Fighting Fantasy was the first mass-market gamebook series, and was by far the biggest, with 59 volumes published, along with a companion set of books expanding the basic rules into a full role-playing system. Only books 1 through 21 were published in the U.S., however, so us Yankee boys didn't have access to the full set unless we wanted to buy straight from the UK publisher.
Fighting Fantasy books used a rather simple system, which is fine considering that these books were pitched at a younger audience. You have three character attributes: SKILL (used primarily for combat), STAMINA (your damage threshold), and LUCK (used for many things). As with any game system, higher attributes are better, but SKILL and LUCK seem to be the most important. LUCK is very interesting, really. At certain times you must "Test your LUCK" to see if bad things happen to you (or maybe it's really a good thing; hard to tell sometimes). However, every time you test, your LUCK decreases by one. Thus the more you rely on the luck the greater your risk. I like this touch.
Most Fighting Fantasy books fall into the category of what I call "maze games." You basically are searching for the right path from point "A" to point "B", with about a score of available options, only one of which is correct. Because of this it is very important to make maps as you play through the books. Yes, I have learned this the hard way. As the title implies, there is lots of emphasis on combat, sometimes too much so. This varies from book to book, of course.
Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 1, 1982, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson
Ah, the beginning of it all. Though not the first Fighting Fantasy book that I've read, this book is the one that pretty much started the whole phenomenon. I remembered being insanely difficult when I was 9 years old (or however old I was at the time I read it), but I didn't believe in making maps back then; I know better these days.
In this gamebook you are an adventurer trying to sneak into Firetop Mountain, kill the warlock who is master of the mountain, and make off with his treasure; a standard loot and pillage adventure. First, you go through what I refer to as the "first line of defense," which consists of the orc and goblin tunnels. The river marks the end of this line and the beginning of the "second line of defense," which consists of the area controlled by mostly undead creatures like skeletons and wights. This area lasts until you hit the Maze of Zagor, which is the "third line of defense," which culminates in your encounter with the warlock, assuming you make it that far. Getting through the first section isn't difficult, but there are some critical items that you need to find in this section in order to successfully complete your quest.
The second zone is somewhat more difficult, and as before, you need to find some specific items to gain the warlock's treasure. The third zone is a true maze, though not a very dangerous one, all things considered. If you make a good map of your progress, you will eventually stumble across the warlock. Unless you have some good items to help you, this is a very tough fight. But after you defeat the warlock you must still unlock his treasure chest. The first time through as I was reading for this review, I defeated the warlock (barely), but was unable to unlock the chest, so I failed. I did better the second time.
This book was enjoyable. It was challenging, but not maddeningly so, even though I really despise when gamebook authors put mazes in their books. Ack. But at least this one was solvable, unlike the one in Grailquest 6, which forces you to cheat. There are a number of worthless items you will encounter during your quest, though there are some truly wonderful things that will make your job much easier. The writing was pretty good for a Fighting Fantasy book, and there was not an excessive amount of fighting, like some of the books. There was some of the typical silly stuff where you encounter people who have seemingly lived for years stuck inside an evil mountain fortress with no ill effects on them, which never makes sense, but not as much as I was expecting. Overall, this book is very good, and is a good starting place for enjoying the Fighting Fantasy series.
Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 3, 1983, Ian Livingstone
In The Forest of Doom, you play an adventurer who is wandering through the "northern borderlands" near Darkwood forest. You come across a dying dwarf, who was on a quest for a magical warhammer to save his village (conveniently on the other side of the forest). Being the stout-hearted fellow that you are, you decide to complete his quest for him and save his village. Thus you enter the forest, looking for the hammer.
This gamebook is really a maze. There are many paths through the forest, but only one is correct. You are allowed, if you make it to the dwarf village without the hammer, to go back around to the beginning and start over again with the same character, though this isn't without risks. I found the combats to be a little too easy, for the most part, and too numerous. The writing is also too terse; some additional "flavor text" would have been nice to actually tell you what Darkwood forest looks like, smells like, etc. I had difficulty actually immersing myself in the fantasy world due to a lack of such cues.
The book is challenging enough, though this is due to the way that things have to be done in a very specific order, and it will take you a while to figure out what that order is. One thing that annoyed me related to the ability to restart the quest again if you failed to get the hammer the first (or second, or third, ...) time through: you have to fight all the creatures over again. This really doesn't make sense from a story-telling perspective, and should have been dealt with. This is a major flaw in my opinion, and is in large part responsible for the three-star rating.
Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 6, 1984, Ian Livingstone
Deathtrap Dungeon is cool. The basic gist is that you (along with five other adventurers) descend into a special dungeon (in the classic fantasy role-playing sense) in order to complete the "Trial of Champions," the ultimate test of strengh and skill. In fact, no one has ever survived the dungeon, so Baron Sukumvit's (nice name, eh?) 10,000 gold piece prize has never been claimed. So sad.
The back story really works well for the Fighting Fantasy genre. Because these books often end up as elaborate mazes, putting the adventure in an actual maze works very well. It also allows for all sorts of strange encounters with traps and monsters without destroying the coherency of the story line. And trust me, you will run across all sorts of weird things, not all of which make sense at the time. And there are a LOT of dead ends and fox hunts. However, I expect a good gamebook to be challenging, and Deathtrap Dungeon fits the bill very well.
The book isn't perfect, though. My main beef was that the creature encounters were often a little too tough, even though the book says that if you choose the correct path you can get through fairly easy, no matter how poor your characteristics are. That is a lie. Unless you are a demon with the dice, you will need a SKILL of at least 9, and LUCK to spare.
So just play with good characters, but still play this book. It is well worth it for you to find a copy of this book and read it through. It is challenging, and it will take some luck to get through even when you know exactly what you want to do. It's too bad the creature encounters weren't more realistic, as this book could have earned five stars.