Bookworm Adventures Vol. 2

Meritorious, effulgent, voluminous and transcendent, that’s what Bookworm Adventures is. And those words would kick the crap out of your enemies too! I consumed 2007’s Bookworm Adventures whole, like a python and it stayed inside me like bunny-like and was slowly digested these last two years as I waited for more word puzzling to come my way. Nothing other than this sequel could truly satiate my hunger because Bookworm Adventures brings together such a particular bunch of gaming desires that I have in a heavenly alchemy only ever matched by Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.

It’s a simple enough premise. You have a grid of letters and use some of those to make as big a word as possible. The letters you use up are replaced by random new letters. Like scrabble, rarer letters are worth more but they aren’t worth points, they’re worth damage. Around the basic word puzzle game is build the massive story of Lex the bookworm with imaginative enemies, complex battling strategy, an RPG style character building element and buffing ang health restoring items. If there’s one thing that will make me feel even more smug that I know big long words, it’s that I’ll get to beat a big dragon, setting him on fire, poisoning him and eventually hitting him over the head with a giant hammer… because I know big long words.If you don’t know big long words then you aren’t going to get much enjoyment out of Bookworm Adventures – you go do shooty game now. GO!

So this is Volume 2. Volume 1 consisted of three “books” each containing a buch of chapters and each chapter containing several enemies to defeat with your vocabulary prowess. Volume 2 is much the same with a few added elements that add to what was already an almost perfect game. You can now take along an ally who will give you certain abilities as well as fill two slots with special items that aid you in your adventure. The book themes are excellent, truly inventive and have some wonderful enemies. Keep in mind that with well over 100 enemeies each one has tailored special moves to play against you so every round is different. Another addition to this game is rainbow gems. There have always been coloured gem squares which add special kinds of damage if used in your word. the rainbow gems act as blanks where you can use them to represent any letter.it may seem small potatoes to those who haven;t played these games before but every tiny change affects the gaming experience vastly and in Volume 2 every change has been a positive one… well not quite every change.

Volume 2 feels a little easy. I haven’t died many times. It’s hard to figure out if the enemies are doing less damage, if I’m getting more and better items or if I’ve somehow become even more of a genius wordsmith, although I don’t think that’s actually possible. Regardless a choice of difficulties might have helped. However there are various minigames and unlockable challenges later that will really test your mettle outside of the main adventure. Bookworm Adventures 2 is the opposite of an action game. You’ll literally be staring at a screen, not moving, for ten minutes at a time. That doesn’t mean it’s not exciting though. For the right person Bookworm Adventures 2 is an edge of your seat, sublime gaming experience. Imagine if you could smack that boss in the face with antidisestablishmentarianism. Just imagine!!