On a recent 10-hour flight into Los Angeles, I thought I’d cracked it. I’d bought Civilization V during the Steam summer sale and I thought installing it on my laptop would give me something to keep my mind on while sitting cramped and uncomfortable for far too long. My plan almost worked perfectly. Within minutes of starting a new Celtic civilization, I was hooked and before I knew it four hours of the flight had passed in an instant. However, disaster then struck.
My laptop has a USB C port and my seat had a USB charging station. When my battery died, I plugged my laptop into my seat, but the wattage output was not up to the task of charging my laptop. I shorted out the whole entertainment system in my seat, which left me jonesing off my new Civilization addiction and without a modicum of in-flight entertainment to get me through the next six hours.
I managed it, but those hours weren’t easy. Now, with another long flight ahead of me, a whopping 16 hours, I know I can’t rely on my laptop . Mobile games are where it is at for long-haul flights. I’m going to go through some of the best paid offline mobile games to play on a long flight. We’ll cover the best free mobile games in an upcoming article.
Best offline mobile games to play on a long-haul plane ride (Paid)
The Escapists
Pixels have come back in a big way over the last few years. Yes, AAA games continue to blow us away as they edge closer and closer to recreating reality, but pixel art and pixelized games are going through a bit of a renaissance. These games look good, can be used to tell a story just as well as the latest and greatest graphics, and don’t place a lot of stress on the hardware playing them. This means pixelized games are perfect for mobile devices as they can create huge worlds and riff off massive concepts on the tiniest of devices.
The Escapists is one such title. It is a game that wouldn’t feel out of place being played on a 55-inch TV yet works just as well on a tiny screen. It plays as a strategy game and sees you play as a prisoner looking to bust out of various lock-up situations. With the ability to craft tools and weapons the game has plenty to sink your teeth into and will have you hooked for hours. This is one you’ll be playing long after your feet are back on the ground.
80 Days
These days there are many reasons we get on planes. For a lot of us, the experience has become so mundane that we scour the internet looking for things to keep us occupied as we fly hundreds of miles an hour a few miles up in the air. It is in there somewhere though, that feeling that we all used to feel and now sometimes still do as we clamber on board and take to the skies: adventure.
If you’re flying somewhere, there is a good chance you’re on some sort of adventure. What better way to celebrate the fact than to delve into an interactive version of one of the all-time classic adventure novels: Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days.”
80 Days is a beautiful game that gives you various options at certain parts of the classic tale. You can choose your own adventure as you try to get around the new modern world in a seemingly impossibly short amount of time. Get this on your phone and imagine yourself rushing from one port to the next in a blistering race against time.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition
The full desktop and console versions of Minecraft are impossibly large games. Perhaps a little surprisingly so is the so-called pocket edition of Mojang’s global hit. Mobile players of Minecraft can do almost as much as their desktop counterparts. There is even the possibility to share desktop servers, meaning people on mobile can play online with people on desktop.
Minecraft Earth gets first look
Obviously, you won’t be doing this on your next flight, but the fact illustrates perfectly just how much you’ll be able to do on your own. If you’ve got this on your mobile or tablet going into your next flight the impossibly large world of Minecraft will, quite literally, be at your fingertips.
Don’t Starve
Would you say we’re living in a golden age of video games? The industry is bigger than the movie business and as we’ve already discussed games aren’t just getting better technically and visually. We’re also seeing innovative concepts and mind-bending narrative techniques seep into our gaming. Our games are all the better for it and many of these artisanal games work just as well on mobile as they do on PCs and consoles.
Don’t Starve is one such title, having garnered an impressive 10/10 on Steam and four and a half stars on the Google Play Store.
Forging science and magic, Don’t Starve pits you against the elements as you try and survive out in the wilderness . Faceoff against creatures and beasties as you craft items and shelters that will boost your survival chances. Don’t Starve looks great, too, with its retro cartoony visuals charming you, even as you burn to death in a forest fire. If there is a gripe to be had with the mobile port, it is that the virtual D-Pad can be a little tricky to master. Otherwise, this is a great game that will get you through even the longest of flights.
Reigns
Reigns is a simple game on paper but it is devilishly difficult in its execution. You play as a series of monarchs trying to exert dominion over an unruly land and its pesky populace . Every binary choice you make matters as you attempt to balance the powers of the church, the army, and the people. If one gets too powerful, they could stage a coup while allowing a particular arm of the state to slip too far and you could have an insurrection on your hands.
The gameplay is simple enough with your choices coming to you on playing cards, but it is too easy to make a wrong decision and see your kingdom’s balance fall off kilter. When your kingdom has no balance, bad things happen, and you’ll have to start again as you try to build the longest reign in your ever troubled dynasty. Hard to put down but frustrating in equal measure.
For an added bonus check out the special edition “Game of Thrones” version .
Lifeline
Lifeline isn’t the most obvious game to keep you occupied on a flight, but it makes our list for being fun, innovative, and a great way to escape the confines of the steel tube that cages you.
Lifeline is a text-based adventure that sees you receiving text messages from an astronaut who’s stranded on a faraway planet. You’re the only person he can contact and as he sets out to learn more about the dark place he finds himself in, he’ll text you to ask you what he thinks he should do.
The action is slow, as it plays out over hours rather than minutes , but if you start playing Lifeline before you get on the plane, you’ll get text messages from your new friend even with your phone airplane mode. This is great if you tend to feel trapped when you fly.
Evoland
Evoland offers a very cool take on the RPG format. Standard RPGs see you wander around a virtual world, searching for items that will enable your character to grow in experience and strength. The further you go and the more you do, the more developed your character will become. Evoland flips this concept completely. As your character wanders the world it is the world itself that develops thanks to your actions and discoveries.
You’ll start off in a silent and heavily pixelated world, and the early action will see you searching for basic gameplay elements like sound and music. As you unearth these gaming treasures and more, the world around you will upgrade itself based on your discoveries. The gameplay is fun, but this new dynamic will draw you in as you develop Evoland into a fully rendered 3D masterpiece that you’ll love to explore. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
Plague Inc.
In Plague Inc, you are a mad scientist hell-bent on destroying the world, one human at a time. You’ll create a disease, launch it wherever you choose, and keep mutating that bad boy until everyone is infected. Ratchet up the lethality if you want to kill off the infected or throttle back if you need to infect more people or avoid scrutiny from the medical community.
We have an entire guide to help you play and win this addictive game. Fire up Plague Inc, kill off the world a few times, and you’ll be at your destination before you know it.
Wrapping up
What’s your favorite game to play on long plane rides or car rides? Did it make our list? Let us know in the comments below!
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