While arguably surpassed by the rise of OSE and its Advanced rules option - this book remains vital for anyone interested in a B/X style 'Avanced Labyrinth Lord' retro-clone. Its layout and text may not suit some, but I find it a very useful resource for rules, monster ideas and options and other inspirations for my games. I like the art choices and this editions cover is phenomenal. I can't wait for a second edition when it is ready. (So is the Otis cover too.)

I really like this book, but I should say that I don't think the price for a physical book is right, the price implies top quality and the book is not top quality. Tere are some problems with the printing but it's all minutia, the book is perfectly usable and readable, but there are images that are cut comparing to the PDF and a few pages are larger than others and for a book that costs almost 30€ this should be of higher quality.

After that is said, the book is beatiful, the art is all black & white. The lack if Indexes is a little jarring, but both Table of Contents do the heavy lifting, I just wish that both were on the beginning of the book, but it's usable.

Absolutely love this system and it the go-to system at the moment for my group.

Packed with tons of great info and a wonderful source if you're already steeped in BX or the OSR rules. Tons of monsters and rules for all kinds of encounters. A lots of great random tables too.

However, it's general layout is pretty weak and unfriendly and it spends a good page explaining what an RPG is and how to play one but never breaks down how Descending Armor Class works. So, it pretends to cater to new players and then kind of forgets about them.

Simply put, one of the best OSRs in the market. The rules are clear, altought the writing is a little verbose. No matter that, it's perfectly elgible, the rules make sense and Dan proctor has eliminated tons of ambiguities and absurdities from the original game. And now, finally, the basic/expert options are combined with the advanced options in one book. It deserves a place of honour among your games, and you deserve to have this game even if you usually don't play OSR games. It's like not having a Cthulhu or a D&D in your shelf.

TL;DR: Advanced Labyrinth Lord is convenient and saves you the trouble of having to flip between the core rulebook and the Advanced Edition Companion book when running LL using the "advanced" rules. There's nothing new content-wise, Goblinoid Games is selling you LL + AEC condensed into one book which is a little disappointing.

Full Review: Advanced Labyrinth Lord is basically just the core Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion rulebooks mashed into one single, easy-to-use tome. Honestly I can't help but wonder why Goblinoid didn't publish the game in this format to begin with instead of separating them into two different books. Or at least include the essential rules such as exploration, monster stats, and combat tables etc within the AEC so people didn't have to switch between the two books in order to play an "advanced" game of LL. I'm sure looking back Goblinoid Games realized that people would've much rather preferred to have just one book "to rule them all" which is why we got Advanced Labyrinth Lord.

As for new content, you won't find anything in Advanced Labyrinth Lord that isn't already present in LL or the AEC, and honestly I was a little disappointed which is why I took off a star. If you already own LL + AEC (which are free to download here on DTRPG) then you aren't getting anything new, just the convenience of not having to jump between two books when running an "advanced" game of LL. I felt like there could've been SOMETHING new that they could've added to make purchasing this book more worthwhile, such as maybe a few new classes (Barbarian and Sorcerer anyone?) or maybe some new player races/monsters/magic items etc. Instead, Advanced Labyrinth Lord's main selling point is just the convenience of having everything you need in a single book.

Gameplay-wise, Advanced Labyrinth Lord plays exactly the way you remember it. You'll roll 3d6 in order for stats and pick a race, then a class, roll for HP, then buy equipment and send your poor PC to an almost certain doom inside a dangerous labyrinth deep beneath the Earth. As far as layout goes, the book does a good job at separating the "basic" and "advanced" elements into their own sections, and carefully explains which sections to use depending on if you want a basic game or an advanced game. The "Advanced Hit Dice" option is still present, just in case you want your PCs to be a little more robust with their Hit Points. I felt like the book did a good job at explaining and making it clear which parts to use depending on if the GM is doing a basic or advanced game, however anyone not familiar with the differences between B/X and AD&D may want to carefully read the rules until they start to understand what the differences are.

Final Verdict: I would highly recommend this book to fans of LL and anyone wanting to run an old school AD&D game without having to try and decipher the mess of rules that is the 1st edition AD&D game (especially the "High Gygaxian Speech"). If you're happy playing just basic LL then you don't need this new book at all. Alternatively, if you're tired of carrying around both LL and AEC and want just one book with the option to play either basic or advanced rules then this is also for you. Lack of new content is disappointing given we're shelling out money yet again for a product that we already own, however it's not a deal breaker either.