80 Days

Back in 2014, the TIME Magazine nominated a mobile game called 80 Days as the game of the year. After 5 long years, it has finally reached the Nintendo Switch! But now…what is it? Find out in this review!

80 Days is an interactive text-based adventure developed by inkle. It is based on the famous French novel Around the World in Eighty Days, but it has an interesting steampunk twist.
If you do not know the premise of the novel, it follows Phileas Fogg, a rich British gentleman, and his French valet Passepartout. One day, Fogg bets that he can travel around the world in 80 days, and so their journey begins.

In the game, you take the role of Passepartout. Starting from London, you must pick which cities to travel to, as long as you know how to go there. In order to do so, you must explore the city, talk to others or buy traveling routes to discover your next stop. There are many ways to travel: trains, boats and…weird bird machines. But everything has a price. You start at 4000 pounds, and every time you travel you must spend some money on tickets. To add to that, in every new city there are markets, in which there are useful items that can be bought, such as winter gear, objects you can sell in other places for more money or new routes. If you haven’t departed by the end of the day, you can sleep in a hotel, but again, this will cost some money. If you find yourself with no money, you can always go to the bank to get some more, but it will take some days depending on how much you requested.

Every action takes some time, and in this game, time is important. For example, you must wait until 11 AM for the Bank to open, and it will take 4 hours to explore the city. But it’s worth it, as long as you reach your destination.
During the game, you will often find yourself reading Passepartout’s thoughts about his adventure. You can choose what he says or thinks at times, which will lead to different discoveries during each playthrough. Doing this will also sometimes grant you new items, traveling routes or money, much needed for the journey.

During the traveling sections, you can choose between reading the news, talking with strangers or tending to Fogg. The news is mostly needed to know what is going on around the world, talking with strangers will only provide new routes. Tending to Fogg is needed whenever he starts losing some health points, due to the rough conditions. If you are not well prepared for places like cold Russia or long sea travels around the Pacific ocean, Fogg’s health will deteriorate, and tending to him is the fastest way to regain some points.

80 Days is mostly about narration. And I must say, it’ executed extremely well. It’s important to not rush through things, as you might lose important details about the world around you. I appreciated the narrative part as much as I appreciated the more interactive parts. The point of the game is not to run through it but to enjoy the experience, and I strongly recommend to keep on playing even though you already won the bet, as there is always more to find or new places to discover. Each run is about 2-3 hours long, so if you want to be satisfied you definitely should play more of it.

Even after the 80th day, the game will go on until you reach London.

I really don’t have anything negative to say about 80 Days. The management isn’t bad, as it respects how such a journey during the 1800s should be. The only thing I would have liked more is a bigger presence of the steampunk elements, but aside from that, I was happy with the final product.
The art style used is simple yet nice, and the music is always on spot. Colors are vibrant and there always is some cool audio effect.

In conclusion, 80 Days is a great game. There is a lot to do and the replay value is high. If you are a fan of text-based games or management then you will most likely appreciate 80 Days.

Highly Recommended

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Reviewed by Senpavo on the Nintendo Switch. Game provided by inkle.