Down Among the Dead Men (Critical IF gamebooks)

When I was younger we had these in paperback at the school library. Now I am sitting at the counter in an airport and letting my mind wander. Is it New York Times best seller list material? No. It doesn't pretend to be and anyone who expects that is going to be disappointed. Is it a nice way to entertain myself for a couple of hours while I wait on our plane to land? You bet ya!

Good story with a unique and interesting game mechanic. Though in CYOA fashion this one is hard to go through.

Ah The 'Virtual Reality' series of Gamebooks is being reprinted for the modern folk of today with their newfangled er virtual reality systems and what have you. Enough of that I see the series has been rebranded as 'Critical IF' Not sure if Im keen on that but who cares, the actual gamebook is brilliant. No dice rolling involved but still stats and equipment to keep track of and tons of choices to make. Down among the Dead Men is a very interesting and action packed pirate adventure in which you can choose your starting 'class' that each come with their own set stats and equipment or create your own by choosing from a list of skills of which will help you during your quest. Dave Morris is the author, the guy who along with his henchmen wrote a load of gamebooks in the 80's and 90's including the Way of the Tiger series, Blood Sword, That one with the Time Lords (No not that, the Falcon series) and Oh yeh the 'ahead of its time' Fabled Lands. (7-12 to appear in 2040 or theirabouts, get saving your space euros) Anyway buy this book for heavens sake. It will provide you with weeks of entertainment and gaming.

It is one of the best Fantasy Gamebooks I have ever read and out of all the ones where you command men, it is easily the best.The best route through the book is hard to find, but once you have found it, it is very easy to remember.Their are both brilliant good guys and excellent bad guys in it and the book itself has been used by myself as the basis for a mini campaign for the following RPG Groups. 2 DAD, 1 each of 1st and 2nd edition Warhammer Roleplay, 1 Traveller, 1 Dragon Warriors and 1 Fabled Lands RPG Groups.I also have plans to use the villian as a magic using dark wizard accidentally pulled 800 years through time in both my Marvel RPG's and in my and my little brothers Harry Potter RPG Games and will eventually use him in rogue trader RPG, in my Pokemon RPG Games and in Star Wars RPG Games.I almost forgot to menrion that it was my favourite book that I ever got out of any library and that after s very long absense lasting from 21/12/1996 till the 25/12/2,011. It is once again a frequently read book of mine. The difference being that their are other books that I like better and I actually own this copy and am not simply renting it every 3 weeks.All in all. It is a brilliant book that I can defintely recommend to any fan of pirate and high seas themed books and is defintely one I will be getting by Christmas at the latest.

It's pretty hard to make pirates boring and the author's prose is tolerable though I still feel fighting fantasy's is better and the ability to select character abilities at the start adds greatly to the replay value. It's quite short though, with numerous instant death endings and it took me about five hours to get a good ending immediately after purchasing it. There are also no puzzles, or at least very few of them that I found and some of the deaths I would never have been able to avoid without having run through the game before which may not be a bad thing for some people but it kind of is for me. All in all, if you like game books and you like pirates you should probably get this book. If you just like game books though you won't miss much that hasn't been done elsewhere before so it's a 50/50 recommendation from me for you.

Summary: This unforgiving but enjoyable pirate gamebook is worth reading for more than mere nostalgia value. The lack of illustrations is disappointing.The VR Adventures were a gamebook series distinguished by a non-random system, unusual settings and an emphasis on story and character. The series started very badly with "Green Blood" but evolved to produce a true classic in "Heart of Ice", as well as the fantastic "Necklace of Skulls" and "Once Upon A Time in Arabia". DAtDM marks a mid-point in this development.As a Book:The story is roughly divided into two halves. The first, on the jollyboat, is very much an endurance tale like Mutiny on the Bounty. Once you reach port and get a chance for revenge things start to feel more swashbuckling.The writing in the VR series is a sabre cut above other gamebooks and DAtDM is no exception. The characters and scenes are memorable, especially your three companions on the jolly boat. The encounters won't amaze you with their originality but are written with verve and humour.The book has plenty of salty flavour and many of the encounters (e.g. with vampires) are elevated by nautical details. There is an impressive sense of maritime brutality. For example, you can steal the Captain's pet monkey and, if things get desperate, eat the poor beast! This is a stark contrast to the preachy tone of "Green Blood" and "Coils of Hate" in the same series.Best of all, Skarvench the pirate king is a true antagonist, rather than just an abstract and distant enemy to be offed for quest purposes. You can meet him several times during the adventure, rather than just at the end. I found myself really hating him and wanting revenge.The only thing that disappointed me is that the book supports you in playing an antihero right up until the end, when it assumes your rharacter cares about Skarvench's plan to kidnap the Queen (rather than just wanting to get revenge).As a Game:One gets the impression that Dave Morris was still feeling out how to make the non-random system work. It feels quite arbitrary and some abilities are a lot more useful than others (e.g. CHARMS seems to save you every other paragraph whereas CUNNING is useless). By "Heart of Ice", all abilities were referenced in roughly equal proportions and the skill as a player was in choosing a route that bought up their best uses.That said, the skills and decisions are logical, unlike Green Blood. As far as I can tell, you are never penalised for having a skill unless your use of it is clearly foolish (e.g. engaging a vampire with your fists).The book seems quite difficult. The first half tends towards attrition, the second half towards sudden death. In my second attempt, I made it to the final showdown only to have victory whisked away.There seem to be two obvious paths through the book but the use of items and codewords is very clever and gives the game some depth. My third attempt ended very suddenly due to the unforseen (but very entertaining) consequences of a certain item.As a Kindle Product:All the links work and there don't seem to be any typos. However, I was cross that none of the illustrations from the book were used.

Released originally in the 90s heyday of gamebooks, this pirate-themed choose your own adventure is just as fun as ever on the Kindle. The adventure involves escaping from forced service on the galleon of the worst pirate in the Caribbean and then foiling his plan to kidnap good Queen Bessie. You can journey across the open sea or hop from desert island to desert island and meet a huge menagerie of creatures-vampires, ghosts, witches and giant crabs. This is Pirates of the Caribbean long before Jack Sparrow set sail.For your character you can choose six professions or you can build your own by picking four specific skills, ranging from Marksmanship to Spells as well as Seafaring and Folklore. These skills, and any items you can find along the way, are used to help you get out of all the scrapes along the way. You have limited health, so you must avoid too many dangerous situations, and some are so deadly that you will die instantly. Indeed, this is pretty unforgiving, although there are many routes to success and it shouldn't take too many attempts to find at least one.The Kindle version easy to use with proper hyperlinks and sections. Minimal bookkeeping is required (use a piece of paper or a phone notepad app), so it is possible to read on the train or plane without any fiddly dice. Despite it being originally released 20 years ago, it still is fun and doesn't feel aged at all-well worth reading.

This is an excellent pirate based gamebook stuffed full of high adventure and brushes with death. It also offers interaction with a group of travelling companions - something most gamebooks don't do. There is plenty of variety in the encounters and the writing is entertaining.

Enjoyably read.