The Ensign

A game that rewards patience. Enjoy this game and creator immensely. Love how the world is built up with the barest but most effective words

Simple yet epic and engaging

I love this game. I’ve completed of a couple of times at this point, and just finished my first refusing food run. SPOILERS ———- This could be something Im doing wrong, but I’ve *never* gotten the option to perform the ritual on the admiral. I can’t get the admiral to move past “the purging” vision. I’ve tried entering the murky swamp with the cauter, leaving it there and re-entering. I can’t think of any other combination of things to do to get the admiral to defect, I cleared the whole map. Was I supposed to fight the family for table scraps? lol But seriously I love this game, this is coming from personal frustration of not figuring out how to get the ritual as an option despite having the cauter.

This game, much like ADR, is a unique experience and a fun creative twist on a single player version of a multi-user dungeon (MUD). Bravo to the developers for creating a fun, engaging, and creative yet simplistic mobile game.

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.