[LP] Lesser-Known Gamebooks: One Thing After Another

[Darth Rabbitt]

There's also a certain irony using a device made by Doctor Doom to save Reed Richards, even if it's one from an alternate universe.

Go with Reed Richards.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You rush to Reed's bedside and, without a moment's hesitation, activate Doctor Doom's device. A pure white light bursts from the lens and bathes the still form of Reed Richards. Within moments, the color begins returning to his cheeks, and a few moments later, his eyes open and a smile stretches across his face.

"Ben..." he gasps, weaklu.

"Hey there, Stretch, don't you be goin' an' tryin' to say any eighteen-syllable words fer a while. Ya gotta get yer strength back, ya hear?"

"Mm-hmmm," he mutters, and drifts off to sleep.

A few hours later, he awakens, still weak, but strong enough to sit up and demand an explanation. You tell him of your adventures and show him Doom's device.

"That's simply amazing, old friend – Doctor Doom, a hero in a world without a Fantastic Four. Remarkable. And this device, why I can see how it might be improved, but the overall design... brilliant!"

"Sheesh, what is it with you big brains? Can ya build another one o' these or not?"

"Why, of course I can. Here, help me to my lab."

"Well, awright! Let's get to it."

You carry the still-weak Reed Richards to the lab where, true to his word, he recreates the device, incorporating several improvements. Then, turning to you, he says, "Well, it looks like Doom's world will no longer be the only one without a Fantastic Four. Are you ready, Ben? Are you ready to give up the fame, the glory, the awesome strength of the Thing?"

"Are you kiddin'? Let me have it!"

Hours later, you're all gathered together – four adventurers who will adventure no more. The world will miss the Fantastic Four, but at least you're all alive. You feel immensely satisfied. You've saved you friends' lives and given them – and yourself – a shot at what passes for a normal life these days. That's a happy ending in anyone's book.

Wrap-up to come.

[Korgan0]

Yeah, Reed.

[Starmaker]

Hours later, you're all gathered together – four adventurers who will adventure no more.

Bullshit, Ben is still an ace pilot and Reed is still an inventor. We're basically two Batmen without dead parents, which is an all-around win. Plus Ben can get Alicia back, now that he's fuckable again.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Yeah, the FF without their powers are still adventurers, they're just the Challengers of the Unknown instead. Like, specifically.

So, this book: not very good, really. Continuity errors everywhere, art that's just embarrassing compared to its contemporaries, and a serious chance that you'll miss the main plot.

Seriously, if you even inspect the other device, it's off to the negatvie zone to grapple manfully with Annihilus, which is a fine story, but it's not what we were promised on the cover. And it leads to a surprising amount of continuity errors, because there's like three ways to get there, and the exposition is not coordinated at all. So you can totally end up in the Negative Zone by accident, and then immediately go about your business exactly as if you'd been briefed by the eggheads.

Seriously, if they'd cut that shit out and just committed to the dimension-hopping, they could have either included like two more realities or just fleshed out the ones they had. For instance, there's a path in Thing Kong's world where you run into that dimension's Reed, who explains what led to that state of affairs – it would be nice if there was more than one way to get that information.

One thing I did like is that no matter what path you take, the Health damage is basically meaningless. Because you're playing as the Thing, and the threat is that you'll mess up and fail, not that some random threat will stove your head in. Except for falling off the Empire State Building, which is inexplicably a game over death. And an extremely bullshit one as well, not because you don't get several chances to avoid it, but because it's exactly the sort of impact that we know wouldn't kill the Thing.

This book comes off as amateurish, reading like it was written under a very tight deadline, and then barely edited if at all. On the other hand, there is a clear fan's affection for the subject matter, which somehow manages to make passable a lot of material which might otherwise not have been. I think it's probably that affection which drove the inclusion of so much of the FF mythos, from the Red Ghost and the Watcher, to the Negative Zone and the Inhumans, even if a lot of that material is superfluous and wasteful in a book that's not even 300 entries.

I think there's only one worthwhile piece of art that we missed.

Your power armor is bad and you should feel bad!

[radthemad4]

Yeah, more dimension hopping would have been cool. Still, there were some interesting ideas here. They were more than just, "the Thing is Evil here" which I found pretty neat. Pity about the sloppy editing and continuity errors. This was actually my first experience with a gamebook, and now I want to check out more. Thanks for doing this.