It took me a few attempts over many real world years to get into this game but I was lucky enough to complete the trip when I finally did.
I have a conflicting thing with 'steam punk' and adjacent things. While I like a 1800's romance or even plenty of games that would be considered so, something about it just never hooks me. I find a lot of it incredibly offputting. And that's how 80 Days felt for me the first few attempts. I couldn't get into the story. From the two leads to the first few cities I visited I wasn't feeling it. The choose your own adventure with incredibly obtuse, obscure, or flat out nonexistent clues and seemingly random results was a turn off as well. I'd get two or three stops in, have a wild or anti-climatic end to a conversation and forget to ever load the game up again.
While my tastes haven't changed drastically and these problems certainly didn't magically disappear over the years; I did finally play long enough for the game to shine. The writing branches gets better the deeper and longer you play. Every three to five stops on your journey you get a rich and worthwhile short tale. You get a feel for what the game expects of you. And by the halfway point of your journey you feel confident and can appreciate what 80 Days is offering. I enjoyed it on the Steam Deck this time too. That admittedly has helped average games get over the hump for me, but I'm comfortable saying I would've given it a thumbs up if I was at my desktop. It's a fun, throw back adventure.
I have my qualms about the theme/universe. I found it impossible to make my character likable. Some of the characters you meet along the way range from the aforementioned obtuse down to groan worthy predictability. But I genuinely laughed at least twice. I genuinely wanted to know how a strong handful of interactions turned out. And I most definitely genuinely wanted to complete the journey. A really worthwhile adventure once you let the hooks grow. Probably has some decent replayability as well, but I have my own journey of a Steam backlog to tend to.
A gentlemanly light recommendation.
[copied from my Steam review]
I have a conflicting thing with 'steam punk' and adjacent things. While I like a 1800's romance or even plenty of games that would be considered so, something about it just never hooks me. I find a lot of it incredibly offputting. And that's how 80 Days felt for me the first few attempts. I couldn't get into the story. From the two leads to the first few cities I visited I wasn't feeling it. The choose your own adventure with incredibly obtuse, obscure, or flat out nonexistent clues and seemingly random results was a turn off as well. I'd get two or three stops in, have a wild or anti-climatic end to a conversation and forget to ever load the game up again.
While my tastes haven't changed drastically and these problems certainly didn't magically disappear over the years; I did finally play long enough for the game to shine. The writing branches gets better the deeper and longer you play. Every three to five stops on your journey you get a rich and worthwhile short tale. You get a feel for what the game expects of you. And by the halfway point of your journey you feel confident and can appreciate what 80 Days is offering. I enjoyed it on the Steam Deck this time too. That admittedly has helped average games get over the hump for me, but I'm comfortable saying I would've given it a thumbs up if I was at my desktop. It's a fun, throw back adventure.
I have my qualms about the theme/universe. I found it impossible to make my character likable. Some of the characters you meet along the way range from the aforementioned obtuse down to groan worthy predictability. But I genuinely laughed at least twice. I genuinely wanted to know how a strong handful of interactions turned out. And I most definitely genuinely wanted to complete the journey. A really worthwhile adventure once you let the hooks grow. Probably has some decent replayability as well, but I have my own journey of a Steam backlog to tend to.
A gentlemanly light recommendation.
[copied from my Steam review]