The 39 Steps is a game I started a while ago, though it's really more of a multi-media novel than a game. Well, I say a while, apparently it was back in April of 2018. The original novel, by John Buchan, was one of the first of the spy-thriller genre, and, according to TV tropes, did for spy stories what Tolkien did for fantasy.
For the game itself, there are choices - just a straightforward walk through the text. When the narrator is taking in information - like looking around a room - you'll be given a choice as to what to look at first. Likewise, if the narrator - the book's in first person, so the narrator is also the main character - is taking whatever he can from a cupboard, you get to pick those items up. There are also some tricky things to do when the narrator is engaged in something difficult, like running away. However, there are no ways to affect the plot, though it is possible to miss a few in-game awards if you don't click on literally everything. There are some nice effects depending on whether the plot is moving quickly or slowly, kind of like in House of Leaves, where some pages have few words printed on them so you flip through faster, giving you a sense of urgency. The voice acting is amazing, and really adds to the story.
Spy-thrillers aren't really a genre I enjoy - I've actually owned the book multiple times but have never read it - but this game made it really fun for me to read, and I'd like to see other books adapted in this way. Like the works of Shakespeare for example, which should really be performed and watched rather than read anyway, so this would be a really nice compromise between going to see a play and reading the script. I finished the game today; it took about 5 hours to finish it with all achievements.
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