In 2021, I'm enjoying A Dark Room as much as a fancy 4K title. Maybe you will too?
It's not every day that a text adventure gets covered by The New Yorker. It was probably a surprise to the developers.
The text-only game is a niche these days and, to many, a relic. When I tell people I'm playing a text game, the reactions are identical: "Huh? Why?" But I push ahead with excitement and say, "It's a pretty good game! It really took me by surprise."
In a review I'm writing for LG, I hesitate to say what the game is really about, because a large part of my own enjoyment of A Dark Room depended on coming in blind. In the review, I simply provide reasons for giving this title a try, though that won't cut it for most gamers, who have only so much coin to spend on ever-growing wishlists.
So in this post I'd like to divulge a little about ADR—mostly minor spoilers—in case that will help folks know enough about the game without stripping away all of its mystery. I should mention, though, that it's still a decent game even if you know the spoilers.
My first playthrough took 6 hours, though you can finish in much less time. This was on the Nintendo Switch, a version similar but unidentical to the iOS/Android versions also developed by Amir Rajan (who built upon the original Web version by Michael Townsend, which is a bit different).
Now here's what awaits you in ADR, divided into "very minor spoilers" and "somewhat minor spoilers."
Very minor spoilers
In the opening moments, you might think—mistakenly—that this is a text adventure in the 1980s tradition of Zork. But it's more than that.
After awakening to a dark room and choosing to "light fire" (the only action you can perform initially), you meet an unnamed "builder." She turns out later to be pretty important.
For awhile you can only stoke fire or cart wood or check traps. It feels like the beginnings of a simple survival game, though one without any notable dangers. Resources like fur and teeth and meat trickle into your stores incrementally.
Other people show up, if you build huts. They add to your population count, working to maintain your growing little village. Along the way you discover more equipment and facilities the builder can make. A tradepost only reinforces the impression that this may be a resource management game. 
And then the world opens up.
A dusty path beckons.
Somewhat minor spoilers
This is when the game really starts.
Down the dusty path I go, and—
What, there's a world map?!
People are attacking me?!
And it's real-time combat!
Oops, I'm dead. Back in the village, somehow revived by the builder, who wears a mysterious glowing locket.
The builder really isn't happy about me venturing out of the village. But what can I do? The thirst to explore grows. Reluctantly, she makes me weapons and armor.
And now, it's an RPG.
I'm discovering new resources, new weapons. More importantly, I'm discovering what sort of world this is. And it's not too dramatic to say that I eventually learn the most important thing of all, who I am . . .
A Dark Room, alternate ending?
Suffice to say, I was impressed by this delightful little text adventure. Enough to play it a second time. The credit roll got me curious, as it came with a challenge: "try completing without building huts."
It was actually a meaningful challenge. Not building huts meant no villagers. No villagers meant . . . who would work for me? That sounded harder, but it offered the possibility of a different story ending.
To see this challenge to its completion, I had to change the way I played. For example, having less resources meant being weaker in combat. Getting hammered by mere birds, beasts, and gaunt men, I looked up tips and found one of great interest: you don't need regular weapons. Apparently you can go around punching birds and train up your fists skill into something of legendary power.
Anyway. More significantly, it's been a long time since I replayed a game. It helped that ADR isn't very long. My second run took only 3 hours, though Reddit tells me the fastest run "without huts" is 17 minutes!
So . . . would you play a game like ADR?
