Top 25 best text-based games for Android phones and tablets

Unmemory is the best text-based game I have played to date. It can be read as a storybook or played as a game. This thriller has you trying to track down the man who murdered your girlfriend, but you also suffer from memory loss, so it’s a bit of a challenge. In Unmemory, you need to solve puzzles, scroll up and down the screen to see how things change, listen to recordings, look at pictures, and more! It will keep you guessing.

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Ord. is a small text-based game where you are given a word and can reply with a word (or sometimes two) which then gives you another word, before you get to the next screen. Each of these little adventures can jump to a new and wonderful place, through small decisions that could mean a lot later on.

If you want to learn more about Ord. and how it plays, make sure to read our Ord. review. It's a game of trial and error and... death, so if you're not too keen on playing and re-playing specific parts time and time again, you might want to look at another entry on this list.

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WarQuest: Game of the Gods is a text-based RPG that takes place in the medieval era, where you become a mercenary who has a bit of a dark past that you need to slowly learn about and put together. Your choices do matter, as you can end up with various resources and rewards as you progress through the chapters.

Are you stuck? Want some help? Then you should read all the Game of the Gods tips and tricks we've got up our sleeves. They'll help you have a much smoother text-based experience.

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King of Dragon Pass makes use of graphics a bit more than other text-based games, but that adds a bit of variety! This is a strategy title that’s based around fantasy, where you need to go on adventures, gather items, trade, and fight monsters. It provides a much deeper text adventure that can be played for a longer time frame.

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Argo's Choice is an adventure text-based game based around Argo, a retired detective. The setting of Argo's Choice is a pub, where you are trying your best to charm the cute bartender while unfolding your story. It's fascinating, and you can make various choices based on your friendship points with the characters.

It's a fantastic creation that follows multiple plots and has a bunch of interesting and very well-developed characters, making it one of the best text-based Android games out there. It also feels more like a visual novel, but given you've got so much to scroll through that describes the action in great detail, we've listed it regardless.

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There are a couple of different Reigns games out there, but Reigns: Her Majesty is the one we decided to put on this list! Playing as a Queen, you must make decisions for the kingdom by reading cards and then swiping left or right to react in hopes of not being overthrown and making the best decisions for all of the kingdom.

We have a bunch of tips to help you rule for ages, and if you're just starting out, you should check out these beginner tips - otherwise, make sure to read how to use the items in Reigns: Her Majesty.

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Sorcery!, an open-world adventure narrative, has a bunch of different parts. The fourth one, specifically, has you taking on an adventure in the cursed citadel, full of magic, monsters, traps, strange creatures, spells and more. You can learn various spells to help you on your quest, which is full of monsters to fight and near-death experiences.

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A Dark Room strips down to the bare minimum of a text game, providing a more straightforward experience where you start in a dark, cold place, needing to build a fire before selecting different decisions from there to move forward. The pace then builds up, giving you more and more options as you continue trying to survive.

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Following a surge of lost phone-related games, SIMULACRA 2 is a scary, text-adventure where you find the phone of Maya, a dead influencer. You are a detective who wants to solve this crime, but there seem to be a lot of issues with her phone - it’s been wiped clean. You’ll need to use this access to her life to find out how this murder went down.

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Following the story of Syrian refugees, one of whom is going on a journey to the safety of Europe, texting her husband about her journey. There are choices in the way that you talk to your husband, how worried he gets, and how long it takes to reply back, having to wait for an answer and hope that it’s not some sort of bad news. Bury Me, My Love is a very touching story.

In order to dive deeper into this heartfelt story, make sure to read our Bury Me, My Love review - it's on Switch though, but it shouldn't make a difference if you're trying to figure out whether or not you should buy it.

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In Lifeline, you are an intern named Taylor who seems to be the only person left on the moon after a spaceship crashed. You’ll be making decisions between two different options, each one affecting Taylor’s life and deciding his fate as he tries to survive on the moon all on his own. A lot is riding on these decisions.

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Magium is a text-based RPG where you play as Barry, a human hoping to one day become a mage. The game itself is three books long currently, still being worked on, and you basically are trying to get Barry to a point where he can be a mage by improving his stats and entering tournaments while making decisions along the way.

