I traded banned books for bread in this RPG-tinged resource management game that feels like Pentiment meets Citizen Sleeper

How much do you know about Lithuanian history circa-1866? If you're like me before I played Book Smugglers at Digital Dragons last week, your answer is probably "zilch" – but Fluxo Games is here to educate and entertain you in equal measure.

Off the back of 2021's Plasticalypse, a deep sea cleanup action-adventure currently out in Early Access, the Lithuanian developer's upcoming resource management game is still rooted in real world contexts. Transporting us back in time to Fluxo's homeland in the late 19th century, Book Smugglers explores the impact of banned literature across the region and the experiences of those who set out to combat it.

Delivering illegal texts was a perilsome, very real endeavor in 1866, and this point-and-click boardgame-style management adventure is more about wits and strategy than anything else. My experience with the demo was longer than my other indie sessions that day – 45 minutes, to be precise – but the truth is that I barely felt the minutes tick by.

Dicey histories

Book Smugglers takes the shape of a 3D board game, with large gold coins sitting at crossroads across the map. These are flipped at the start of each turn, with the symbols representing a series of randomized encounters my Smuggler must contend with.

As I click on one such crossroad coin, I'm given a choice: give an old man five gold out of the goodness of my heart, or ignore him. I click the more benevolent option and feel awash with pride, basking in my own charitable glow in having surrendered a handful of rubles to a good cause.

That pride soon sours and turns to indignation when, almost immediately, on-screen text describes how the man has also pilfered one of my precious books in the process. Ordinarily, I'd shrug it off. But money, food, weapons, and literature – especially literature – are important commodities in Book Smugglers, and that one act of kindness has just cost me double.

The compulsive blend of choice-led narrative, randomly generated board game "moves", encounters, inventory juggling, and strategizing makes Book Smugglers an immediately gripping experience. I know nothing of my character's background at first, save that I'm part of a secret unit of Lithuanian book smugglers desperate to keep the local language alive amid the Russian Empire's occupation.

I'm briefly introduced to the first of my vital resources: rubles, useful for purchasing items from patrons and vendors alike while visiting taverns along my journey. I have 100 rubles to start with, as well as 15 books, a full health bar, and a single food item. I'm prompted to eat as soon as possible once my health drops too low following one too many failed encounters with everything from brambles to hostile NPCs, meaning food hoarding will almost certainly be key if you want to conserve more valuable resources.

Once I have my bearings, it's time to move to a new encounter. I trade a book for some bread, much to the chagrin of the wandering traveler who's clearly aware of the illegality of my proposition, before making a bit of a boo-boo and clicking on a coin that either had an exclamation mark on it or a skull and cross bones. Either way, it wasn't a smart move – I'm set upon by a police patrol, and with no weapon to use in my defence or bootleg booze to bribe them with, I'm forced to make a break for it.

Tall tales

A chase ensues, underscored by dramatic music. Following a short freeze-frame cutscene, one I'm told is being padded out into full animation (though the hand-painted stills are beautifully fitting for a game about books, in my opinion), I somehow manage to escape the police unscathed.

Mercifully, run into a kindly priest named Father Valenčius, with whom I share my dangerous mission. Much like in Pentiment, or any of the best visual novels you might have played yourself, dialogue-heavy encounters with NPCs are presented via on-screen text with a portrait of the character placed nearby. To my surprise, the Father is actually delighted to hear of my quest, as a firm supporter of preserving local culture. He's also keen to know more about my character's backstory – which is when Book Smugglers starts to dip into RPG territory.

When asked about my profession before joining the smuggling syndicate, I'm given three choices: a bard, a bureaucrat's assistant, or a farmer. Each background comes with respective stat buffs or other perks.

Bards have 10% increased luck and earn one ruble per book delivered, assistants can sell items at full price as well as peek at one random encounter at the start of each turn, and farmers 20 get more HP and an extra inventory space. Sadly, being a jack-of-all-trades is not an option, so I go for the assistant background. Prescience is kind of a big deal in a game like this, I figure.

From here on out, I treat Book Smugglers more like a strategy game. Rationing my money, books, and food wisely is paramount, but I try not to scrimp too much when the chance to load up on items presents itself.

Talking various NPCs in a tavern soon after leaving the Father, I discover each of them is selling something of use. From a huntsman slinging weapons to a kindly farmer selling food and manual tools, elements of build-crafting start to emerge. Do I blow 60 of my 100 rubles on a shotgun, just in case I run into another police patrol, or do I opt for camouflage and survival gear instead?

A mix of a bit of everything is probably most useful, but the potential for tactical planning and experimentation in Book Smugglers is plain from this short demo alone. If you're a fan of point-and-click stories with a strong helping of "choose your own adventure" sensibilities – and if you love to learn as well as have fun playing games – you'll want to keep an eye on Book Smugglers' Steam page. And your myriad resources in case an old man tries to nab them, apparently.

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