Temple of Terror (Fighting Fantasy Classics)

Well Hello Number 14, This further completes our beloved Nostalgia filled Fighting Fantasy Classics Collection By renowned Masters of Old School literary RPG's, Jackson & Livingstone. I read my first at age 12, Now i'm 42, and i hope they publish them all here. I love the Music, the Format and of course the countless LOST HOURS...... keep em' coming

The Fighting Fantasy Classics series returns in style with an excellent production of an iconic FF gamebook. This game is set in the FF continent of Allansia and you must travel across the Desert of Skulls to find the lost city of Vatos, then retrieve five ancient artefacts, before they can fall into the hands of the evil Malbordus. Ian Livingstone's original book has really been brought to life here. The game is as it woz (all those years ago!) including the atmospheric original b&w artworks. The nostalgic feel of the game is spot-on. This game has a wonderful additional mechanism: You must not only find all of your quest pieces, but also [b]avoid[/b] finding all five letters of a DEATH spell. As befits an Ian Livingstone title this game is combat heavy, altho on this occasion few of the opponents are particularly challenging. The path to victory is very specific, with one critical route choice right near the start. There are options for background music and sound effects, as well as several Steam achievements to complete. Tin Man Games have produced a range of titles as DLC in the Classics series (more about them elsewhere) and this is an excellent adaption.

Temple of Terror was Ian's second Yaztromo book, like Forest of Doom, it involves Gillibran and the Stonebridge dwarves. The new would-be tyrant threatening the land is Malbordus, a wizard raised by Dark Elves and frankly, though his backstory is OK, his part in your adventure is a mere cameo. Zagor the Warlock, Balthus Dire, Zanbar Bone, The Snow Witch and even The Lizard King got more chance to impress. So there's another villain, Leesha the High Priestess, who has partnered with Malbordus, you find all this out on the run. In fact the Arabian styled "Temple of Terror" is just some random building you enter in the lost city of Vatos. It turns out that this dark priestess has started up her temple in this abandoned desert city, so you spend half the adventure infiltrating her temple like Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos or the Crystal Caverns, my point being "Temple of the Dark Priestess" could be an alternative name seeing as Malbordus is just a "guest" at the temple. The "Messenger of Death" who toys with you through the whole temple makes things a little more exciting and I think he could have been replaced by Malbordus himself. When you leave Yaztromo's tower at the start, you're given two possible routes to the Desert of Skulls, one by land, the other by river/sea, but you'll find later that one of these routes is the wrong choice as you'll miss an essential find. In other adventures like Sword of the Samurai, you have two main routes to your goal, but each one is valid, missing one important find can be made up for with another. So I didn't like how in Temple of Terror all the excitement of one route is invalidated, because you shouldn't have even taken that route. But overall I liked the journey to the Desert of Skulls and through the desert to Vatos. The temple itself is OK, obviously you have to be careful not to miss any of the dragon artifacts, you need all five of them. One is quite a bit harder to obtain than the others. Leesha is nothing special, but you at least get a sense of her authority before meeting her. There's an illustration of her being fanned by her servant, Cleopatra-like. Some of Bill Houston's illustrations are noticeably inferior to the work of other Fighting Fantasy illustrators, though some, like the giant sandworm, are very good.

[h1] The desert themed adventure where YOU turn up the heat [/h1] This adventure is currently only available via the Classics platform and it's a welcome addition to its lineup. It's a classic Ian Livingstone (co-creator of the series) book where the only path is narrow and you have plenty of difficult fights. This is a very tough book and the difficulty actually comes from the story where you will have to get multiple mandatory items. The atmosphere is excellent and you can really feel the desert's heat and dryness. The appropriate monsters and the cool art helps the immersion (as much as it's possible when reading letters on a computer screen) but it provides a memorable adventure. [i]Wait, what's the name of the bad guy? [/i] This is the typical case of journey being more enjoyable than the destination. You get a nice mix of Desert, Abandoned City and Dangerous Temple all together in one book!