80 Days

You are Passepartout, valet to the unflappable Phileas Fogg, and you have eighty days to circumnavigate the globe. How you do it — and who you become along the way — is entirely up to you.

Inkle’s 80 Days takes Verne’s novel and cracks it open, filling the spaces between chapters with a steampunk world of walking cities, submersible trains, and political revolution. This isn’t adaptation; it’s reinvention.

What Works

The writing is extraordinary. Meg Jayanth’s prose finds Passepartout’s voice — curious, occasionally naive, ultimately capable of real growth — and sustains it across hundreds of cities and thousands of possible encounters. You’ll meet revolutionaries in India, automaton engineers in Japan, and smugglers in the American West. Every route feels handcrafted.

The resource management adds stakes without overwhelming the narrative. Money matters. Time matters. But they matter in service of story, not spreadsheet.

What Doesn’t

The map can feel overwhelming on first playthrough. With 150+ cities and countless routes, analysis paralysis is real. Embrace the chaos — the game is designed for replay, and your first fumbling journey will be memorable precisely because you didn’t optimize it.

The Verdict

80 Days proved that choice-based interactive fiction could stand alongside any narrative game. It’s romantic, political, and genuinely fun. The world awaits.