fallen off london

[jazzfish]

My love affair with Fallen London lasted almost exactly two weeks, in the following stages:

• Oh, it's free on iOS, may as well check it out.
  
• The writing is kinda fun.
  
• I'll throw a little money their way, support people doing cool things etc.
  
• The app is frustratingly slow for something that's just displaying text and still images.
  
• Yay, an app update fixed much of the slow!
  
• ... which serves to reveal the grind-y underbelly of the game itself.
  
• Bored now.

Verdict: the writing is fun but the gameplay is annoyingly focused around doing the same thing repeatedly. Reading the same fun snippet for the nth time sucks much of the fun out of not only that snippet but the ones around it.

Comments

[aamcnamara]

I wander over to the Fallen London website once in a while when I need something to do on a slow circ desk shift, but that's about it. For a clicky-game that you don't need much brain for, it works well! Sometimes I can grind specific skills or I can wander off and do tiny stories. But I can see how it would not reward any serious investment of time.

[jazzfish]

Hrm. I could believe that it would work as a once-in-awhile thing... but that is very much not how I engage with most things. When I find a cool thing I am generally all YESSS I WANT EVERYTHING EVEN TANGENTIALLY RELATED TO THIS GIVE ME THE FIREHOSE.