"You" have gone on a school field trip to the museum, "The Hall of Incredible Science". But then a stop at a video game exhibit leaves you facing a murderous sentient computer that says you now know too much and turns the entire museum into a death trap, which you must escape with the help of tools and dice rolls. There's only one way out of this trap, and it's up to you to find it.
For long-time fans of the books, this one is widely remembered as the gamebook most likely to induce migraines, due to being hair-pullingly difficult with tons and tons of game overs, instant-death scenarios caused by a single bad decision, wild-goose chases that leads nowhere... and one good ending.
Into the Jaws of Doom provides examples of:
- Acronyms Are Easy as Aybeecee: Early into your adventure, you're contacted by a digital Mission Control who actively tries helping you escape from the evil supercomputer, who introduces herself as "Pee-dee Aye". You finally meet her at the end of the story, where you realize she's a P.D.A.—Personalized Digital Assistant.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The main villain of this book is a rogue super-computer who gained sentience, who then sics every exhibit in the museum to kill you.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Some bad endings contain a hint towards what would have been a better choice to take.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The Robot Arm which attacks you on the first floor has a visible off-switch on it's side. You'll need to collect a boomerang in order to hit the switch from a distance.
- Beef Gate: The Super Computer will sic certain minions to keep you confined to a single level, blocking your exit until you find the weapon necessary to defeat them. Namely, the Robot Arm on the first floor, the Visible Man on the second, and the Giganotosaurus Animatronic in the last.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The giant mosquito is an unavoidable enemy.
- Blinded by the Light: This is the method you use to defeat the Visible Man; because your enemy has no skin or eyelids, using the laser on him will render him helpless and easily defeated.
- Body Horror: The Super Computer's henchman, the Visible Man, who is a living, skinless human whose organs are exposed in full view.
- Companion Cube: Your partner, a mechanical device which calls herself "Pee-Dee-A". Late into the adventure, you finally found out she's actually a living PDA — Personal Digitalized Assistant.
- Covers Always Lie: Either this or Artistic License – Paleontology- the cover depicts the reanimated skeleton of a large, two-fingered carnivorous dinosaur going on the attack, typical of T. rex. Giganotosaurus, which is the species that appears in the book, has three fingers.
- Fairy Companion: In the final stages, the PDA finally gains a human form — as a little fairy girl, who provides you a hint on how to defeat the Super-Computer who had transformed to a dragon.
- Failure Is the Only Option: This book does this trope very deviously for people who accidentally run into the giant magnet. To escape it, you need to discard almost every item you've acquired at that point. Only the boomerang gets a pass, but by that point of the game, you don't need it at all. This sets up an endless loop of bad endings, as the adventure's impossible to finish without the items you've left behind.
- Guide Dang It!: This book may be too difficult for some readers to figure out, so R.L. Stine included a guide in the back of Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel.
- Hall of Mirrors: One of the hardest obstacles the Super-Computer throws in your direction is a frustratingly difficult Maze of Mirrors on the third floor, which you need to obtain a laser gun from. But you risk running into a giant magnet which can strip you of all your equipment, rendering the book unwinnable.
- He Knows Too Much: What kicks off the entire plot; you unintentionally found out that the Museum's Super-Computer is sentient, and it decides to kill you in order to make sure nobody knows.
- Helicopter Blender: An encounter with the helicopter model which activates on its own in the Aviation Room will lead to you being shredded by its rotors.
- Here We Go Again!: This book has only one good ending, but that ending is this trope — you are "rewarded" by being turned into your favorite action hero and having to battle dangers.
- High-Voltage Death: Getting fried by the Tesla Coil, after the book asks if you'd like to move it. What's even worse is that the electrical currents on the coil then publicly broadcasts your deaths to millions and millions of television sets all across the world.
- On the floor you start on, the exit is electrified and it is determined by dice throw if you manage to let go in time - otherwise it's this trope for you. You need a Space Glove to open the door safely, but it is possible to discard it in favor of a jetpack, which can lead an ending where you grab the door while fleeing from some model helicopters, remembering too late that you aren't wearing the glove anymore, and electrocuting yourself.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: There are certain enemies in this book which you can't defeat, ever, and your best way would be to avoid a confrontation. Such as the germ, the helicopter, and the animatronic Giganotosaurus skeleton depicted in the front cover.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: This book has the most complex inventory system in the series. Not only can you discover numerous items, you can interact with them on multiple circumstances. You can even discard items if you feel like you won't need them any more. This flexibility comes with a price, of course. Grabbing some items triggers an event, and if you don't have the proper item to counter said event (usually a monster appearance or death trap), you die. Some items aren't designed for multiple circumstances, and using them inappropriately will kill you. One item is completely useless, and if you choose it over a not-so-useless item, you're screwed. If you drop some items too early, you'll die when you'll need them later. If you haven't dropped enough items during one chase scene, the added weight will slow you down too much.
