The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is a narrative adventure indie title developed by DO MY BEST and published by tinyBuild. In this game, you play as Etienne Quist, an author who is under shackles for violating the rules of writer’s block. He uses his special powers to dive into books and interact in the world therein. His goal is to steal artifacts from these books and bring them back to reality so that he can pay off his dues and get rid of the shackles imposed upon him.
The premise of the title is certainly interesting and caught my attention right from the very start. That said, this review will closely examine the various aspects of this game. We’ll start with my first impressions of the game, then discuss the gameplay and the story (without spoilers of course!), and then finally take a look at the audio, graphics, and performance on PC.
So without further ado, let’s dive straight into this review of The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales.
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales – My first impressions
As I have already stated, the premise of the title is certainly unique and rarely seen in video games today. However, being an indie title I wasn’t expecting much. But I just told myself to get rid of any preconceptions and just play, and so I went in. The game begins in the first-person perspective with you, Etienne Quist, standing right outside your home.
Outside your door are an eviction notice and a letter stating that you are under shackles for violating rules that the writer’s block sets out. There, you come across another mysterious letter, which tells you about an opportunity to get rid of the shackles. That’s the very beginning of the game and during this section, you are free to explore your own house, knock on doors, move up and down the apartment you’re in, and more.
One thing I instantly noticed is that although there is no need for you to crouch or run in the game, those features were present. The game doesn’t tell you of them unlike other titles, where it becomes a part of the tutorial itself. Being a gamer for many years, holding Shift to run and Ctrl to crouch comes naturally and although it wasn’t necessary, it was there and I did it intuitively.
Next, I noticed that there was no spoken dialogue. Even if a character talks, let’s say on a call or with other NPCs, both parties merely mumble but the subtitles do the job of delivering the message. Being a game that revolves around books, I expected there to be a lot of reading but there wasn’t much. It had just enough to pass on the information which I felt was fantastic. Moreover, most of the text in The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is written in a style that would one expect in a novel.
I get inside my home and I am greeted by a phone call. The person on the other side of the phone is the one who assigns me these contracts. If I fulfill them, my sentence lessens and the sooner I get away from my shackles. I agree to that and I get a briefcase with a book delivered to my doorstep. My next job? Dive into the book’s world and steal whatever I am asked of and thus begins the actual game.
In the very first few minutes, The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales starts building an interesting backstory. However, it barely reveals anything. For instance, it doesn’t tell what crime you committed to get a sentence that harsh. Who are these guys you’ve never heard of calling you to offer contracts? There are a lot more questions that arise than answers you can find. Your naive curiosity instantly hooks you and the game keeps reeling you in until the end.
All in all, my curiosity got the best of me and I was excited to learn more about the character Etienne and what exactly is going on in this forsaken world.
Story and Gameplay: A lackluster tale that seeks solace in the realm of play
Story
The story of The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is one of the major highlights, but it fails to deliver on that aspect. Don’t get me wrong, the game builds up pretty well with a lot of mysteries to uncover and books to discover. But the ending completely ruins it for me. I will keep things brief here to avoid spoilers.
It starts off slow, you dive into a book, solve puzzles, defeat enemies, get what you were there for in the first place, and then come back to reality to trade the artifact for lowered sentence. The basic theme is the same and each book has its own tale to tell. All of them are interesting in their own right, but the story of the present, the story of Etienne Quest, The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion to it.
The narrative starts developing gradually. You get interested and want to see how it all unfolds. But right near the end, the game suddenly picks up the pace that was uncalled for. This ruined everything that it built on so far. I felt like the ending did an injustice to what The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales could have been, considering everything else is near perfect.
The game also offers you dialogue options but these feel like illusions as they don’t have an effect on the story. It is linear and although you believe these will have an impact on the outcome, it won’t. It will be safe to say that you find all answers to your questions that might have aroused in the first few minutes of the game.
The story on its own is brilliant but my main complaint would be that the game should have been longer. Instead of putting in six (primary) books with small stories to recover artifacts from, it could have done well with just three books and a lot more storytelling in each. Moreover, the way things were building up to the finale, it should have been a longer game. So although the plot is interesting and the character(s) are great, the haphazard ending left a bad taste in my mouth.