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A more comical version of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ryan North’s To Be or Not To Be is a game worth checking out. It’s a branching narrative version of Hamlet, where you play as Hamlet trying to get revenge after your father’s death, play as Ophelia who is trying to make discoveries or play as King Hamlet - who does, in fact, just die.

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Playing as Adam, an archaeologist following after your father, Forbidden Valley doesn’t just focus on the text, but also focuses on the music - with a bunch of tracks to keep you entertained. It also has mini-games, puzzles, and lots of text-based stories for you to enjoy as you figure out what riches lie ahead.

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Horror in the Darkness is a text-based horror game (as the name would suggest) where you play as a private investigator who just got back from WW2. Taking on a case from an old friend, everything is not as it seems this time. Horror in the Darkness is both dripping with dread but also has moments of comedy to balance things out.

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Choice of Robots is a text-based sci-fi game where you are a robot maker. Your choices will end up affecting the robots you are creating, making them empathetic, cold, independent, obedient, helpful, or just scary. Your entire life can end up being those robots, it’s all up to you as the robot uprising ticks closer and closer. There are a lot of paths in this one!

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DEAD CITY is a title that looks a lot like a messenger app. Sam is trapped in a post-apocalyptic world, just trying to survive. You can help them out by replying to her text messages - when and if you want to - to drive forward the story and see what happens to her next. You’ll be hearing about the world through her eyes and it’s pretty grim.

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BitLife - Life Simulator is a narrative-driven game where you can have your own life; making decisions, figuring out what activities you would like to do, and seeing what your actions cause. You start off as a child and will be making child-appropriate choices as you grow up, being not only your own parent, basically, but also being yourself. You can mould your character to be a crime lord or look to get the best possible grades so that they can have a fantastic job. There are a lot of funny, silly storylines that can come out of BitLife, making it very captivating and semi-relatable.

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This is an old-school D&D story where you can take the role of a wizard, a stealthy rogue, or a seductive succubus! One feature that caught our eye is that nothing is locked behind a paywall. So, you don't have to use gems or spend real money to unlock certain choices. The author had been playing D&D since the first edition, and it took him 7 years of work to make it. As usual, dedicated people make the best products, so we can highly recommend this Android text-based game if you're a fan of fantasy.

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Out There has you waking up, as an astronaut, but you’ve woken up in the middle of nowhere, in the galaxy. You need to try to survive by repairing your ship and using space gardens to refill your oxygen supply while avoiding dangerous beings in your travels. This text-based game has a comic-book style, which is very nice!

If you're trying to find the best way to survive space, then you should read our beginner tips and tricks for Out There - they'll give you a clear idea of what you should and shouldn't do starting your space journey.

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80 Days is set back in 1872, where you are travelling your own route around the globe, via airships, submarines, mechanical camels, horses, hot-air balloons, steam-trains and much more - trying to make it first across the world in hopes of winning your journey. Every moment takes time, so the story will affect the trust you earn, and the secrets you discover.

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A Study in Steampunk is inspired by, well, a lot of different stories - from Dracula to Sherlock Holmes, with a bit of steampunk thrown in! You will play a character in a country that’s about to go to war, becoming a secret agent who is trying to prevent that (or well, trying to cause it if you like chaos). It’s got a lot of choices and many paths to follow.

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Choice of the Deadless sees you fighting demons and attorneys to win souls that will help you pay back your student loans - school has gotten expensive. This game has multiple choice options that can change and affect the story, allowing you to read quite big replies to each situation. You can defeat enemies, fall in love, pay off your loan or lose your own soul.

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This text-based game is fairly new, in which you wake up on a beach, confused, and encountering a nomad. This other person is also suffering from memory loss and both of you are just looking to seek revenge on whoever put you in this strange place and took hold of the memories you once had.

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Wanderlust: Transsiberian allows you to board a railway and travel around real-world locations through a narrative game all on your phone. There are plenty of choices to make on your adventure as you travel across the world, interacting with various cultures and exploring strange places you might never get to in real life.

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