Come fly with me.
In a London tea shop earlier this year, two-thirds of the Inkle crew that built 80 Days told me something remarkable.
“It was only meant to be a small project, something to break up the back-to-back Sorcery! projects,” Inkle co-founder Jon Ingold told me.
“The ideas just kept coming,” said 80 Days lead writer Meg Jayanth. “The project took on a life of its own, really.”
How big did it get? When it shipped in July, Inkle claimed that 80 Days was a tale with over half a million words in it — the equivalent of a 1100-page book. That’s more than a life of its own: that’s a parallel universe.
Interactive fiction being what it is, you couldn’t possibly find all 500,000 words on one play-through, or even ten. But 80 Days extraordinary cast of characters and intricate alternate Victorian world make it a joy to explore over and over again.
In his write up of 80 Days for our Adventure Game of the Year award, Clancy said that 80 Days was the perfect game to use to introduce people to interactive fiction, and I agree — mostly.
The biggest downside to using 80 Days as a gateway to IF is that it’s like playing your first game of football in the Super Bowl. Everything else is going to feel just a little mundane after 80 Days, which is a one-of-a-kind adventure that you won’t soon top. But you can’t possibly miss it — it’s the best game of 2014 on any platform.
- 80 Days for iOS
- 80 Days for Android
Runner-up: Hearthstone
Honourable Mention: FTL: Faster Than Light, Galaxy Trucker, Hitman GO, Dream Quest, Panzer Corps
To see all of the games recognised in the Pocket Tactics Best of 2014 Awards, visit the 2014 Awards Index page.
No comments:
Post a Comment