

The Pilgrimage
Nicholas Brakespear · November 10, 2023 · Adventure, Interactive Fiction, Post-apocalyptic, Free to Play, Sci-fi
The Pilgrimage is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.
The Pilgrimage price
The Pilgrimage is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.
About The Pilgrimage
The Pilgrimage is a narrative adventure game where you play a hungover pilgrim stumbling through a mysterious monastery town with nothing but a key, a debt, and fragmented memories, uncovering dark secrets through exploration, a dynamic text parser, and branching conversations with quirky locals. It stands out with its episodic structure that preserves your save across free chapter releases, collectible death epitaphs, hidden subplots, and the ability to type freely into the game's parser to interact with the world however you choose.
Enter, the Pilgrim: A lone adventurer, vagabond... tourist. Last night, our intrepid hero arrived in the holy monastery town of Firesend, to begin his pilgrimage, to visit the shrines, to pray and reflect, to find enlightenment, and perhaps to find atonement for a dramatically unspecified and narratively compelling shadowy past...
...Of course, first he stopped off at the pub. And that's about as far as his sepia-toned memory gets before it turns to purulent purple, and fades to black amid a blur of booze and bad choices.
An Internalized Episodic Series...
Forgoing traditional episodic releases, The Pilgrimage is tale that will grow in the telling. Play Chapter 1 now, for free! When you reach the end of chapter 1, don't lose that save - pick up where you left off as soon as chapter 2 is released as a free update to the core game! In the meantime, keep playing and exploring!
Grab The Pilgrimage for free any time before the final chapter is released, and it's yours to have and to hold, from this day forward, till Windows 11 do us part!
Presenting Chapter 1: The Porcelain Crown of Regret
We join our fated hero the morning after, with his face in a puddle of filth, besieged by the cruel sobriety of the coming day, and the voice of a landlord laying claim to a debt. He has no money, he has no memory, he... frankly has no hope of avoiding the impending consequences of his actions. But when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up... right?
With a key in his pocket, and high hopes for a shower and a change of clothes, he sets off with a lurch in his stride and a pain in the back of his head.
So begins his grand journey through the trials and tribulations of a foreign town at the crack of dawn.
Will he survive the first few hours of his adventure?
Will he even make it to the end of Chapter 1?
With any luck, he'll see some sights, buy some tacky souvenirs, and begin to uncover a tale of love, crime, treasure, more crime, pain, tragedy, triumph, booze, a bit more crime, a number of awkward conversations, and a sprinkling of crime. For isn't that what all good holidays are about?
Tragedy and triumph...
Explore! Interact! Solve puzzles and uncover mysteries with the aid of traditional adventure game tropes! Keep track of your adventuring with the aid of a slightly less traditional dynamic journal! Progress, or die in a variety of interesting and collectible ways, amassing epitaphs like the grim trophies of your more foolish moments!
Awkward conversations...
Talk to anyone and everyone! See that random person on the street? Talk to them! Engage in branching conversations like the RPG classics of the 90s! Manually ask them about a variety of topics, or simply type rude words to see how offended they'll be (because we all know you will)! Say the right thing, ask about the right topic, and stumble your way blindly into a variety of sub-plots, hidden insights and general trivia!
Type the wrods...
The Pilgrimage features an extensive text parser! Type the verbs! Type the nouns! Type the adjectives! Sprinkle some prepositions over the whole thing for extra flavour! Then get drunk, mash your sausage fingers into the keyboard and produce that which can barely be called language at all! Marvel at the game's heroic attempts at understanding even the most heavily jumbled words or profanity-laden sentences through the power of science!
Read the books...
Play the game, then buy the books! Buy the books, then play the game! Play the game, then buy the books, then read the books you bought IN the game for an extra velvety layer of additional luxury immersion! Then buy more books to add to your collection! Did I mention the books? There are books!
Try before you buy...
There's a demo! In it you shall find a sample of the game, and samples of any upcoming books! Take a look! Right now! I dare you! Exclamation marks!
The Pilgrimage — game info
- Platforms
- Windows
- Steam Deck
- Playable
- Player modes
- Single-player
- PC Game Pass
- Not included
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
The Pilgrimage is a text-based adventure game that impresses players with its detailed, imaginative writing, clever humor, and rewarding puzzle design set in a quirky post-apocalyptic science-fiction world. While the game succeeds in creating an engaging atmosphere and offers substantial content, it remains a niche experience that won't appeal to everyone—some players find the text-adventure genre itself dated, and others may find the abstract storytelling less engaging than classic titles in the genre.
