14 DAY TRIAL // Inkle has just announced that two of its adventure games – 80 Days and Heaven's Vault will be coming to Nintendo Switch very soon. Well, at least one of them will arrive in less than a month, but this is still great news.
80 Days, the steampunk reimagining of Jules Verne's classic, will be available via Nintendo eShop on October 1, while Heaven's Vault, the open-world archeological adventure with an entire ancient language to decipher will arrive in early 2020. If you haven't heard of any of these game here is a quick rundown to put you up to speed.
First off, 80 Days is Inkle's crown jewel having won multiple awards since its release back in 2014. Winner of the IGF's Excellence in Narrative award, named one of 2014's top video games by Time magazine, and recipient of four BAFTA nominations, 80 Days combines old-school text adventures with strategic board games and RPGs, so there's something for everyone regardless of what games genre they prefer.
In 80 Days, players are taking on the role of the French valet Passepartout and help Phileas Fogg win a hefty bet before the clock runs out. You'll be able to choose your route, manage your finances, interact with a myriad of characters, but above all else see the world.
Inkle says the game has been fully optimized for Nintendo Switch, with every part of the user interface redesigned or reconsidered for play with either Joy-Con controllers or touch screen functionality. The text has been resized as well to make it much more readable in both handheld and docked modes.
More importantly, the definitive version includes all of the content incrementally added to the adventure since 80 Days' initial release: find the lost city of Atlantis, join a North Pole expedition, go over Niagara Falls, team up with notorious jewel thief the Black Rose, and even journey to the moon.
Heaven's Vault is another of Inkle's ambitious projects that we've fully covered in our review, so check that out for more in-depth details. Heaven's Vault is an open-world adventure with a huge branching storyline, in which you play as an archeologist Aliya Elasra on a mission with your robot to track down a missing academic, who has left a trail of ancient relics in his wake.
The game is full of linguistic puzzles that will reveal pieces of information or locations that will help you solve one big mystery. Moreover, Heaven's Vault adapts with a story that reflects your choices, which means the outcome may be different for every person who plays it.
