A story fresh from the plains, or a journey continued from the past, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! Part 3 puts you back on the board paving your story once again.
It’s been only a month or so since my review on Parts 1 and 2 was released to the world, so the last parts are still pretty fresh in my mind. Now I’m back on the table of the big world to freely explore in Sorcery! Part 3, allowing me to take any direction I want. It’s good to be back.
The game play is essentially the same as the previous 2 parts. You still draw your path, you still click actions and control how the story progresses, and it looks the same and the story focuses around you on the hunt to kill serpents! There’s that slight splash of colour over the paper textured map you venture around, and the hand drawn elements are still prominent. From the general artwork of the game, to the fantastically detailed illustrations.
Sorcery! Part 3 is a fantastic welcome back to the video game adaption of the original gamebook and has certainly brought with it the flair the previous parts had
What I liked about this, was that if you’re a continuing player, you can either continue from your choices in the past parts, or you can make a fresh story starting from this part. It’s got that continuity, and I like that in games. It makes you feel like your choices mean something when they’re carried on over into another game.
The combat was always a touch awkward for me. I do like the combat style, the way you have to read the battle narrative to plan your next attack, but I sometimes misread some things, or choose the wrong type of attack in general, which prompts for a death every time. With the introduction of 30 new enemies, I can’t be making those mistakes all the time or I’ll be getting rather fed up of dying!
Although once again, the feature of going back through time to right your wrongs or take on a new path is a nifty feature that makes those frustrating, hard to figure out options more bearable. It’s a nice system that I find only works in a game like this. With so many choices, it’s either tempting to use this time travelling feature to explore other choices, or it’s an aid to help you go back and avoid a difficult situation you can’t overcome.
Sorcery! 3 is one of the only games that actually make you feel like your choices are making a difference to the story. Most games try and throw different scenarios at you, leading you to believe you’re making your own choice, but ultimately end up leading you to the same path, With Sorcery! 3 though, your choices matter. They affect the progression.
Although you won’t want to be using this feature whenever you come across Swindlestones opponents, as you just can’t not play the card game of lies and bluffing. It’s a wonderfully constructed game, and the opponents are harder than they were in part 2, which is a breath of fresh air for previous players, especially if you look forward to challenges, but for newcomers to the game it may come as quite a challenge to start.
Sorcery! Part 3 takes the genre to a whole new level. A fantastically, immersed level.
The magic and Gods in Sorcery! Part 3 are back as you’d expect as well. There’s more spells to master, including ones that you’re not quite strong enough to master and will probably die if you do cast them. Fun. Once again, I really enjoy the way magic is cast, you’re not told what spell you need to cast, at least not always, but you get taken to a screen with some letters floating around. Three letters make a word, that word is a spell.
Don’t worry if you don’t know what a certain spell is spelt like because there’s two options to learning or finding out. You can either just choose a random selection of letters, which will light up available letters to match with the first letter you choose, and once you’ve chosen three letters, it will tell you the type of spell. Alternatively you can go through your trusty spell book and memorise the spells.
As for the Gods, you can worship five God’s each with their own handicaps for you to use. Worship whomever you want and bask in their power.
Whilst you plod around the beautifully hand drawn map by Mike Schley, as your male or female protagonist, and you find yourself relaxing to the wonderful soundtrack by Laurence Chapman. You’ll find yourself immersed into Steve Jackson’s world. It’s a game that offers that many choices you’ll want to play it over once more, maybe twice more, just to see what else you can achieve. Grab the game yourself and lose yourself inside the fantasy filled world, where you choices actually make a difference.
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