This post is by guest blogger Aramis.
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Categories: Preview
Tags: browser game, pc, rpg
Oh yeah, I spelled dovetail. Suck it, bitches.When a videogame demigod waxes rhapsodical about an RPG, I pay attention; when a fellow linguaphile lauds a new word game, again I am rapt; when their combined hosannas are for a new word game/RPG hybrid — let’s just say I’m freaking excited.
Which is to say I went into Bookworm Adventures with high hopes, so it stands to reason they were, not unrealistic, say unrealized. The game delivers, but the pizza’s only lukewarm, there’s not enough pineapple, and a slice is missing.
Need more places to pillage… er, visit.
Before we get too far into this, let me be upfront and say I’ve only played the one-hour demo. It adequately teases the game and exposes you to the mechanics behind it, but in an hour I was already three quarters of the way through the first adventure. I know the full version comes with two other adventures, but at 30 bucks for that full version it breaks down to 10 dollars an hour, which seems a little steep for my entertainment. For that price I could hire two high-school kids to carry me around on a palanquin. All right, two strong high-school kids.
This is what we call overkill.Don’t mistake me; the game is a lot of fun. It’s based on a simplified boggle idea that makes it easy to build words, but compounds that with enemies attacking your health, encouraging you to get on with it and spell defenestration already. As you progress you’ll do all the time honored RPG things: level up, fight bosses, and acquire items, like the bow of Zyx, which boosts damage from words you spell that include x, y or z. And there seems to be plenty of other cool loot to collect.
Few things feel as good as defeating Circe by calling her ‘dreamy’.The creatures are mostly mythological and there is usually “humorous” commentary accompanying each of them. The graphics are fine if webgamey. Battles stay fresh and interesting with twists like the status effects some monsters inflict on tiles (where you can’t use them, or they do no damage). There really is nothing to dislike, except that it seems like it will all be over so soon.