If there was ever a game that summed up my attitude to narrative and gameplay, it’s Failbetter Games’ Echo Bazaar, a browser game built around Twitter.  The gameplay in Echo Bazaar is virtually non-existent from a ‘hardcore gamer’ point of view, being based around grinding ’storylets’ to improve your skill, which unlocks new storylets, which you then grind into infinity.  Your success is determined randomly, and the advancement system designed so that trying a task that is easy for your skill level is just as rewarding as one that is nearly impossible.

And yet, I’m hooked; so much so that I’ve designed a table top role-playing game so I can play in with my friends.

So what is it about Echo Bazaar that is so compelling?  Well the answer is simple, the world that Failbetter Games has put together is so interesting, that the simplicity of the gameplay is irrelevant.  Without going into too much detail – and trust me, I really could – Echo Bazaar is an alternate history where London was pulled down below the ground by enigmatic and ancient supernatural forces.  In the perpetual darkness of the city, now called Fallen London, death is temporary and hell is very close indeed.

The game casts you a rogue, lying, cheating, seducing and sometimes killing as you make your fortune in the fallen city and investigating all the nooks and crannies that make up the game world is simply fascinating.  I will often forgive a game for less-than-amazing gameplay if the story is good, and nothing exemplifies that like Echo Bazaar.