It’s not too often we get a truly novel concept in gaming. Usually what you’re playing is ‘inspired by’ something else or ‘based on’ this story or ‘a spiritual sequel’ to that story. When we do get something that’s actually unique, it’s a rare delight. So much so in fact that it’s honestly hard to even catch the obscure and interesting releases. That’s why we’re here to bring them to you.
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales from developer DO MY BEST and publisher tinyBuild is one of those absolutely unique games. It follows the story of Étienne, a writer in a place where writing without a license can get you in trouble with the law and Étienne has been sentenced to 30 years in shackles for an unknown crime. That’s apparently quite a hefty sentence too, so things aren’t looking good for our rather strange looking writer.
Fortunately, a faceless caller on the phone offers Étienne a way out…just do these six heists for him and he’ll crack the shackles, freeing Étienne to write anew. Sounds like a heist movie, right? Well, it kind of is and kind of isn’t because you aren’t stealing from a bank or a museum. Instead you’re stealing from a book! Étienne is the Bookwalker for a reason. He can physically enter stories and steal items from them. Now, to do this he has to use ‘ink’ which is rather illegal and he might never be able to write for the rest of his life but hey, what’s life without risk! It’s time to risk it all and steal….wait, what did you say? Steal Thor’s hammer? And Excaliber? Whoa. Things are pretty wild here!
There are two main components to The Bookwalker. First is Étienne’s apartment, which is where you start in first person. You’ll explore the various areas, talk to the neighbors, and wait for the next book you’re going to enter to be delivered. Interactive items are highlighted by your cursor when you’re close enough to use them and this area is sort of a staging ground for the real levels in the game. Once a book is delivered however, it’s time to take the kid gloves off and get going.
Here, the game shifts into an isometric perspective. We can finally see Étienne and it’s time to get stealing! If you need to go back to the real world for something (and you definitely will) a quick tap of the right trigger will pop you almost instantly out and you’re off to the races. Jumping back in just requires selecting the book again. Naturally, stealing stuff from books isn’t going to be easy though and it’ll take you a while to find your way around, solve logic puzzles, and fight off the occasional giant spiders that come crawling in. What’s that? GIANT SPIDERS, you said?!?! Yuck! Oh, sorry.
Anyway, suffice it to say there are a few obstacles to wandering into the book and just taking what you want. First, you won’t necessarily have everything you need to proceed because whatever is in the book is all that’s there. You’ll definitely have to leave and get some gear now and again. You’ll also have to think a bit to figure out what approaches to take to progress because it isn’t always entirely apparent. Or, well, it wouldn’t be except that The Bookwalker is as much a hand-holding simulator as it is a novel game experience (pun intended).
One thing that was rather unexpected about the game is the lack of difficulty. Any time you might need to figure something out, there’s typically a very blunt direction given to you as to how to proceed. There aren’t many options either, leaving you essentially following directions to progress in the game. That’s a bit on the easy side and might not sit well with all players. Need a shovel? Your trusty companion Roderick will remind you that you should go ask your neighbor. Being led by the hand is a bit grating for sure and The Bookwalker definitely doesn’t hesitate to do so.
Now, if that were the only issue with the game, that would be wonderful, but sadly it is not. There are a couple of other major issues here as well. The isometric viewpoint in the books is fine and there’s nothing wrong with it, except for the fact that it’s zoomed so far out that everything is minuscule, even on a 55” TV. You can temporarily zoom in a little, but certainly not enough, so the bulk of the game feels like you’re playing a bit too far away. The text is equally small and it’s honestly a bit irritating. There’s simply no need to have the excellent graphics hidden away because the camera is too far away.
Then there’s the right trigger. The control scheme has returning to the real world mapped to the right trigger on the Xbox. Unfortunately, that’s where your hand likely rests on the controller and it’s remarkably easy to bump it and return inadvertently. To leave the book requires a simply button press and is almost instant. To return however requires you to move the cursor reticule onto the book, select it, confirm, and then wait for a short video sequence to play. It’s fine if it’s intentional but when it’s not and you did it three times or more? Ugh. Of course, now you want to know why that’s happening so often and that brings us to the biggest issue of the game, character control.
Unfortunately, it’s clear that The Bookwalker: Thief of Takes is designed for the PC and has been ported to Xbox. On the PC, none of this would be an issue because you’re using a mouse cursor. But on the Xbox, moving Étienne around is entirely another matter. If you move into any area that he isn’t supposed to go to, Étienne gets stuck. The control stick won’t move him and he just stands there looking back and forth. It happens a lot…so much in fact that it’s essentially game-crippling. And without clearly delineated paths, you’re probably going to run into a lot of stuff. In fact, you’re pretty much guaranteed to, which means in a few hours of play, you’ll have spent about a quarter or so getting stuck and waiting to get unstuck.
As of the writing of this article, there’s no patch for this issue. You’re just going to get stuck all over the place. Sometimes hitting a bunch of buttons unsticks you, but that’s where that problematic right trigger comes in. Sometimes if you hit it, you unstuck from the background and sometimes you exit the area and go back into the apartment. Grr. That isn’t the whole of the problem either. It turns out that to interact with something, you have to line up with it and click on it. However it’s remarkably easy to move past an item without stopping so you’ll also be spending a lot of time simply trying to interact with things that you absolutely know you have to interact with to progress. It’s an entirely frustrating process.
That’s not to say that The Bookwalker is a bad game. It’s not. Sure it’s got a bunch of entirely pointless crafting (should I really have to put together a bunch of items to extend the game?) and leads you by the hand but the story is great once you get going and the heavy-handed ethical dilemmas that you are basically required to make bad choices in have the desired emotional impact. But with finicky controls too, it’s just a bit too frustrating to play on the Xbox and because of that, the pacing and storytelling start to fall by the wayside. That’s a shame because the writing is fun and the game itself is quite interesting.
All in all, The Bookwalker is a mixed bag. There are some great concepts here and the script is solid, leaving you wanting to know more and really capturing the imagination. But things are also bogged down by some serious design issues that are likely related to the port to consoles and some of the design choices like crafting are a bit unnecessary. It’s hard to say that The Bookwalker is a fun game because of this but we do live in an age of modern digital games and there is absolutely the potential for patches that fix things like hanging up in the environments and the lack of controller mapping in the Xbox version of the game. A few little repairs and this would be a much more engrossing game but as it is, some players will struggle to feel engaged due to technical difficulties. If you’re the patient sort though, The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is an engrossing story that eventually pays off with some interesting story elements and ends up being a great overall experience. Let’s just hope for a patch or two now!
This review was based on a digital copy of The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales provided by the publisher. It was played on an Xbox Series X using a Sony 55” 1080p TV. The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales is also available for PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.
