Comparison

Sorcery! 3 vs Beyond the Chiron Gate

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Sorcery! 3

Embark on an epic adventure through a cursed wilderness filled with monsters, traps, and magic. Explore freely, make thousands of choices that shape your story, and master new spells. This interactive fiction game offers a unique experience with dynamic time travel elements.

Highlights
  • Explore freely through a dynamic world
  • Alter the world with time beacons
  • Thousands of choices that shape your adventure
  • Thirty new enemies with unique strategies
  • Discover new spells and master magic
  • Play the game of bluff and deceit, Swindlestones
Features
Read full description

An epic adventure through a cursed wilderness of monsters, traps and magic. Begin your journey here! (Parts 1 and 2 not required.) *** Rock Paper Shotgun best RPG of 2016 *** "Sorcery! 3 is unlike anything you’ve ever played. Its mix of puzzle-solving, combat, and choose-your-own-adventure stylings have created a unique form of entertainment that I cannot wait to get back into" - Pocket Tactics, 5/5 "An amazing adventure... easily the biggest and most satisfying gamebook ever released on iOS" - TouchArcade, 5/5 "[One] of 2015’s best iPhone games", TIME magazine "This dragon-centric chapter of Sorcery! 3 does a fantastic job of keeping things dynamic and interesting, and better yet, its new puzzle-like aspect gives it the kind of magical, surprise-filled, combat-related fun fantasy fans live for." - Examiner.com, 5/5 "Sorcery! 3 demonstrates just how wonderful interactive fiction can be." - 148apps + Explore everywhere - move freely through the world, any way you want, creating your own unique story + New time beacons allow you to alter the world dynamically - travel through the present, or into the past, or mix the two + Thousands of choices - all are remembered, and shape your adventure + Thirty new enemies, including seven deadly serpents, each with their own strategies - and weaknesses + Adapted from the best-selling gamebook series by legendary game designer Steve Jackson + Swindlestones is back! The game of bluff and deceit is back, with new, smarter, opponents + New spells to discover and new magic to master + Five Gods, all with different quirks and powers + Start your adventure here, or load your characters and choices from Part 2 + New music from "80 Days" composer Laurence Chapman + Two new 3D hand-drawn maps to explore by Mike Schley "A seminal moment in interactive fiction" - Gamezebo "A vast and engaging third chapter that expands brilliantly on the first two" - PocketGamer (Gold award) The land of Kakhabad is a wilderness - a ruined desert, a tangled forest, cruel mountains and fissures, all guarded by seven fearsome serpents. But you must cross this land if you are to reach Mampang and the Crown of Kings. Rely on your wits or fight your way through - play with honour, or lie, cheat and steal - the choices are all yours. From the creators of TIME's Game of the Year 2014, "80 Days", comes the third instalment in the acclaimed Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series. An interactive story told through thousands of choices, all of which are remembered, where no two adventures are the same. Adapted and expanded from the million-selling gamebook series by legendary game designer Steve Jackson, co-founder of Lionhead Studios (with Peter Molyneux) and co-creator of Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop (with Ian Livingstone). Using inkle's unique inklewriter technology, the story is written in real-time, built around your choices and actions. Praise for the Sorcery! series: * "I love this app... better than any gamebook ever was in your head when you were a kid" - 5/5, Interactive Fiction of the Year, Pocket Tactics * Top 20 Mobile Game of 2013, Touch Arcade * Top 25 Mobile Game of 2013 Gamezebo * Gold Award, Pocket Gamer * "Some of 2013's best interactive storytelling" - IGN * "inkle's adaptation of Sorcery! takes the genre to a whole new level" - Kotaku

About

Beyond the Chiron Gate

Embark on a text-based space exploration adventure. Discover alien worlds, manage your crew, and upgrade your ship to uncover the secrets of ancient civilizations. Your mission is to gather data and reach the home system of the mysterious Gatebuilders.

Highlights
  • Text-based space exploration
  • Discover exotic planets
  • Manage a space crew
  • Upgrade ship technology
  • Gather data
  • Uncover ancient civilizations
Features
Read full description

Explore an endless universe filled with exotic planets, strange life forms, and ancient civilisations in this text-based space exploration game. Manage a crew of space explorers and upgrade their ship with new technology. Brave dangerous worlds to gather the data you need to reach the home system of the mysterious Gatebuilders.

