Title: Book Smugglers
Developer: FLUXO GAMES
Publisher: FLUXO GAMES
Release Date: February 16th, 2026
Platform: Windows and macOS via Steam
Reviewed on: Windows via Steam
Price: $14.99

Author’s Note: A key was provided for this game by FLUXO GAMES

Back to the Past

A game doesn’t always have to be fun to play, in order to leave an impression.

On April 24th, 1904, Lithuanians were allowed to read again. From 1890 to 1904, the country of Lithuania was under a press ban enforced by their ruling power, the Russian Empire, which made it illegal to own any books written in Latin characters, in favour of the Cyrilic used by the Russian language. Book Smugglers puts you in the middle of this fascinating time period, as you navigate a board game-esque system to deliver books across Lithuania in an attempt to keep your culture alive. It is a fascinating setting for a video game.

As a video game, Book Smugglers is not spectacular. The gameplay is uncomplicated, and grows stale even before the short few-hours runtime expires. The writing is compelling, though rife with typos and questionable translation decisions. it is neither dazzling to look at or listen to, though neither the visuals or music are bad. Book Smuggers, from the angle of a video game, is unassuming and unimpressive.

Book Smugglers is, however, meaningful. It has artistic merit, and there is a group of people for which a title like this will be very compelling. I find myself firmly within that camp, and across this review, I hope to help you determine your own place. Plainly put: Book Smugglers is a game with an intentional message, delivered by people with a story they want to tell. It is a love letter to the heroism displayed during a particularly dark period in Lithuanian history, and a fascinating primer on the topic of the Lithuanian press ban. If you are a history buff, or have a love for games that prioritize interesting experiences, the juice is certainly worth the squeeze. If you are understandably looking for compelling gameplay first and foremost, you’d best keep looking.

Book Smugglers is far from the most exciting video game I’ve played recently, but it is certainly one of the most interesting.

Story

“In the late 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was torn apart by surrounding empires, and Lithuania fell under Russian rule. In 1863 people rose up against the empire, but the revolt was crushed. The tsarist regime banned all printed materials in the Latin alphabet and unless written in Cyrillic, every single book, pamphlet, and prayer was now forbidden.

For Lithuanians, these printed words were more than ink on paper. They were memories of ancestors, songs of freedom, voices that the regime could not silence. And so, a movement was born. Brave men and women, known as book smugglers, risked their lives carrying banned literature across the empire’s borders and into the hands of people, building a quiet network of resistance. You carry more than books, you carry the voices of a nation. Hurry! The people are waiting.”

Book Smugglers opens with this evocative, apt summary of the Lithuanian press ban. You are tplaed in the shoes of a Knygnešiai (book smuggler) named Kristijonas. A short tutorial terminates with Kristijonas on the run from the Gendarmes, Lithuanian law enforcement, and  seeking shelter in a nearby church. He is hidden by the bishop Motiejus Valančius, an active participant in Lithuanian resistance. Kristijonas is tasked with delivering books to a schoolhouse in Jurbarkas, where he is introduced to a gentleman named Jurgis Bielinis, a significant member of the book smuggling ring. From there, Bielinis supplies Kristijonas with work that weaves him through a tapestry of major moments of the book smuggling period, all the way up until it is abolished.

As you may have guessed, the mentioned characters were real people, who played important roles in the actual resistance against the press ban. Bishop Motiejus Valančius was a vocal critic of the Russification of Lithuania, and facilitated the book smuggling operation. Likewise, Jurgis Bielinis was a pivotal book smuggler, involved in organizing the entire process and spent decades of his life in service of the cause, in and out of trouble with law enforcement. Kristijonas meets a number of other real-world historic figures too, as he becomes a fundamental part of the cause. 

Book Smugglers also experiments with a branching narrative. Kristijonas will make choices on how to treat people, whether to risk his life for the cause, and how far he is willing to go to smuggle these books. This effects his reputation, which determines not only how he is treated by the people he meets, but also whether you get the good or bad ending. The good ending is closer to the historical resolution whereas the bad ending follows a worst case scenario. 

The story is short, I was able to cruise through both endings in a bit under 2 hours, and it is also fairly surface level. The Lithuanian press ban is a dense historical time period with many moving parts, and Book Smugglers is more of an appetiser of information, than a main course. Passing references are made to the broader geopolitical problems facing Lithuania under Russian control, but the game is laser-focused on the press ban, which is the right call. The characters themselves are similarly surface level, they only really introduce in their capacity to aid Kristijonas. Once or twice, he will provide commentary to give further explanation as to the importance of these people, but to understand their relevance to history, you will certainly need to do further reading. I would have loved an additional layer of detail, and with such a short runtime there was certainly space to add more, but it does keep things moving at a brisk pace.