No wonder the other novels couldn't replicate this. - Killer Robot: The Super-Computer himself, and two of his minions — the Robot Arm and the animatronic Giganotosaurus skeleton.
- Mishmash Museum: The Hall of Incredible Science has everything. Aviation, Paleontology, Biology, Biomes, Physics, they're all over the place.
- Monstrous Germs: The biology display has a germ sample that multiplies itself the moment you tries observing it under a microscope. You first had a look at it, is taken aback at how grotesque it looks, only for the following Double Take revealing the germ has burst out of it's dish. And it will keep multiplying itself until it's as large as the entire hall and devour you alive.
- Moon Logic Puzzle: You're running from a man with no skin who's trying to kill you inside a museum. You need to kill him so you can use the stairs again and get to the third floor. You're in the gift shop along with a chemistry set, as well as a fire extinguisher you found previously. If you try to kill him by exposing him to the extinguishers intense cold, the recoil knocks you out and he strangles you. If you try to make the smoke bomb, a bad mixture causes it to blow up in your face. You make a noise bomb, he's still not incapacitated but you are. You make a stink bomb, you both suffocate. And no, there is no option to just kick him in the overly exposed balls. You're supposed to go into a maze, find the right direction without coming across the giant magnet that takes everything away from you permanently, find the laser gun guarded by the snake, throw a stinkbomb at the creature that likely wouldn't be bothered by it, take the laser, find your way out, and shoot the skinless man in the eyes to blind him so he falls down the steps, presumably knocking himself out. It's probably worth noting, the smoke bomb and the flash grenade do absolutely nothing positive and stop you from making the stink bomb, making the game unwinnable.
Cheap endings aside (the germ and smoke bomb ones come to mind), this book has more internal consistency than most other books in the series. As for the "Visible Man" stalking you, the book gives you specific instructions on how to beat him if you were paying attention. First, if you were lucky enough to get the hint about needing the fire extinguisher back in the fourth floor, you'll know to keep it for the fire ants when reaching the third floor (and even if you didn't, it's simple to figure out anyway). After snagging the key that was contained in the ant farm and you use it to open up the gift shop, your friend P.D.A. contacts you though a walkie-talkie and specifically tells you that only the Laser will work on the Visible Man, which is located in the giant mirror maze. The noise bomb is useless, but the intro in the book warned you that some items are worthless by design, so no loose logic here. The intro also said that most items are only good to use once, and using them multiple times may do more harm than good (only the fire extinguisher can be successfully used twice...the other times, it's worthless). Lastly, avoiding the giant magnet was easy, assuming you checked your notebook map on floor three and learn not to go north too often (though it's pretty tough to hit the giant magnet). - Nintendo Hard: This book has only one (ambiguously) good ending each, both of which are hard to get too without reaching almost every bad ending in them. This is lampshaded with the front cover reading "THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY OUT." (Instead of READERS BEWARE: YOU CHOOSE THE SCARE) and the blurb on the back of them.
- Non-Indicative Title: The title of this book doesn't exactly scream out "You're trapped in a museum with an evil super computer." - it is likely meant to refer to the danger and difficulty of your adventure, but it doesn't really give any indication of what said adventure is about.
- No Fair Cheating: Cheating an inventory mission results in the book scolding you for it.
- No OSHA Compliance: Deliberately invoked, where Everything Trying to Kill You in The Hall of Incredible Science. The Super-Computer controlling all the exhibits wants you dead, after all.
- Rescue Equipment Attack: One of the items from the book is a fire extinguisher, and it's the only item that saves your life twice. You first use it as an improvised bat to swat a giant mechanical mosquito trying to suck your blood.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Even when reaching the one good ending, it's debatable how good it really is. Yeah, you defeat the supercomputer, but then your friend P.D.A. — the avatar helping you for much of the adventure — "rewards" your heroic actions by turning you into your favorite action hero (an Indiana Jones Expy) and re-creating events from the movies he stars in. Fun watching it, but not so fun running for your life from a stampede, especially after dealing with a supercomputer who nearly killed you mere hours ago. The final words your character utters, "Oh no! Here we go again!", perfectly encapsulates your ironic situation.
- Shout-Out: Getting killed by velociraptor animatronics and the narration happily declares that you're "Jurassic Pork"!
- Stink Bomb: You'll need to create one of these in the Gift Shop, compulsory for obtaining another weapon later on. The book actually offers you a choice of three bombs to create — Stink, Noise, and Smoke, and the other two bombs are utterly useless.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Yep. You'll find yourself dying every now and then due to making the wrong choices, and forced to restart over and over to pick a different choice (or, you know, cheat by putting your fingers between pages). For instance, out of the three bombs you can make in the Gift Shop, one is useful and compulsory for your adventure, one will malfunction and kill you on the spot, and one is useless... that you don't find out until you're given the opportunity to use it. The book offer no hints on which is which.
