The Ensign

Honestly just annoying gameplay.

I’ve been a fan of A Dark Room for years, and when I belatedly realized a prequel had come out, I was ecstatic. This game is made of text, buttons and Unicode characters, but the combat is gripping, the gameplay is challenging but not frustrating, the worldbuilding is vast and complex, and the story/character arc of the Ensign is chilling, heartbreaking and engaging. I love this game. I’ll play it again and again even though I’ve beaten it and know the story.

Quick bug before the review: If you meet a defector on top of a location, such as the Iron Mine, you get the upgrades without having to go through the challenge. If you liked a dark room, don't immediately think you will like this game. Imagine you were instantly thrown into the world, but you have no resources. You can't prepare through building the village, if you die, you are back to nearly square one. This is NOT and afk game like a dark room. You DON'T get the satisfaction of being overpowered with materials. There is no afk resource building. But if you like quick pace, challenges at every stage, and the feeling of progress + the pain of losing everything, you will LOVE THIS. I highly recommend playing a dark room first to understand how the game works.

Like I been playing for almost a year now, only finished the game today.

The game really rewards patience and keeping track of everything step by step. I was able to beat after about 300 minutes of gameplay and that involved losing many times to learn. Very good game, I enjoyed it.

The Ensign was too hard for me and I had given up. I distinctly remember NOT liking this game. But after revisiting A Dark Room and loving it even more now than when I first played years back, I gave it another shot. Wow. This game is incredible. Honestly, the developer is on another level. I don’t think I was mature enough to appreciate this game before. I’m glad that I could experience it differently now, and am curious if it will hit even more differently when I’m even older and revisit.

fun. die a lot in the beginning while you learn.

Appearance conceals complexity of player options. The author continues to maintain and then add to the story. Long term Players are rewarded. Perhaps an additional element is soon forthcoming.

See title

I’ve beaten this game numerous times and just recently I’ve found it had an updated ending that shocked me! Love this game!