While I have my criticisms, I do think what Book Smugglers is executing is admirable. Video games are woefully underutilized as a tool to explore specific, underappreciated parts of history, and this serves as a fantastic example of using video games to tell a part of your nation’s story. Not many people outside of Lithuania know about the press ban, and while I do yearn for more details, this serves as a captivating primer on the topic.

This is a narrative created with intention. There was a story the developers wanted to tell, and they do an admirable job of shedding light in a devastating and inspiring part of Lithuanian history.

Presentation

Presentation is half the battle for a historical video game, it is important to make the player feel like they are in the time period represented, and a game’s audiovisual style plays a big role in this. Book Smugger does the job adequately.

Graphically the game is fine. The art style does a decent job of setting the tone for 18th century Lithuania. The art style is a sort of medieval realism, and rotates between full color character portraits for dialogued cut scenes, and pencil sketches of daily life in Lithuania. Likewise, the music feels suitable, giving an aura of 18th century Lithuania, while also specifically portraying the somber mood befitting the heavy subject matter. 

The inn which serves as the mission hub between expeditions is the area in which the presentation is strongest. Extra care was certainly given to make this space feel authentic, and the same tavern can change from feeling warm and inviting to seedy and dangerous, all depending on the characters visiting at the time. The ever-rotating roster of characters are drawn with a strong personality, and you can generally guess the demeanor and occupation of a character, as well as their role in the resistance, before you even speak to them.

The atmosphere in the tavern is executed very well, and adequately through the rest of the experience.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Book Smugglers is the weakest part of the package. Excellent idea, lackluster execution.

The idea is to convey the danger and difficulty of Kristijonas’ journey using a branching narrative format that manifests as a sort of board game. Each segment of his journey sees Kristijonas placed on the starting square of a board, with paths that lead to other spaces, each of which contains an event. Sometimes you’ll go directly from one event to another, but you’ll often have a choice between two or three.

The events play out as a visual novel-esque text based scenario, in which Kristijonas is faced with a problem and the player is given several options for how to solve it. An example: Kristijonas is harassed by a couple of Gendarmes who want to search him, and ask to search him. You have two choices, resist or submit.

Each choice has a number of different resolutions which are chosen by chance, influenced by your reputation and a character background chosen at the beginning of the game. If you choose to resist, Kristijonas may get away scott free, or he may take a severe beating and be robbed by the Gendarmes. If the player would rather submit to a search, the most likely outcome is that they find the books and arrest Kristijonas, but occasionally they will miss them and you’ll be let go.

On his travels, Kristijonas can find or purchase tools and resources to aid in his journey, and these often open up additional choices. Taking the original example with the Gendarme patrol, if Kristijonas has forced documents, he can present them and attempt to get out of the search altogether. If he has a knife or gun, he may be able to fight the Gendarmes and escape in the bloodshed. Different items are good for different scenarios, and your inventory is limited, so it becomes a matter of weighing which items you think will be useful, while also leaving room for food. An axe might be good for chopping trees, but that slot could also be used for a bag of berries. Tough decisions!

As Kristijonas makes his way through these events, he also has to manage his three stats; Health, food, and books. Naturally health refers to his wellbeing, and events resolving in a negative way (such as suffering a beating from the Gendarmes) can often inflict damage to Kristijonas. If he reaches zero health, the mission fails and he must restart. Food is consumed when Kristijonas grows hungry, and it will restore your health. However if he does not have food to eat when hunger strikes, he suffers 25 points of damage to his health, so keeping a stockpile is always important.

The final stat to keep track of, and certainly the most interesting, is the book haul. Kristijonas starts every journey with a predetermined number of books (often from 10 to 15), and over the course of his travels, it is possible to gain or lose books. They can be found or purchased, and they can be stolen by Gendarme shakedowns or lost during failed exploration events such as falling into a river. If Kristijonas loses his final book, the mission is failed.

The twist is that it is also possible to willingly give your books to others during certain events, for beneficial results. Kristijonas is paid for every book that makes it to the end of the mission, but you may find somebody who will pay a better price on the road. Otherwise, perhaps you leave a book at the grave of a fallen book smuggler, or slide it to somebody who could make use of it, and are generally handsomely rewarded. Giving books up can often be very beneficial, but the more books you give away, the smaller a stockpile you have in case of emergency, One fall through the ice may cause you to lose 5 books, and if you’ve sold them down to a total count of 4, that is game over. It is a compelling risk and reward system.

