The Ensign
| Category | Price | Seller | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games | $0.99 | Amirali Rajan | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
The Ensign is a prequel to the critically acclaimed experience: A Dark Room.
This game is extremely difficult. Brutally difficult. Throw your device across the room difficult. You have been warned, human. Death awaits.
Critical Acclaim:
"The Ensign is a fantastically weird and wonderful RPG that has plenty going for it, but only if you have the time and patience to peel away the multiple layers. 4.5 out of 5 stars" - 148Apps
"The Ensign will create dedicated players as you’ll overcome the frustration with confidence, which in turn will lead to longer gameplay sessions. The Ensign is truly a game of its own, carrying much of the same qualities of A Dark Room which allowed this simple text-based game to be enjoyable. 8.5 out of 10 stars" - Game Mob
"Like A Dark Room, The Ensign is difficult to talk about without spoiling the sense of discovery as you unlock its secrets, but what I can do is tell you that the longer you play it, and the farther you get, the more impressive the world building becomes. It takes what seems like a fairly straight-forward objective (find this thing, try not to die) and then slowly unfolds its narrative and choices around you in surprising ways. 5 out of 5 stars" - JayIsGames
"It is full of revelations about the player character and the world it inhabits and, as such, becomes impossible to discuss at length without trading in awe-sapping spoilers." - Pocket Tactics
"The Ensign is also a game of discovery—this is clearest when exploring the ASCII-based map steadily, a step at a time, praying for an abandoned house to relieve your struggle. The difference between it and A Dark Room is that it's marked by two of the core tenets of games like Dark Souls: solitude and desperation." - Kill Screen
Reviews
Saving Issues
whitebutton
My only complaint is that the app doesn’t save your progress every time you play. It only saves progress after certain points along the way. Pretty much every time I close out the app it makes me start from the last time my armor or something else upgraded.
A dark room rises again
J4xyn
After I completed a Dark Room I download The Ensign because I needed a new game to play while on the John. After a couple of weeks I began to understand the game more and more. Then overnight this went from a game I play 3 times a week to a game that keeps me up at night. Anyone who is persistent and has free time needs to play these games
A Brutal Experience
Bob.Ehm
The Ensign is a masterpiece crafted for mobile a simple design allowing for great mechanics. I beat the game refusing food and the sense of accomplishment I felt is unmatched from any other game. The events that have you questioning your own morality and judgement are great. I truly think this is one of the best games on the AppStore and would love a 3rd game. A punishing experience but in the end you feel great. 5/5 stars.
Play A Dark Room first.
yaaroti
Wether you play A dark room (ADR) on ios, or in a browser, play that first before getting this. I had been thinking about getting this game for some time but I told myself I would "beat" ADR first before buying this. I am happy I did that. I give this 5 stars. If I started with this I feel I would have been lost to what's going on, overly frustrated, and maybe not enjoy that frustration like I am. Yes it's frustrating but oh so enjoyable also, a paradox I know. If you play ADR you're going to have an idea of what I and other reviews are talking about. By itself this is a fun game, just keep in mind this: "everything isn't what it seems, death is part of the journey". Thanks for reading, good purchasing to you!
amazing, brutal, and fun
megaautist
a few years ago, i first got this game. i gave up pretty quickly, as i’m sure a bunch of others did. recently, i was replaying a dark room, and i remembered this game. i decided to give it another try. i played the game as intended this time. i didn’t give up through the brutal “training” and eventually i got 100%. the end screen said it took 140 minutes, with 400 minutes of total gameplay. certainly worth the $2. if you think you can bear it, the end is incredibly rewarding. i wonder when we’ll get another prequel?
Good but a bad glitch
Enso1
First off, it’s an excellent game. It improve upon a whole lot about a dark room and takes the experience from great to amazing. But there is a pretty decently bad glitch I keep encountering. A big part of the game that is supposed to make it possible is certain gear and upgrades carrying over across runs, but no matter how far I make it (and I’ve finished the game) my gear never carries over for more than a day. Around a day after I get super far and are able to start with a lot of stuff, it starts the entire game over, hard-restart style. It’s annoying and makes it really hard to beat it again.
Difficulty reminds me of Dark Souls
TheShrewKing
It’s a different game than A Dark Room, but the flavor is similar. 10/10 great $2 investment.
Persistence pays off
FlubberPie
I downloaded this after finishing A Dark Room, and I almost gave up early on due to the implied difficulty. On the cusp of quitting, I read an online walk through which convinced me to keep going just a bit further, and I’m sooo glad I did. After understanding that the early punishment is intended and a rite of passage, I was able to start progressing to the point where the game became enjoyable, perhaps even more so than A Dark Room. It’s more than a puzzle/battle game, please make sure you read the text, and appreciate the storyline, the emotions they’re trying to elicit, and know that it’s worth the initial steep learning curve.
Amazing and Challenging
MisterMysed
The game blends lore and the mechanics perfectly while creating a want for progression each time you make a mistake and end up dying. Something that’s great to do for a short while and pick up later or get lost in for hours.
