Sorcery! 2 Review

Bigger, better, stronger. That sums up Sorcery! 2, the sequel to the rather great Sorcery!. Feeling substantially weightier than its predecessor, much like the book it's based on, Sorcery! 2 is a veritable bargain even despite its premium price tag. It's been promised that there are over 300,000 words to it with more than 10,000 choices. I have no reason to doubt such a claim as there are plenty of hours of content here.

Continuing from its predecessor, it's not essential to have a save file at the ready but I'd recommend it, purely to carry on the storyline. Players explore Khare: the Cityport of Traps, and it's a huge city indeed, as they attempt to move forward in their quest, potentially overthrow the city port's council, and more. I'm grateful that Sorcery! 2 has such an extensive backtracking feature as there really is a lot that can be done here.

As before, the Fighting Fantasy world has been re-imagined using a completely different interface than simply progressing through individual pages of a book. Both methods work well, but admittedly Sorcery! 2 is a little more vibrant. Combat is more interactive than dice rolls, requiring one to calculate when to strike a blow or when to defend. There's an enhanced spell casting system too, requiring one to literally spell out the letters of a magic act.

Exploring the game involves dragging one's finger around a map, again adding to the general classiness of Sorcery! 2's appearance. New to this instalment is the addition of a gambling game which boosts the general variety of gameplay that can be gleaned here.

Crucially, even amongst such a classy interface and layout, Sorcery! 2's true strength comes from its storytelling and sheer wealth of options. As exciting to play as it once was in book form, it'll leave adventure gaming fans hankering for more even despite its significant length. April 2014, the current release date for part 3, can't come soon enough.