80 Days (2014)

80 Days presents an anti-colonial alt-history that makes it more than just a race to the finish. This game is about exploring an intricate historical novel, where we are just the passenger, set in the backdrop of a late 19th century adventure.

It's an indie game well worth the price - and a palette cleanser any gamer who's a fan of history should keep in their library when needing a break from the latest big release.

See my full review here ->

PROS

• A highly unique literary adaptation, like reading and writing a novel at the same time
• Sophisticated tone and script
• Sets an interesting precedent for more attempts to create interactive versions of classic stories

CONS

• Aesthetically dull
• Bartering/exploring mechanics are too simple for their own good
• Feels a bit overly random and haphazard to me, but fans of The Oregon Trail might like it this way

I played 80 Days ages ago, and just couldn't get into it. The travel from place to place was boring to me, and I just couldn't vibe with its odd pacing.

Cut to a year later when I've finished Heaven's Vault with many happy feels. Gosh, this company is great, I think, what else did they make? Oh, right 80 days.

The second time around, I got REALLY into it. The stories are interesting, the charting of the routes is fun, and I love seeing the different outcomes. I'm still playing it a bit to try for different achievements. I would still like to visit Antarctica and Atlantis, if nothing else. Really worth digging into!

I got so excited that I even loaded up the original novel. Boy, what a boring story, it reads like a time table. Skip that, read this instead. It does make you appreciate the efforts they've gone through to update this colonial-style story to something fitting with our current day sensibilities. The world is what it is, but it doesn't gloss over the less shiny bits of colonialism.

Completed my first run of 80 Days. Unfortunately, Fogg and Passepartout got back to London in 84 days, losing the wager. What screwed them over was Fogg catching cholera in Manila at day 47. The duo were stuck in Honolulu for a whole week so that he could recover.

They took an airship on day 71 from Rio de Jenairo and were planning to land in Freetown, but it was shot down by pirates. Days later Fogg and Passepartout awakened in what the pirates called Atlantis. It wasn't the actual lost city of myth, but an underwater refuge for escaped slaves who underwent body modifications to be able to survive underwater. Turns out the airship the duo were flying on was actually a slave ship. All in all, this "detour" cost them 9 days or so.

Here's a summary of the journey.

An an attempt to bring Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days to the modern era, this succeeded handily. Its alternate history is fascinating, the aesthetic is strong, and the writing is great. But it can be a bit repetitive to play. I would have liked a fast-forward button for the many trips, especially when there was there little I could do during them. Some of the side stories are excellent, but some of the others didn't need to be there, and the writing can sometimes seem more like an interruption than a selling point.

But on the whole, it's a neat little game. I'll probably come back to it some other time, just to plumb its depths and see what else it has to offer.

If you are familiar with the Jules Vern book of the same name (or the Jackie Chan movie if that is more your thing) then you will be familiar with the overall plot. Set in a steampunk version of London in the 1870’s, you play the role of Passepartout, the valet to Monsieur Phileas Fogg who has made a bet that he can circumnavigate the globe in the titular 80 days. It’s your job to help him do so, discovering new routes as you explore cities and buy maps, purchasing goods at the market in one city to sell at a profit at another and at the end of the day figuring out the best route to get from your current city to one further east.

Although not a “game” in the more traditional sense, this work of interactive fiction none-the-less has delightful graphics and a terrific soundtrack. The gameplay could have easily have been slotted into multiple formats, but the presentation as it stands is exceptional. The rules of “30 Minutes Of” dictate generally that if I liked a game as much as I enjoyed 80 Days that I should have kept playing and I will, just not on the PC. This game is perfect for play on a phone or tablet and that’s where I’m going keep finding my way around the globe.