Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition

Unfortunately or not, my experience with this game is shaped by Sunless Sea and Fallen London. This lead me to a feeling of strangeness in the new universe far above the Sea. Took some time to swallow it, get used to it and, finally, love it. The great thing about Failbetter is obviously writing. Nevertheless, the Sunless Sea was lacking, for me, due to the 'lose-it-all' captain death mechanic. This is the best change in the 'sequel'. You don't have to be afraid of death, it's just a reason to try creating a new character with a new story. Would totally recommend for anyone who looks for a story and is keen on rather lighter dose of action in one's games.

They changed a ton from sunless seas and just about all of it was for the worst, the combat is a lil better but there are 20 billion enemies per square mm of map so u have to actually fight, the ui for the events is bigger and in the center but its uglier and unresponsive, u might click on somehting and nothing happens and u wouldnt know right away cuz sometimes u click on somehting and it just takes a while, u move faster but u controll somehow even worst that in sunless sea. overall just go play sunless seas its better in just about everyway imaginable.

Objectively, this should be an improvement on Sunless Sea: the ship is very slightly faster (keeping the mood while bowing to player feedback); it's easier to make money initially (so the early game's less of a slog); the writing still has some gems ("innocent as a gatling gun", "the only decency in the sky is that we bring ourselves"). And yet, it just isn't as engaging. This is still a four-star review; the writing is solid, there's tons of content, it's still doing something more interesting than the vast majority of games out there. But by making these slight improvements - doing what the players asked - its mood becomes less unique. It's not gothic any more, it's steampunk. The central conflict in the Reach (between tacketies and stovepipes) is like any other game's moral choice: you can pick the obviously good guys or the obviously bad guys, and receive much the same rewards for each. In Sunless Sea you chose between London (bad, but it's where you're from so you feel a sense of loyalty), the Empyrean (bad, but beautiful), the Dawn Machine (bad, but profitable), and so on. More minor moral choices almost always asked whether you were willing to do something terrible to gain a slight advantage. Since Skies is easier, there's never pressure to pursue that advantage - and even if there is, mostly doing the right thing has the same benefits. Still an unusual and good game, no longer a unique and great one.

This is great improvement from Sunlessm Sea, which has a far more forgiving non-permadeth option that it's predecessor. Combat is more fluid and enjoyable, and there appears to be a greater sense of adventure to the overall gameplay.

Vastly more accesible than its predecessor Sunless Seas, Sunless Skies does a good job of on-boarding. The writing is just as delightful as the first game, but tonally it hasn't grabbed me as much. The controller support was a big selling point for me as I'm a couch gamer, but be warned that at the time of writing using a gamepad is a pretty horrible experience and the controller support seems pretty unstabel and prone to breaking. If you enjoyed Sunless Seas you will almost certainly enjoy this game. If you didn't play the first then I highly recomment starting here.