Okay, so you’re this, well, person, who has a book or pages for a head but otherwise looks human. Apparently he owes the bureaucracy of his book writing guild, oh, he’s a writer, for not producing a book on time or something and having his royalties and livelihood threatened should he not make good on the provisions of his contract.

So he gets involved with the shadier aspects of this neo-noir, steampunk (?), some kind of fantasy world society which I quite frankly haven’t figure out yet, so as to extricate himself from life’s current dilemmas.

So het gets odd phone calls all hours of day or night, and is tasked with ‘retrieving’ certain fantastic items and relics which may be found in books. That’s ‘right books. So with his magic briefcase, his trusty talking lamp friend (yeah, haven’t quite figured this one out either), and his instructions he jumps into the storyline of books and goes on adventures to retrieve the contracted items to free himself of the shackles that bind.

Now normally I don’t write spoiler reviews however the above gives nothing away and might even sway some into the madness of what I’m currently enjoying slash living in as I play The Book Walker, Thief of Tales. This is a fascinating game with different modes of play. There’s the standard first person view as you collect assignments and navigate your apartment building to progress, there’s also a top down 45 degree slanted 3 dimensional top-down view interface thing (obviously I’m not sure what this type of game interface is called, but it’s like the Diablo view) while you’re actively questing, and then of course all kinds of mini games and puzzles and RPG’esque round by round combat sequences. I admit it did take me an hour or so to get use to the game and how it wants to played but I’m thoroughly glad I stuck it out and though at the time of this writing I have not completed the game, I am 4 or 5 ‘novels’ deep into the game with probably a couple hours or so totally invested thus far and I am very happy as well as intrigued by the gameplay.

The Book Walker, Thief of Tales is very much a story driven game, more so than most, so be prepared to do a lot of reading. You’ll need to read everything to progress in the game so paying attention is another skill you’ll be wanting to take advantage of while playing, or like me maybe have a notebook and pencil at your side just in case you feel like you’re getting overwhelmed by all the things you might have to remember. I received this game via my XBox Game Pass and it’s a free download for me but I’ve seen it available elsewhere so if The Book Walker, Thief of Tales sounds interesting to you, check it out.

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