The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

I suppose that this being the first gamebook in the series, it would have noticeable flaws. I bought it on the App Store at a discount on a whim, and this being a book review site, I'll refrain from commenting on the application itself.

The overall plot itself was pretty shallow. The entire premise could've been substituted with different keywords and you wouldn't have noticed much difference: The (generic villain guarding treasure) of (any dungeon that can hold treasure). I would actually substitute the “villain” with something far less intelligent, considering the fact that this warlock just waits for people to come in to try and steal his treasure.

This gamebook uses the “one true path” approach. I don't have anything against this approach as long as it's reasonable. But I dislike this book for the manner at which you will fail - you won't know that you missed something until the end, and then you just fail.

While the writing and the flow is fine for the most part, there is a maze section in the journey that's nothing short of frustrating. It forces you to draw out a map using the giving passageway descriptions and directional references (so you get dozens of short paragraphs that adds nothing to the story). They acted more like filler. The second time you read through, you'd just flip straight to the maze exit. Most of the encounters acceptable except for a few that were strangely out of place and illogical considering the “dangerous dungeon” setting.

Sure, this gamebook was targeted at much younger readers, but there are much better designed gamebooks out there targeted at the same age group.