Developer: Inkle
Publisher: Inkle
Release: 2014
Platform: PC (played), Mac, Android, iOS
Genre: Interactive fiction
80 Days picks a solid source to draw ideas from--even
if it isn't the very best on Jules Verne's catalogue it can be a reassuring one
to work with due to the scope of the premise being pretty straight-forward from
the start--and develops it into a multimedia piece.
When this take on the story flirts with steampunk
upgrades results are just bland; but the writing itself is interesting enough
to keep a player hooked, even if some decisions aren't necessarily meaningful--curiosity
for the outcomes of a particularly intriguing dialogue tree will frequently be
the fuel that keeps conversations going.
Mechanics-wise 80 Days can be better compared to
another adventure series, more familiar to gamers than to literates: Carmen
Sandiego. It unfolds as the player gathers intel that inform future
decisions regarding the trip--available routes, paths closed and so on--but
that comes at the price of spending time, by far the most important resource in
the game. Just like with Carmen, asking around--and sleeping, and
waiting--gives the clock a spin, and that may be decisive by the end of the
game. The second resource to be aware of is money, but Mr. Fogg has quite a
decent amount of funds available to draw from--as long as you can find a bank
and wait for the funds to arrive (once again, draining time). At least managing
funds adds an extra layer of complexity to the gameplay itself, since you may
learn people in New Orleans would pay a lot for harmonicas and maybe you should
bring one there for some easy cash, for instance--it's a bit on the light side
but still a refreshing meta nevertheless.
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| The artstyle is clean and distinct |
In the eyes of a classic gamer, 80 days has a downside
that may be game breaking for some: arbitrariness. Some careful planning can be
thrashed to pieces in a second when unpredictable events come into play. But
maybe that's for the better; it steers the game away from a simplistic (and
common in games as a medium) cause/consequence mindset to push it towards the
piece of art it’s based on--or even further, being art that imitates life.
