80 days is an interactive fiction game by InkleStudios. The game is written in their InkleWriter platform that allows users to create narratives that progress given the choices that they make. Based on the Jules Verne novel, Around the World in 80 Days, you assume the role of Passepartout who is the servant to Monsieur Fogg. Fogg has bet that he can travel the world in less than 80 days, leaving from London. The story starts out very quickly, the pair is heading for Paris to begin the journey. As the player travels from city to city, there are options that you can complete before departing. You can explore the city you are currently in, you can choose to stay in the city overnight, withdraw money from the bank, or go to the market in search of items to earn more money. You have to plan carefully though, these options take up time, for example, going to the market takes up 2 hours of the day. Selecting the Hotel option, will pass the day by completely. 

That being said, it takes time to plan the journey. Sometimes you can’t leave a destination until 3 days have passed. If you need to withdraw money from the bank, you have to wait at least a day. And each journey takes a different amount of time. The farther you go, the longer the journey takes. Each journey also costs money, and some are more expensive than others. 

Its also really difficult to find routes. You need to search for timetables from the market that reveal different areas around the world. You also should talk to people while you are on the journey to a different city as well to see if you can expand the route as much as possible.  So the aim of the game is to get around the world in 80 days in the most inexpensive way possible.

The game itself is definitely interactive fiction. The narrative was created as an adaption entirely online. The player is given a text based choice to continue the narrative. Each route the player takes can give a completely different narrative compared to other player’s routes. A cool feature of the game is to see the different routes other players take around the world as well. 

Some choices are harder to make than others. When I first played the game, I just wanted to make a b-line for the other side of Europe/Asia. But that turned out to be one of the hardest route. Fogg ended up getting sick and we had to wait for 5 days before continuing the journey. Other choices aren’t that hard to make, like in this picture. You have to decide if it is raining or not. But all the choices you make advance the narrative. 

I really enjoyed playing this game and I want to keep trying to get around the world before the 80 day mark!