Reading an adventure novel is great. Wouldn’t it be more interesting? If you are the part of that story, your control over the character. You can create your own storyline, and each action is responsible for the climax.

Most of the text-based adventure games are singleplayer for obvious reasons. Text-based adventure is a compilation of multiple storylines with different endings. Every gameplay is unique to yourself and you can play the same game uniquely multiple times.

Text-based adventure games (also known as IF or Interactive Fiction) is a classic genre where all the interaction takes place through on-screen words, and they're still alive today. While they were born from hardware limitations, text-based games can still be played on modern devices. The Archive’s mission is to preserve the history and practice of interactive fiction and make it freely available to the public. Since 1992, the Archive has collected thousands of text adventures, text adventure development tools, articles, essays, hint files, walkthroughs, jokes, and sly references to Greek politics. See full list on makeuseof.com.

Check out top 10 point and click horror games & text-based RPG games too.

Embrace the power of imagination to experience an outstanding adventurous journey where your decision counts. This is the list of top text-based adventure games available on various devices.

The game is listed considering the adventure elements and storytelling aspect of the game. The rating given below is the average rating based on user review, gameplay, and criticism.

Choice of Robots

Rating: 9.4/10Year: 2014

The Dreamhold

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

The story takes place in an era where AI and robotics are emerging everywhere. You are an intelligent robot maker from a graduate school facing daily struggles. The choices you make will help you design a robot that can understand the meaning of love or world dominance is only the goal.

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Build a unique robot character that will decide the fate of the upcoming future. There are four endings and seventy achievements to unlock. The game has all the Choice of Games character development stats. In the end, you will know your character behavior based on the choices you made.

Reigns: Game of Thrones

Rating: 9/10Year: 2018

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, NS

Reigns: Game of Thrones is a strategy choice-based video game based on HBO TV series GOT. It’s “swipe ’em up” decision-based game, involve popular GOT characters including Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, and Sansa Stark.

Each choice affects four factors military strength, religious favor, domestic popularity, and state wealth, to rule, a player needs to keep all 4 elements in balance. A simple swipe decides the fate of seven kingdoms.

The player controls the different characters of different kingdoms. Surviving the eternal death is the main objective of the game. The wise decision will help you survive the game. The questions asked are based on different storylines.

Warsim: The Realm of Aslona

Rating: 9/10Year: 2017

Platform: Windows

Online Text Adventure Games

Warsim: The Realm of Aslona is a hardcore kingdom management game featuring impressive ASCII style illustrations. The main objective is to keep the kingdom running as the story proceeds. Character building is up to you, become a great explore, a doctor, a royal king, or a warlord.

The game offers huge character sets, races, dialogues, objects, procedurally generated songs, and enemies. The game has a good development cycle with many updates, fixes, and changes to the game. If you are a fan of old-school Zork or Dwarf Fortress then its worth your time.

Lifeline

Rating: 9.2/10Year: 2015

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS

After the crashing on a far-away planet, Taylor wants to go back home, he contacts the space station to recuse him. He finds the planet is home to hostile, hive-minded parasitic lifeforms called Greens. He has one lifeline, he dies games’ over.

Taylar found out Captain Aya is in a critical condition after the crash. Accidentally he contacts you for help. It’s up to the player whether to rescue Taylor with useful information he has or to let him die helplessly. The main objective is to make Taylar survive as you guide him in the unknown exoplanet.

A Dark Room

Rating: 9/10Year: 2013

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Web browser, Android, iOS, Windows

The player awakes in A Dark Room in cold & mysterious place. In the beginning, the only way to survive is to fire the woods, as the game progress, new items are unlocked, explore different places, talk with people, and start a village.

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Things change as a character is forced into a post-apocalyptic wasteland and surviving extraterrestrial beings who invade planets. The game does involve ASCII style graphics and some turned based combat with resource management.

Fallen Hero: Rebirth

Text Adventure Games Download

Rating: 8.6/10Year: 2018

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android

Los Diablos is an underworld filled with brutal supernatural beings, you need to make a place in the underworld by mastering your telepathic powers. Once you were the part of a ranger crew but now you need to abandon your friends to become the greatest villain.

It is a 380,000-word long interactive novel where players need to survive the underworld as straight, gay, bisexual, or aromantic. You can follow your personal life, have friends, relationships, jobs, etc. Hone your telepathic powers to controls people’s minds.

SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition

Rating: 8.8/10Year: 2014

Platform: Windows

It is a roguelike turned-based strategic game that follows a journey of a lonely explore whos main goal is to defeat The Matron. The game features ASCII art with the typical old-style monster-slaying and dungeon crawling adventure. The game has a classic mode where dead resets the game.

The Black Edition of the game comes with the procedurally generated artwork and extra quests, characters, unknown dungeons to explore. The game offers hundreds of hour-long RPG gameplay, 320 class and race combinations, over a billion item combinations, economy simulation, and different game modes.

Champion of the Gods

Rating: 8.8/10Year: 2015

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Champion of the Gods is an epic 217,000-word interactive story written by Jonathan Valuckas. The ancient Gods of Greek myth want’s to erase humanity from the world. In the battle, you have to face God to protect this world. Destroy monsters, soldiers, and even gods, embrace the power of justices. Collect items, control your enemies, make allies, find the goddess of love, see into a distinct future, and learn the truth about Greek Gods.

Abdl Text Adventure Games

Cultist Simulator

Rating: 8.7/10Year: 2018

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux

Cultist Simulator is a card-based narrative-driven simulation game, sets on a nameless fiction world where card defines various attributes and action for interactions. The game follows the text-based adventure with minimal story and more interaction.

In the beginning, a player has a career and one health card, with an action button player, acquires various card properties like health or reason, emotions, items, locations, wealth, lore, and others. As the game progress, explore the unusual world, need to collect the various cards, and develop character status to survive.

Subsurface Circular

Rating: 8.5/10Year: 2017

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, iOS, Windows, macOS

Theta One One is an android-like Tek, who is appointed as a detective for other Teks in the subway system by his human masters called management. One of the Tek goes missing, Theta One One has to investigate, he finds out the involvement of Red Tek. As he investigates the advance human civilization, many other Tek starts missing.

The game involves 3D visual and interactive text. The game has management and RPG style controls following a linear plot with good music. In short words, it is a cyberpunk text-based adventure game.

Last Words

People still love old-school text-based adventure games because of good storytelling and power of imagination. I have played dozens of text-based adventure games and will keep on playing. Reading and interacting with the story has its own perks. So his is it for the best text adventure. Let me known which are your favorite text-based adventure games.

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