This blogpost is a review of Tormentor Treetower, a sword and sorcery gamebook, which is an action-packed and handsomely designed choose your own adventure in the classic manner of the Fighting Fantasy series.

Armed with only a sword, some rations and a backpack, you have been taken it upon yourself to protect the local villagers by despatching a strange creature called Thalkatar The Tormentor.

Protected by and his armed minions, Thalkatar has a habit of torturing anyone who strays too close to his abode, a formerly desolate a tower in a nearby wood, hence the name of the story.

The mechanics of the game are easy to grasp and will be solidly familiar to regular fans of Fighting Fantasy, and easy to pick up for the novice or the complete noob.

There’s a useful armoury of weapons to collect en route, including slingshots, axes, knives and even a tinderbox. And among the traps, twists and fights, there’s even a welcome hint of romance, which isn’t a strong feature of the FF gamebooks.

There’s a lovely simplicity in the narrative of this adventure which harks to my favourite of the FF gamebooks, Deathtrap Dungeon, you basically have to fight your way in and out of the tower.

And the film lover in me can’t help but feel the narrative was also inspired by two films from 2012, martial arts action thriller The Raid, and the thunderous and inventive imagining of British comic legend, Dredd.

This is no bad thing, and lends a cinematic feel to proceedings as you make your way up through the titular Treetower, avoiding traps and besting goblins, orcs, dwarves and such on the way to defeating Thalkatar.

Although having only a hundred sections makes this a short adventure, it also means it never outstays its welcome. The intention is to write three more gamebooks by the end of this year and publish all four as a compilation. An intriguing prospect, no doubt inspired by Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series.

With their elegant gothic style the illustrations add a wonderful texture to the carefully crafted atmosphere, and combined with the strong design and strong grasp of the genre, all make this a pleasure to play.

Inventive, fun and exciting, if you’re looking for a new Fighting Fantasy challenge, then this is the PDF you’re looking for.

Tormentor Treetower by James Aukett, has cover art by Matthew Dewhurst and interior illustrations by Waclaw Traier. It’s available for free as a downloadable PDF, follow the link below.

https://tinyurl.com/tormentortreetower