Gameplay
As soon as you dive into a book, the game switches to an isometric model. You play the game mostly using your mouse directing where your character should go and what it should interact with. Moreover, you have your pal Roderick guiding you throughout this journey.
In terms of gameplay, you basically fight fictional characters in the book, solve puzzles, craft required tools, and loot items. That’s it. But being a narrative-focused game, I didn’t expect it to go into depth with the gameplay mechanics. Out of all these gameplay elements, fighting has to be the one to be criticized.
It is half-baked, serves no real purpose in the game, and is quite easy. You can almost never die in a fight. The fights are turn-based and you can use different moves such as Stun, Strike, and more. You can also use your pen to deplete your enemies off ink, which acts as your energy bar to be able to do more attacks. But these fights could have been a little more challenging. At the moment it feels like filler content. There’s no reward for fighting as well.
Apart from that, I felt all other elements such as puzzle solving were also quite easy, but they were necessary to the plot. Although you are solving puzzles, you are actually solving a mystery in that book’s world to get what you need. So I have no complaints when it comes to the puzzles.
Other than that, there’s little to the gameplay. It’s fun, relaxing, and doesn’t get boring. Since the narrative is the most important element of The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, the gameplay mechanics included are more than enough. Some of them are polished and near perfect, while others such as fighting, are not so.
Audio, graphics, and performance on PC – A closer look at the components of immersion
Audio
As already established, there are no spoken dialogues, and it is only mumbling in the real world. Inside books, it’s all text-based conversations so there’s no scope for spoken dialogues. Apart from the environmental noises, the game relies on music, and on that part, I have no complaints.
Each book has its own sound signature and it can be really relaxing at times. Also, the music changes when depending on the situation, such as during fights or talking with a character, and so forth. So when it comes to audio, I think DO MY BEST really did their best with The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales.
Graphics
When you are outside the book, the camera shifts to a first-person view with a world that isn’t properly detailed, per se but gives hints of reality. On the other hand, inside books, the world is isometric and this is where the game’s true art can be enjoyed. I honestly loved how the developers designed each world. The usage of lighting and objects all around creates immersion better than the first-person view.
It isn’t realistic in any way but is certainly beautiful to look at. The world design in The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales proves that if you properly curate the environment around you, you don’t need 4K textures or features like ray tracing to get a visually appealing experience.
Performance on PC
In general, the performance on the PC is good. It isn’t demanding on the hardware and will run just fine on any modern system. However, I have only one complaint here. Anytime I uncap the framerate to let it go all the way up, my mouse would stutter. It felt like I could move my cursor only once every half a second. To fix this issue, I locked my FPS to 144 and the problem was resolved.
But being the game The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is, you won’t need those high framerates anyway, and even 60 FPS would serve you just fine. So that is the only issue I faced when it comes to performance. All in all, it works just fine and I doubt anyone would struggle to run it on their systems.
In conclusion
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is an interesting game, unlike anything I have played before. The game is unique and focuses heavily on the narrative. However, the story being the main highlight, it fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion. It starts off strong and promises a beautiful tale ahead that is only held back by the rushed conclusion. It had so much more potential but it didn’t realize at the end of the day.
All characters, be it in the books or in real life, are well-written and the game certainly succeeds in giving them a personality, even the ones without a voice.
The gameplay is fun, simple, and can be repetitive yet doesn’t get boring. Combat sequences could have been better but it isn’t a deal breaker for me. Puzzles aren’t tough to solve either but are fun to complete. All in all, the gameplay perfectly blends with the game’s premise.
As for the graphics, they are simply brilliant. The art style doesn’t try to stand out by doing anything fancy. Instead, it focuses on simplicity and delivers a visually appealing experience. Audio too isn’t bad either. It synchronizes well with the game’s events and helps bring the world of The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales to life.
Performance on PC for the most part is well. But it struggles, especially when the framerate is left uncapped and the FPS starts crossing the 140 mark.
All in all, The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is a fantastic game that excels in a lot of aspects albeit with a lot of potential left on the table. To answer the question of whether The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is worth your time and money? I would say yes, it is certainly worth playing. Its unique premise makes it stand out and you should definitely give it a shot.
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales
Reviewed on: Windows PC (Review Copy provided by tinyBuild)
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One
Developer(s): DO MY BEST
Publisher(s): tinyBuild
Release Date: 22 June, 2023
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