Well, well, well, what have we here? Another absolutelygorgeous game? Correct! Book of Travels is a brand new game fromMight and Delight, a small studio out of Sweden with a knack for creating art. I’ve been eyeing this game for a few months now and am happy to be able to try it out and give you my two cents at launch! So, let’s dive right in.
Venture out into a living, breathing fairytale world. Craft a character with its own unique personality and explore the open land however you choose. Set your own goals and shape your adventure alone or with the others you find in this serene online TMORPG (tiny multiplayer online).
Might and Delight
What is this Game?
Book of Travels is a multiplayer game but you won’t see as many people as you’re used to like an MMO. Instead, the game focuses on roleplaying and individual playstyles giving you the freedom to craft your own journey in the world. You will run into many randomly occurring events that make your play-through of the game unique and different every session.
The game takes inspiration from “old-world fairytales, Eastern mythology, and early industrial eras.” There are tons of special secrets, items, and features to unlock as you play. 300+ abilities, magical skills, and passive feats to unlock and master will give you numerous ways to experience the game.
And of course, this game is a playable piece of art. It has click-to-walk movement like old-school RPGs but with 3D depth.
A Solid First Impression
One early annoyance is that while the game launches from Steam it then launches a launcher for you to press play and then you have to also log in when the game itself launches. While none of this is difficult it’s just more steps in a process that should be more seamless. Hopefully, it’s something that changes in the future.
Character creation for Book of Travels is an interesting process that felt more akin to creating a character for a tabletop RPG than your usual MMO or modern RPG. You immediately have portions of your character to flesh out on your own, completely freeform, to get you in the right mindset of creating an actual character outside what they look like or what their skills are. It’s a great first step to setting the mood.
After getting into the game proper, it was interesting to see how the mechanics would work. Visually the game looks 2D until you start moving around into the back and foreground. The transition is so smooth and it absolutely amazes me. Sometimes pathing gets a little odd because of terrain that isn’t actually traversable but you’re never waiting on it long.
As you might expect, if you’ve ever seen me play a game, I immediately went off into my own direction exploring instead of going where I was told to go. So I haven’t gotten past the first few areas. However, I’ve gotten pretty good and picking out what in the scenery is an interactable item! I did eventually make it onto the path the game wanted me to go down. I talked to every person and pet every animal along the way too. Which made me realize I wanted a space in a journal or something to write notes since there’s already functionality in the game to put your own text in things like background/appearance/etc. it’d be nice to implement something for us to keep notes on our character for what/who we encounter.
SHould you add book of travels to your library?
I had a great introduction to the game and there’s a lot for me to continue uncovering in the hours of gameplay to come. You should definitely head over toSteam and add it to your wishlist/follow it. Give Book of Travels a shot if you enjoy roleplaying games or if you think the art is striking. If you do give it a go, be sure to leave me a comment about your experience! Book of Travels releases October 11, 2021. I will report back once I’ve gotten further into the game, so look for a part two!