Necklace of Skulls (Critical IF gamebooks)

A good choose your own adventure book but a hard one. The Critical IF series include some unique mechanics that prevent it from having some of the problems other series have. Still it relies heavily on choices without insight which encourages trial and errors repetition.The narrative was interesting, using Maya myths as an inspiration.

This is the second Critical IF book I've played. I love that these gamebooks offer more complexity than standard Choose Your Own Adventure books without requiring dice.Although I didn't find it quite as enjoyable as  Heart of Ice (Critical IF gamebooks) , Necklace of Skulls was still a blast to play through and I look forward to trying the remaining two books in the series!

Necklace of Skulls is an excellent mold breaking gamebook from Dave Morris where your hero is in the Maya who sets out to avenge their twin brother after he went to Visit an evil wizard known as the Necklaceof Skulls.The gamebook places you in a world deeply steeped in myth and magic - you can travel through the underworld, fight a hydra, meet a god and even become immortal (which in game terms, means that you can only die in a sudden death paragraph. Life loss no longer means anything. And this is not even a trap where you have to choose between this and winning. You can become immortal AND win at the end too).The gameplay depends on you choosing skills. There are no random elements, so no dice to roll and no frustrating random deaths. The skills are all balanced and skills that might not seems so powerful, such as etiquette, folklore and cunning are just as useful as the more powerful skills such as magic and swordplay.As well as the fantastic encounters, you also get to explore the culture that you live in - for example, you could learn a sacred game which will come in very handy later on in the book.The book culminates in visiting the city of Necklace of Skulls where you have to overcome various challenges before you see him. Then you have to take part in the sacred game in order to get your brother back and destroy the Necklace of Skulls himself.The game itself is challenging but the choices are logical. It also has several options and uses of skills that may not be the obvious ones to take, but Dave Morris has some good explanations as to why they work.As with a lot of his gamebooks, Necklace of Skulls has the feel that you are living in a world of myth andlegend that you get to explore. The gameplay is balanced and there are multiple paths through the book that, along with the skill choices, enhance the replayability of the book. Buy this unique treasure among the world of gamebooks.

Another gem from Mr Morris, this Interactive Fiction gamebook (no dice, no luck, just judgement!) places YOU as the hero in a richly detailed Central America. Something terribly bad has happened to the Great City, and your brother hasn't come back from an investigation. It's up to you to sort it out.You can pick one of several paths through the world and the underworld, and it's always interesting no matter what you do. Both magic and mundane skills can be useful, and there are lots of charming encounters and ways to do. After 8 or so attempts I've managed to get an "OK-ish" victory ending, but there are better endings available so sooner or later I'm going to venture forth again into the jungles and caverns and get vengeance on the Necklace of Skulls!

The Critical IF series of gamebooks has a wide variety of settings- post-apocalyptic Earth (Heart of Ice), pirating in the Caribbean (Down Among the Dead Men) and in Necklace of Skulls perhaps the most original of all: pre-collapse Mayan Central America.You are a warrior or a shaman or a hunter searching for your missing twin who was last seen entering the lair of the evil sorcerer Necklace of Skulls. On your way to rescue him you can meet a giant counting the stars, find the fabled World Tree or get thrown into the Mayan underworld, which is the most peculiar and terrifying of all the locations in the book.Unlike some gamebooks, there are multiple ways to victory and a couple of possible endings. This gives it great replay value, even after you complete it. Different skill choices make different routes possible and there are generally multiple ways to solve any problem. Finding them all is a fun challenge.However, this was originally written in the Nineties and some of the features from the time are present. Notably, it is pretty tough and you have to be extremely lucky to succeed on your first few attempts. Although there are many possible successful routes, there are also several fatal wrong turns and many attritional bad encounters meaning you die near the end. Nevertheless, playing this several times is pretty enjoyable. The prose is evocative, the encounters are plentiful and there are quite a few hidden secrets to discover.The other problem is a classic gamebook one: finding the quickest route to your destination is generally not recommended as you probably won't have collected enough helpful items or clues to survive the finale. You should always, rather non-intuitively as there is supposed urgency to your mission, take the scenic route.The book requires no dice and fairly minimal bookkeeping so the kindle version is a good option. There is also a pretty faithful app version now out which is another nice way to experience the book and has the added bonus of some excellent artwork.

Fantastic, as always by Dave Morris.

It's a great gamebook. You get the sensation of taking a long journey plenty of adventures. The system of skills and objects is quite balanced and fits perfectly the good reading flow. Great creatures and locations. So... 100% recommended.