I have not played many text-based interactive games so I did not know what to expect when I first played The Pilgrimage but this game exceeded my expectations. It looks simple to play on the surface with a few commands that you used to interact with the environment around you but is deceptively difficult, especially when it comes to the puzzles that this game consists of which are very rewarding when you finally work out how to complete them and further progress the game. It is clear that this is a passion project as there is so much intricate detail to each of the scenes and it is described in such a way to keep you hooked even if there are no visuals (the writing alone allows you to imagine the scenes in great detail, even to those with limited imagination). I first started with the books written by the same author who did this game and every single component of the Eddawielm Universe is amazing!! I am looking forward to future works to read and enjoy!!5 found this helpful
"The Pilgrimage" is a text adventure from 2023. I'm no advocate for AI Slop, but when AI Slop outperforms your ability to create games, it may be time to reconsider career choices. Anyway, yeah... an old and dead genre, somehow here on Steam. And breaking another fundamental rule of game design... if it can be done in a web browser, it doesn't need to be in your Steam library. Steam isn't here to compete with Chrome and Firefox. This text adventure is particularly mediocre... if you're hoping for Zork or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, you'll be understandably disappointed (although if you came to Steam looking for text adventures I suspect your life is already full of disappointment). It's probably better than most RPG Maker high school fanfictions, the "author" behind this has published a couple of books to middling success, but it's not winning any awards, and when an author isn't finding success as an author and needs to break out into doing text adventures, well... here we are. There's no real subtle way to put this, but gaming is a visual medium and has been for decades. Failing to understand that was a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers des…4 found this helpful
I really like the humor and setting for this game. Taking place in a far-off future(?) setting out on the edge of an unknown solar system, The Pilgrimage really puts us in a place where there's a lot of leeway for what's possible. It's a bit of a jokey game (the first puzzle involves you fighting a vat full of semi-sentient meat with a spatula), but it seems really well put together from what I've played of it so far. Even though it's set in the future, the initial town definitely has a very medieval/renaissance type of vibe to it. The parser is really complete, letting you look at, use, and talk to just about everything you can lay your hands on, and the writing is entertaining without being too full of itself. This is a longer game, I didn't finish it on my first playthrough, and I feel like there's a fair amount still to go. Also, it's free! Check it out.2 found this helpful
The Pilgrimage is a text-driven adventure that embraces the traditions of classic interactive fiction while placing its story inside an eccentric post-apocalyptic science-fiction world. Rather than relying on elaborate graphics, combat systems, or cinematic sequences, it builds its identity through descriptive writing, typed commands, conversations, exploration, and player experimentation. Developed and published by Nicholas Brakespear, the game is clearly aimed at players who enjoy using their imagination and interacting with a fictional world through language. Its deliberately old-fashioned design makes it a niche experience, but it also gives the adventure a personality that would be difficult to reproduce through a more conventional interface. The story follows an enigmatic traveler known as the Pilgrim, who reaches the monastery town of Firesend approximately a millennium after the collapse of Earth. His supposed purpose is spiritual: visiting sacred locations, praying, reflecting upon his mysterious past, and perhaps finding some measure of redemption. Those noble intentions quickly fall apart after a visit to a local drinking establishment. He awakens the next morning in an…1 found this helpful
I'm far from done with the game, but I am having a great time so far! I stumbled across this game while searching for something completely unrelated. I saw Obey The Fist's review and your response, and I then knew that the game narration was going to be snarky and eloquent in the best ways.1 found this helpful
«The Pilgrimage» — это атмосферная инди-игра с элементами головоломок и исследований. Сюжет разворачивается в мире, где игроку предстоит преодолеть испытания, чтобы найти смысл жизни. Графика минималистична, но создаёт уютную атмосферу. Музыка и звуки усиливают ощущение одиночества и медитативности. Игровой процесс спокойный, с акцентом на размышления и решение логических задач. Однако сюжет может показаться слишком абстрактным для некоторых. В целом — отличный выбор для любителей тихих приключений и философских отсылок.
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