Well made effort, and worth every penny. – Down Among the Dead Men Review

The beginning of this game is really interesting. As a defecting pirate, you and your small band of crew mates have what feels like a whole ocean to explore. From Homeric false paradises ruled over by would be Circes and naiads to islands peopled by natives taken straight from the adventures of James Cook, from Flying Dutchman like ghost ships to Castaway like psychological and physical depredations, the first act of the story (namely, the voyage) has a real, honest to goodness feeling of pure adventure. Replaying it with various character presets just reinforced that feeling even more. The game is worth the .99 cent price of admission for that alone. Unfortunately, the rest of the game fails to live up to the standard it sets early on. There are fewer branching paths, and the settings are fairly pedestrian, almost like Disneyworld attractions, though the later game still has it's moments. I'd also like to note that the political tone of this game is completely different from 80 days, which is really great for the setting. Hearing pirates moan about the evils of ethnocentrism and imperialistic western attitudes would have really taken me out of it. Not to say that I disliked 80 days, but it's good to see the inkle is more focused on good game design than politics. I figure they just do their best to adapt a good game from their source material,(which in 80 days case was a commissioned script-you will never convince me that that rebel leader Aouda was a real adaptation of Verne, no matter how impressive the game may have been) which is both refreshing, and as it should be.
Review by Shawesq9 on Down Among the Dead Men.