80 Days plays out like a modernised Oregon Trail. Heading East from London, Philleas Fogg must return to London (travelling full-circle around the globe) within 80 Days to win a bet. The game is inspired by the Jules Verne novel, Around the World in 80 Days, although this game is set in a Steam-punk setting. The game is played from the perspective of Passepartout; Mr Fogg's valet, who always has his master's well-being as a priority. Unlike Oregon Trail; you have free reign in which route you take. Rather than travelling on one set path, you can head to any city you discover, taking detours on your quest. If you fail to reach the end in 80 Days, Philleas will have lost, but will still have to complete his journey.
At each location, you can rest in the hotel, shop at the market, withdraw funds from the bank or explore. Purchasing items can make your journey easier. Wearing certain clothes prevents your health from deteriorating as much, some clothes can help your persuasion skills, and other items can be sold in certain towns for huge profit. Resting restores your health and quickly allows time to pass. Withdrawing cash from the bank takes time but tops up your funds. Exploring triggers random events, allowing you to gain knowledge of routes between cities, obtain other items, or gain cash. It's a case of managing several aspects; health, money, inventory, knowledge and time.
To leave a city and move onto another one, you need to learn about a route. You can learn about these routes from talking to passengers as you travel, from events within the town, or maps/timetables you purchase from shops. The route will have a specified method of travel (train, car, air-ship or some other Steam-punk vehicle), a time the vehicle departs, a monetary cost, a health cost, the amount of luggage it can take, and travel duration.
You need to decide which route to take based on the information you have and the cost/benefit of the route. If the departure time is a day or two away, you may decide to explore your current town and take advantage of the health restoration benefits of the hotel. If you aren't happy to wait, you can try and bribe the driver to bring forward the date, but this is usually a very costly option.
One annoyance with the game was that time isn't paused when you are trying to manage your inventory. When you are forced to sell/discard items in order to board your next method of transport, it is really frustrating when you miss the departure because it took you a few hours of in-game time to discard a few items.
The game is very dialogue-driven and you usually have at least a couple of choices with each event. It's not just choosing what you want to do, or your reaction to things people say to you - sometimes, you can also dictate what other people do. For example, it may describe there's a man using a mechanised suit. You can choose whether he is destroying a building, or casually walking past. Being in control of the narrative is a cool idea, and makes it even more of a choose-your-own-adventure. On your journey, you will discover many issues across the world, where there will be plans for revolutions, problems with slavery, religion, and even romantic sub-plots.
With some decisions, you are told that Passepartout's personality has changed, or your relationship with Philleas has improved or worsened. However, it's not clear what effect this has on the game since it is not explained. As far as I was aware, it was just another statistic to track so you can compare your different journeys when you replay the game.
Other (real) player's progress shows on your map as if you are racing against them, although there's no way to really compare. It's another feature that's not explained, and as far as I know, it's just a feature that has no bearing on the actual game-play.
One play-through lasts around 3 hours, and its definitely worth at least two play-throughs to experience more of the game. There's plenty of cities to visit and your choices within will determine what you will see within the game. I'd expect you wouldn't be able to play the game more than four times without a significant overlap on your journeys.
As long as you perceive 80 Days more like a choose-your-own adventure book rather than a game (or just want something simple and similar to Oregon Trail), I'd highly recommend it.