FF03: The Forest of Doom

Written by Ian Livingstone - Illustrated by Malcolm Barter

The Forest of Doom was the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook that truly showed me the full extent of what these stacks of paper were capable of. This adventure is huge, there's so much to do in this little book.

You start off by buying some magical items off a wizard named Yastromo in the hopes of finding a lost treasure in the depths of Darkwood Forest. But once you get going you'll find so many other things to do, there are whole areas that have almost mini-dungeons in them with their own treasures to find, things that are completely unrelated to the main story. And because you have no huge connection with the plot, other than doing this quest for the money, you feel free to explore at will.

You can meet all kinds of NPCs some of whom will have their own almost mini-quests for you to solve, you can take part in all sorts of random activities too like an arm-wrestling contest or even becoming the king of a race of fire demons.

This was the first in the series that let you backtrack so if you get to the end without all of the right items you can try going back in to find them. It's tough but at least the option is there! It really did feel so much closer to a solo role-playing experience rather than just a gamebook.

The combat is tougher but also more rewarding, you get to fight awesome new foes like poisonous giant worms, wyverns, rabid barbarians and the writing and illustrations surrounding each encounter are much more detailed than the previous books.

This is by far my favorite entry in the series and quite possibly my favorite gamebook of all time, partly for nostalgia but mostly because it feels so open like I truly am crafting my own adventure and going my own way. In this book, I really am the hero.

I really can't find a bad thing to say about this one, no matter how many times I delve into Darkwood Forest it always feels new and fresh. I'm always finding myself in new situations, discovering new areas and new encounters, I think this really could be the perfect fantasy gamebook.

Well for me anyway, it doesn't get much better than this.


Reviewed by Harrison Marchant