The gameplay loop is then defined as Kristijonas setting out on a mission which represents a leg of his travel and manifests as him travelling from spot to spot across a game board. He experiences events at each, making decisions on how to survive them, and monitoring his resources as he does. He needs to stay healthy, know where his next meal is coming from, and protect his books. If Kristijonas makes it to the final space on the board, the mission is successful, and he can return to the inn to prepare for the next mission.

Kristijonas can also embark on sidequests, which take on a slightly different form while maintaining very similar execution. Rather than the board game style, the sidequests use a strict visual novel format, where all events are strung together in a pre-designed format and are relayed entirely via text. The events can still be solved by making choices, and tools are still used to pick exclusive options, but the entire adventure is played out in a text-based format with no board game element at all. The side quests are short, and I found them to be generally well-written and interesting.

While the gameplay loop certainly introduces some novel concepts, unfortunately, the execution is lacking. There just aren’t enough events. Even with a runtime of barely two hours, I was already repeating some events ad nauseum, and that is considering an intent to always choose a new event over a repeating one. Once you figure out the optimal path through a given event, being given it again becomes rote muscle memory, and all decision making disappears. The challenge disappears, and it becomes a matter of going through the motions. 

The choice-based system is also at odds with the randomly determined success rates. I love the concept of building up an inventory of useful tools to aid with the events, but I struggled to care about my inventory after realizing that even with a useful item, you are still at the whims of fate. I tried to use forged documents about five times across my two playthroughs, and I am not exaggerating when I say they were only successful a single time. The guards would usually immediately identify it as fake, and beat me up anyways. I also failed every single attempt to use an item to get through a bear or wolf encounter, the only thing that ever worked was simply running away and hoping for the best. I did have good success with a handful of items like the whistle and axe, but my failure rate with items in general was high enough that I stopped fretting over it and started filling my inventory with enough food that it didn’t matter how many events I failed. As you can imagine, that isn’t a particularly fun way to go about things. 

I love the idea that Book Smugglers is working with, and I can imagine a permutation of this concept that works really well. Unfortunately, it is not this permutation.

Final Score

Do I recommend Book Smugglers? That is a straightforward question without a straightforward answer. 

Logically, I think not. The survival-based board game-style gameplay is a clever concept, but it grew stale rather quickly. The visuals are fine and the audio is acceptable, but nothing particularly stands out. The writing is good, but I wish it were a bit deeper. Not to mention, a steep price of $14 USD for a two-hour game might be a non-starter for many folks. You’d think I’d be cut and dry in not enjoying Book Smugglers.

The issue is, I did enjoy it, flaws and all. In fact, I’d say I had a great time with it. More importantly, I am a firm advocate for games like this to exist. They are important. 

This isn’t fiction, the Lithuanian press ban was real history. The Russian empire made it illegal to own any books written in the Lithuanian language using Latin characters. Anything not written in Cyrilic was confiscated and often destroyed. People harboring these books were punished, sometimes with their lives. Rather than simply accept this blatant attempt at cultural genocide, the Lithuanians resisted, and an underground network of book smugglers formed, in an attempt to carry forward their cultural legacy. People lived through these events, and some folks didn’t survive them. 

It is important to tell these stories, and it is a fascinating time period. Using video games as a medium to explore these narratives is a tremendous use of the medium. I think the thing that wins me over to Book Smugglers is that you can feel the sentiment from the developers. While playing the game, it is so obvious that this isn’t a mere product to them, it is a chance to deliver a narrative they think is important. There is a lot of heart and soul here. A lot of intangibles are in place that go a long ways towards making up for the gameplay deficiencies. It isn’t a terribly good video game, but it is a very compelling piece of art.

The greatest compliment I can offer as a fan of history, is that immediately after the credits rolled, I ordered a book on Lithuanian history. It clearly had an impact on me.

Let me ask myself the leading question once again. Do I recommend Book Smugglers? That depends on you.

If you are looking for compelling, exciting gameplay with a ton of replay value, and a fleshed out narrative, look elsewhere. This is a quick, surface level experience with gameplay that can be a bit dull. You’ll be disappointed.

Do you love to learn? Are you a history buff, and are you interested in learning more about a woefully understudied area of history? Is the artistic intention of a video game able to make up for a lackluster execution for you? Book Smugglers very well may be up your alley. At the very least, check out the demo.

We absolutely need more games like this. A year from now, I won’t be thinking about how I navigated Kristijonas through a board-game simulation of countryside survival, but I absolutely will still be thinking about the Lithuanian press ban, and that was entirely thanks to Book Smugglers by FLUXO Games.

Featured Image: FLUXO Games