Screenshots

Sorcery! 34 screens
Beyond the Chiron Gate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sorcery! 3 at $4.99 against Beyond the Chiron Gate's $9.99. Sorcery! 3 also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 5 months) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). Beyond the Chiron Gate's advantage is chart position (#140 vs unranked) and review sentiment (86% vs 76%). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Sorcery! 3 costs $4.99 and Beyond the Chiron Gate $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Sorcery! 3 against 4.7 for Beyond the Chiron Gate. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 77 and 68 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Sorcery! 3's written reviews are positive against 86% of Beyond the Chiron Gate's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sorcery! 3 ships an update every 5 weeks, Beyond the Chiron Gate every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Sorcery! 3 versus Beyond the Chiron Gate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSorcery! 3Beyond the Chiron Gate
Price$4.99 — better$9.99
Rating4.7 (77 ratings)4.7 (68 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.9% of reviews85.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings77 — better68
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank—#140 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size321 MB93 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperinkleSpace Goblin Games

Customer experience

Sorcery! 3

All ratings77 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral1.3%
Negative7.8%
Written reviews158 reviews
Positive75.9%
Neutral7.0%
Negative17.1%

Beyond the Chiron Gate

All ratings66 ratings
Positive92.4%
Neutral1.5%
Negative6.1%
Written reviews35 reviews
Positive85.7%
Neutral5.7%
Negative8.6%

User reviews

Sorcery! 3

From 77 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Outstanding game
  • 👍 Unique and well-made series
  • 👍 Captivating and engaging story
  • 👍 Immersive and thought-provoking
  • 👍 Memorable characters and lore

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🤔 Frustrating moments due to randomness
  • 🤔 Lack of clear direction at times
  • 🤔 Monotonous exploration in later stages

Beyond the Chiron Gate

From 68 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Immersive narrative and storytelling
  • 🚀 Engaging gameplay loop
  • 💡 Well-written and descriptive text
  • ❤️ High replayability
  • ✨ Compares favorably to Seedship

Room to improve

  • 💰 Pricey for a mobile game
  • 🔄 Repetitive events and scenarios
  • 📉 Unbalanced difficulty and RNG
  • 😥 Focus on crew injury/death can be discouraging
  • 🧩 Game feels unfinished to some

Bugs and requests

Sorcery! 3

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Bugs with certain encounters and items
  • Crashes on older devices
  • Issues with accessing certain areas

Requested features

3 requests
  • Additional game modes or variants
  • Improved navigation and UI
  • Ability to save the fractured world

Beyond the Chiron Gate

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • VoiceOver clicks on links, ending the game
  • Music turns off when app is put in background
  • Bug where actions are chosen without consent after picking 'continue'
  • Music volume adjustment control is good, but background play is desired

Requested features

8 requests
  • Add more event types or variations
  • Improve interface and touch controls
  • Add a back button
  • Allow music to play in the background
  • Increase effectiveness of medic crew members
Show 3 more
  • More unique endings
  • More options throughout the game
  • Font pitch and script type selection

In-app purchases

None

Sorcery! 3

No in-app purchases

None

Beyond the Chiron Gate

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sorcery! 3 free?
Sorcery! 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Beyond the Chiron Gate free?
Beyond the Chiron Gate costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Sorcery! 3 or Beyond the Chiron Gate?
Beyond the Chiron Gate is rated higher. Sorcery! 3 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 77 ratings, while Beyond the Chiron Gate averages 4.7 from 68 ratings.
Do Sorcery! 3 or Beyond the Chiron Gate have ads?
Neither Sorcery! 3 nor Beyond the Chiron Gate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sorcery! 3 or Beyond the Chiron Gate?
Sorcery! 3 ships an update every 5 weeks, and Beyond the Chiron Gate every 5 months. Most recently, Sorcery! 3 was updated on November 6, 2026 and Beyond the Chiron Gate on November 7, 2026.

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