An enjoyable Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game based on Joe Dever's series of gamebooks.

It gives off an old school aura that makes you feel like you're playing one of those gamebooks from the 80s. Those of you who have dabbled in pen-and-paper RPGs may recognize the story as a bit tropey: "An imminent invasion threatens a village at the edge of the civilized world, or so the rumors tell. You go investigate. Tragedy ensues.", and with every act the plot escalates, you go deeper into enemy territory, the monsters get more fearsome and so on. I thought it was cool. Nowadays video game plots are pretty convoluted, but this is simple and structured like an adventure module. Worth mentioning is that this is not an origin or introduction story, you play as an accomplished adventurer who has already done great things, fortunately there is also a Codex which describes the history and geography of the Lone Wolf world, for those of us who are clueless about it.

The one thing that may put off people in my opinion is the combat, which has QTEs and quite a bit of button-mashing for the more spectacular moves. I didn't mind it, I actually thought it added some challenge to the game. Otherwise the combat mechanics are pretty interesting: it is turn-based, but the turn elapses in real-time, so you have to decide fast what kind of attack you want to do. On normal difficulty you can pause by choosing a type of attack, from what I understand this doesn't happen on hard. You can either do a melee or a ranged attack, a special attack with the Sommerswerd or use a Kai Discipline. The lore, the main character and his abilities in combat are similar to the Witcher, so fans of that series may find this game interesting.

The rest of the game is based on choices, and they do matter, this being its main selling point. Most of the times we're talking about short-term consequences like doing a surprise attack, giving you an edge in battle or exploring a specific room. Sometimes there are bigger decisions to make, such as deciding someone's fate. There are also random encounters when navigating the map, mostly of the bloody variety.

The game also has a very nice melancholic soundtrack that matches the adventure, it's just you versus a whole world of evil.

Note: the game is mostly reading + map + inventory. Only the combat is in 3D.