Black Book
Review

Black Book (2021) is a dark adventure, based on Slavic myths where you are a young sorceress. It combines a visual novel point-and-click adventure with card collecting to gain abilities to fight evil forces and explore the world where humans live alongside mythological creatures.

You play Vasilisa after her fiance dies who makes a deal with the devil to bring him back. She must open the seven pages of the black book. It's a bargain that launches her on an epic quest through all sorts of detailed twists and turns through Slavic folktales and myths.

You collect cards to gain abilities ready for the battles. Between these battles, you explore the world, interact with locals and other characters to forge a path through the adventure. The depth of this journey and the slow winding plot is unusual for a game.

How you approach the exploration determines how you progress. For instance, there are sometimes different routes into buildings if you search thoroughly. Some routes will result in losing less health or other advantages.

"The Narrative is based on Bailichkas, which are short stories about an allegedly true event of meeting with spirits and demons. We are being consulted by Konstantin Shumov, a scientific expert in this field, ehtnographist and collector of bailichkas."

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Black Book 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 8 months ago.