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Laura has been telling us all about Fallen London, the cult interactive fiction browser game from Failbetter Games, for nearly a decade. It’s a vast and varied game centered around the Fallen London setting: a cosmic-horror tinged world where Victorian London fell into the earth and its denizens have been forced to adapt to a new and disturbing world. 

After producing two other games set in the world of Fallen London, Sunless Seas and Sunless Skies, Failbetter has turned its attention to romance. Mask of the Rose is nominally a “dating sim” set immediately after the fall, and working as a sort of prequel to all other Fallen London properties. 

Does this game work as an introduction to this decade-long cross-media property? Does it work for long time devotees?