter the scene or action).

The volume gets turned onto FULL whenever I start the app and it goes to the title screen. Are iPads allowed to "Shake-to-Roll" dice? Doesnt work for me(if it suppose to). Customized dice would be sweet.

This is my favorite game on my iPad, bar none. The writing is good - very good. And the play is solid, too. There is also a tip of the hat (if I read my game right...) to Herbie Brennans GrailQuest series. Seriously high production values and enthralling adventure. If youve never played a game book but love adventure stories, youve GOT to try this! And if you have, you need to play this, because this is as good, if not better, than any other game book you have ever played.

The story is well written, and the descriptions keep you feeling like youre really involved with the story. The decisions are realistic--usually something I would have considered doing in that situation. You have the normal, "do you go left or right" but theres also very detailed selections as well. It took me about six weeks of casual reading and one day of intensely trying to figure everything out to get to the ultimate ending, which to me is worth $5.99. Its a bit pricy, but worth it if they continue making more books. I really liked this series and I will be buying all the others as well.

I really enjoyed this gamebook though it can be a little frustrating at times if you dont know where to get an item you need to get past an area. Still a lot of fun and very exciting when you find a entirely different path to take you didnt know was there. Definitely grabbing the others too :)

This was my first time buying a game of this type. It was so much fun and worth the amount of money spent.

Yes, youll have moments of frustration when you have to restart the game after a bad fitness roll. But the reason youre frustrated is youre completely engrossed in the story and you want to track down the assassin and make him pay. Those of you from a previous generation who thought the "choose your own adventure" game genre was dead and buried are in for a pleasant surprise. As soon as I post this review, Ill be purchasing the next gamebook adventure in the series.

Tons of fun, the classic game book enjoyment without having to use a pencil and paper. Here is hoping to see more in depth iterations in the future. Joe Devers lone wolf series would be amazing in this format

Reminds me of my old D&D days.

Im currently reading/playing this book, and my character has just arrived at Eltanes castle. This is around my 100th time trying to complete this book. My character keeps getting killed. This is frustrating! The book could be made easier by having more health potions available, etc.. The writing is good, but Ive noticed some grammatical errors here and there. The bookmark feature is nice. The background music does get repetitive. Illustrations are nice but need to be in color. The dice mechanics seem "rigged" because nearly every roll will have at least one or more 6s and 5s. Doesnt seem totally random. Developers might want to consider making the book easier to solve because I wont buy another one until I solve this one. What would be the point?

So after playing this game for around a week i finally got the ending we all hope to get. And while i do like these types of books i can say that compared to the lone wolf series, this book lacks alot of choice. For the price i dont imagine it would be too hard to mimic in some respects the various choices that the lone wolf series allowed the player to make. That said, its a decent start and i will be purchasing the second book to see if it gets better. I would like to see a less linear style of gameplay at least as far as what your allowed to do in the game. In the lone wolf books the side paths were alot more than a simple, "you stumble upon a bad guy, beat him and you can get back to the main quest." The depth of gameplay is definetly something these guys can use to improve and make the 5 dollar price tag seem a bargain. Check my review in the next installment to see if the books get better.

Excellent story but the story arcs werent very long or detailed

Awesome game. Cant wait for more.

I had never heard of a gamebook before, but after discovering this game, Im hooked! It was very fun, challenging but not overwhelmingly complicated. I just hope the rest of the series keeps pace!

I had a blast with this reminded me of my early teen years playing dungeons and dragons. An awesome book and outstanding storytelling!

Although a bit pricey, this game was very enjoyable. Worth a couple of play throughs.

Highly entertaining story.

This was the first gamebook game I have played. I was really impressed on how nice this game looked. I also love all the choices this game offers. It took me several tries to beat the game. I see this as a good thing. I dont like games that take me only thirty minutes to finish, especially if its expensive. The combat in the game was easy to learn and a lot of fun. I do wish that I could have chosen a personality for my character. It would have been interesting to see how personality affects the people and scenarios in the game.

This is waaaaaay harder than any other game book Ive ever played (and Ive tried a few different series). Although Ive restarted it at a couple dozen times, the closer I get to the end the more it reveals that I was supposed to have done somethignearlier that was completely on-obvious. You can actually make it to the last "scene" and find out youre missing something in your inventory you wouldve had to have taken off of a murdered man and worn - heroes dont do that! There is no common logical thread through all of the decisions, just completely random solutions to choices presented. With a game book this big I shouldnt have to play dozens of times to find out all the trial-and-error minutiae. Hopefully these get much better in later volumes. Plus, as others have pointed out, the combat system is pretty weak.