Ratings and Reviews by sekicho

This is an incredibly well-written game. To start with a major qualification, its most "interactive" aspect is that the player has great flexibility to choose their routing around the world, and to buy and sell various artifacts, which can be used both to make money and for various in-game boosts. There is some superficial interaction during the traveling phases, but they are largely set up as passive stories.

That said, there are a huge number of routing options, and the story changes dramatically depending on whether you decide to cross the Arctic, or travel south through Africa and across the Indian Ocean, or through the Middle East or Siberia. There is every kind of vehicle imaginable, from trains to ocean liners to airships to giant robots to ballistic rockets. Certain routes and modes of transportation require investigative work to discover. So there is a great deal of replay value.

The world draws liberally from Jules Verne's works, but also has an immensely fascinating backstory surrounding various countries and technologies, much of which you can only get into by traveling to far-flung parts of the map. I particularly enjoyed the treatment of Haiti and central Africa, which are both advanced technological powers but have their own interesting cultural quirks.

The quality of the writing also extends to the characters, particularly Fogg and Passepartout, who really come to life as they interact with each other and the surrounding bit players, some of whom will crop up repeatedly throughout a journey.

Overall, highly recommended!