The 39 Steps

Prepare to experience the original man-on-the-run thriller in a completely new way! There are secrets to be discovered, locations to be explored and - above all - an incredible tale to be told in this ground-breaking interactive novel.

The 39 Steps is a adventure, indie and interactive fiction game developed by The Story Mechanics and published by The Secret Experiment.
Released on April 25th 2013 is available in English on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

It has received 1,583 reviews of which 1,199 were positive and 384 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.3 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 0.99€ on Steam.

The Steam community has classified The 39 Steps into these genres:

Adventure Indie Interactive Fiction Casual Based On A Novel Point & Click Narration Singleplayer Story Rich Horror Thriller Atmospheric Touch-Friendly

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at The 39 Steps through various videos and screenshots.

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Requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

OS *:Windows XP
Processor:2GHz Processor
Memory:2 GB RAM
Graphics:DirectX 9 512MB card
Hard Drive:2 GB HD space
Other Requirements:Broadband Internet connection

MacOS

OS:OSX
Processor:2.2GHz dual core processor
Memory:2 GB RAM
Graphics:GPU 128MB+
Hard Drive:2 GB HD space
Other Requirements:Broadband Internet connection

Reviews

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Jan. 2025

I enjoyed the story. It was nice to get a couple chapters before bed. Felt like reading a book but partially audio book. Told a good story I do not feel like I will go back through the story but enjoyable once for sure. The art was great, the music and sound design gave good atmosphere and the mechanics for turning pages and the little interactions were fun.

Nov. 2024

Based on John Buchan's novel of the same name, The 39 Steps is a phenomenal piece of interactive fiction, that puts you in the shoes of Richard Hannay, a mining engineer, who finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy and a murder. To avoid being suspected of the murder, he's left with no choice but to flee. Will he be able to clear his name and discover the truth? There's just one way to find out! The story is masterfully written, being divided across 19 chapters and brought to life with stunning backgrounds set in Scotland and England. The scenes are further enriched by the use of white silhouettes to depict the characters, adding a unique visual charm. There are a small number of gameplay elements, like exploring for clues in certain locations or doing some quick actions with movements of the mouse, as if you were actually playing as Richard Hannay, it's not much but it does a great job to immerse you in the world. There's voice acting too, which really adds to the atmosphere, especially since accents play a really big role in a story like this. It was extremely well done, you could tell the great efforts that were put into this game by something as subtle as the voice acting. The music really sets the mood and does what it needs to do, giving off an ominous and unsettling feeling like you're not completely safe. There's an extra little feature involving cards you collect as you play, which provide descriptions on the characters and objects you interact with, it isn't much but it provides a bit more insight into the story which is a very welcome feature! It's a pity that the developers haven't released anything apart from this game, they definitely have skill to make more games like this but I'm happy they displayed their talents through this game. I strongly recommend it, it's free and a very worthwhile experience!

Aug. 2024

This is a superb adaptation of the 39 Steps. The artwork that accompanies each scene is beautiful and the music compliments it greatly without being intrusive. The story itself is a classic, a man on the run thriller. There is lots of intrigue and tension as the protagonist Richard Hannay matches wits with his pursuers. The voice acting really fits each role with great performances. It is first a foremost a visual novel so interaction is pretty minimal. If you haven't read the book or have and enjoyed it, I would greatly recommend this version. It's a shame the developer didn't go on to adapt more classics. I would have loved to have seen their versions of the other John Buchan novels.

July 2024

It took a bit of play before I warmed to the experience, after that I was hooked. This title is an excellent way to experience the original novel. The visuals are on par with a good graphic novel, and the music and voice performances are as good as any audio book. This adaptation of The 39 Steps was well worth the price of admission. I look forward to other titles from this developer.

June 2024

This was a really cool interactive visual novel to play. I never heard of the original book beforehand so I went into this completely blind yet it was worth it to experience the story this way. The game also teaches you a bit of history surrounding what happens in each chapter. If you never read the book, this is a really cool way to go about the story. My only complaint about this interactive visual novel is there's not a lot of interactive moments that happens aside from checking around a limited number of rooms and swiping the screen in certain directions to perform a sequence of actions. Other than that, this is well worth a look at.

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Last Updates

Steam data	18 November 2024 22:21
SteamSpy data	20 January 2025 12:01
Steam price	22 January 2025 20:44
Steam reviews	22 January 2025 21:59

0.99€

7.3

1,199

384

Online players

Developer

The Story Mechanics

Publisher

The Secret Experiment

Release 25 Apr 2013

Platforms