Attack of the Clockwork Army

Full disclosure - I received a free copy of this game to review. Also I’m Australian.

If you played 80 Days and were disappointed at how little content there was in Australia, then I strongly recommend Attack of the Clockwork Army. The story starts in England, but quickly moves to a Victorian era steampunk Australia.

Blending adventure and action, this local Aussie author paints a fascinating alternate reality Australia complete with all the trappings a fan of steampunk would want and a metal based magic system thrown into the mix. The writing is easy to read with vivid descriptions and reasonably compelling characters.

My only real issue was with one of the interactions in the story. Understanding the limitations of branching narrative, I’m fairly forgiving of choices that result in the same outcome, and indeed the author handles these quite well, but one particular choice at the end had a different problem. I chose what seemed one of the safer options, but it resulted in my sudden and unexpected death, softened only by the fact that I died helping Australia to defeat its British oppressors. Look, I was in the middle of the battlefield, so maybe I should have seen it coming, but still, some options to at least try to dodge or fight off my attacker would have made it feel like a fairer ending.

In spite of this, the story is a very enjoyable romp, well worth the read. It also left me curious to read more. Attack of the Clockwork Army only scratches the surface of this alternate Australia and I hope to see more stories (interactive or otherwise) set there.