iOS, Android •
If you’re one of those weirdos people that usually find gamebooks or interactive fiction to be a bit too dry, you need to give Cubus Games‘ stuff a go. I kind of fell in love with them after reading Heavy Metal Thunder which somehow managed to be more badass than the title required it to be. It took the usual gamebook conventions and mashed them up with beautiful 80’s-90’s-style action-schlock. You weren’t just an antihero, you were an antihero who makes Max Rockatansky look like a measly War Boy. You kill while spouting one liners and pretty much do whatever the hell you want, and it’s pretty great. That’s not the only great gamebook they’ve churned out, however. HMT had great sequels and they even had a book set in the Mayan civilization. Their latest book is coming in June and it, too, looks like a doozy.
The gamebook is called The Frankenstein Wars and mashes up Mary Shelly and le petit caporal. Yes, it has the reconstructed dead fighting the Napoleonic Wars, and I literally can’t think of anything cooler except maybe Dracula at Verdun, but that’s already been done.
“The Frankenstein Wars” is a raw, epic, story-driven blockbuster about two brothers who long guarded the secret to Victor Frankenstein’s resurrection technology… until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
You direct both Tom and Anton Clerval, through a branching, non-linear storyline set in revolutionary France with a backdrop of hellish war with the soul of humanity at stake – and you decide if the brothers become allies, or enemies.
“The Frankenstein Wars” takes the heritage of Mary Shelley’s universal horror classic and combines it with some of the most outstanding historical figures such as Ada Lovelace or Napoleon Bonaparte. Immerse yourself in the 19th century thanks to the soundtrack with a neo-classic twist, explore beautiful maps, decide the fate of Europe (and the known world) and enjoy this compelling and powerful adventure gamebook beautifully crafted.
Cubus ran a Kickstarter for TFW last summer, raking in just over €8K to bring it to life. Unlike their other books which hew close to their dead tree cousins, this gamebook expands your experience by including maps, time sensitive goals which will shift and change throughout the story, multiple playable characters, and strategic battles between entire battalions.
The Frankenstein Wars is coming to iOS and Android in early June, making its appearance on the App Store on June 1st and on Google Play on June 8. Both a release and gameplay trailer below.
Certainly looking forward to this one.