The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales [PC] | REVIEW

“The Bookwalker is a narrative adventure in which you play as Etienne Quist, a writer-turned-thief with the ability to dive into books. Use your powers to journey between reality and book worlds, and steal legendary items like Thor’s Hammer and Excalibur to restore your ability to write.”

That’s what it says on the Steam page for The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, and that’s all I needed to read to realise I HAD to play this game. Turns out it’s really cool too, with some excellent storytelling and creative ideas ensuring its adventure will hooks players in.

Check out some screenshots down below:

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales puts players in the role of Etienne Quest, an acclaimed writer that finds himself banished from his craft after committing a severe crime (which curiously goes undisclosed throughout the game). Desperate to find his way back into the world of writing, Etienne agrees to work with an ominous crime boss that offers to rid him of his sentence – provided he completes a few unusual jobs, which involve diving into the physical worlds of various novels in order to steal items from within them.

It was this bizarre concept that initially drew me into The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, so I was happy to see that the game introduces plenty of other strange yet engrossing ideas as you progress through the adventure. And sure, it leaves a lot of its ideas to the player’s imagination (you essentially have to *accept* this is how things work in the world), but it’s all presented in such a believable manner it’s easy to get on board. Sure, it’s DEFINITELY the norm to be able to dive into books, and sure, I DEFINITELY believe that there could be a police force out there that specifically target rogue writers. It’s brilliant to see the tale unfold, with each new curious detail that the world fleshes out ensuring that The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales’ narrative is its most captivating feature.

Oh, and the novels you dive into? They’re brilliant in design and twist together a mish-mash of genres and ideas to make for some enthralling escapades, but I’ll leave those for the player to discover themselves.

“It’s brilliant to see the tale unfold, with each new curious detail that the world fleshes out ensuring that The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales’ narrative is its most captivating feature.”

When it comes to the gameplay, The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales plays things out from two different perspectives. Any time you spend in the real world takes place from a first-person perspective, with the player able to explore Etienne’s apartment and share minor interactions with his neighbours. These sections feel more insignificant from a gameplay perspective, but it’s within them that you’ll see the overall story progress.

When you dive into a novel, everything takes a different turn. For one, it plays out from an isometric perspective, with players able to explore an array of visually impressive areas that span across the tale that each novel is telling. It also feels like more a traditional adventure in design, with the player uncovering items, solving puzzles, and interacting with the world and its inhabitants in a variety of ways. It’s a choice-heavy experience too, with players often tasked with making the decision as to how to approach a situation and even altering the story to suit their needs – some of these choices may work out badly for you and see you lose some of your health, but other times a risk may pay off and you’ll find yourself progressing through unconventional means. Why use a valuable lockpick on a door when you can headbutt it, right? Yeah, don’t do that, it doesn’t work…

If I’m being completely honest, the puzzles of the game are a bit of a mixed bag. It was rare I ever felt stumped at all, and whilst the conversations with others led to some interesting situations based upon my choices, the game never put me in a position where I felt like I could fail. It’s always clear what to do, and whilst you might find some blocked pathways here and there, it’s always easy to craft some lockpicks or other items needed to progress. The areas you explore aren’t especially big either, so if you need to find something, it won’t take you long to do so. There are some interesting ideas introduced in the puzzling (such as having to head back into the real world to grab an item you need) and the fact that you have the freedom to alter different aspects of each novel definitely felt creative, but it’s a shame that it’s not more challenging.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Still, it didn’t stop me from enjoying The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, with the excellent world design and storytelling doing more than enough to keep me invested in the adventure. And hey, some of the choices you make can be really interesting, even if they can feel a little choreographed as a means to progress. There’s even some added excitement with the game’s RPG-like turn-based battling, with players occasionally encountering enemies that need defeating. It’s not a particularly intricate combat system with the actions of both Etienne and his enemies feeling pretty simple in design, but balancing out your ink use (the resource used to perform actions) whilst dealing with the enemy threat is certainly neat. Much like the puzzling, it’s rarely difficult, but it does add a bit of action to The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales’ otherwise slow-paced adventuring that shows that diving into the world of books can also bring with it plenty of danger.

Developer: Do My Best Games
Publisher: tinyBuild
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1432100/The_Bookwalker_Thief_of_Tales/