Windhammer 2014 Review: The Sacrifice

Traditionally, gamebooks tended to use 2nd person narrative. Perhaps that is in reminiscent of RPGs where the author acts like a dungeon master telling the players what has happened. That restricts the authors from telling the players what they think or feel. The Sacrifice however uses 1st person narrative and thus feels like a short story trying to be a gamebook. But, the application of gamebook rules into the story is overall well done and I enjoyed playing this entry.

The story was set in England after World War 1 and it involved a close friend who changed drastically after returning from the great war. So, being the concerned friend that I am, I was sent on a quest to go solve this mystery. After talking to the said friend, the lover he abandoned, and the lady he was entangled with, the story climaxed with a zombie out-break summoned by occult magic and I saved the day by breaking the spell.

"I dare say, the ol' bean just has not been the same since he's back from the trenches fighting the Jerries"

The writing in this story was phenomenal. Such is the benefits of 1st person narrative I suppose. It painted a good picture of life amongst the upperclassmen in an English Mansion. The characters were colorful and I could feel them coming to life each with different views and concerns about the said close friend.

The game system was very simple perhaps too simple for my taste. At the passage where there was a battle, the combat system felt like a momentarily jam in the story. Other than that nitpick, the game system complements well with the story. I really liked the ending part where a scoreboard was presented as a epilogue so the happy ending depended on what you did in the story.

Overall, this entry's game system was too simple to the point I asked myself does it even qualify as one. However, the engaging writing and story more than compensates that weakness. This entry is easily recommendable and it got me thinking that perhaps my writing should aspire to be more like Paul Struth's.