Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition

The problem with this game is the same as the problem with Sunless skies, 99% of what your'e doing is useless busywork that's not interesting at ALL. You're a locomotive in space... ok, so what next? Next you go from point A to point B over the course of hours at tedious speeds. Then you get a nice chose your own adventure short story in point B and go back to point A, rince and repeat. I thought Sunless Seas was boring but hey, I actually liked Fallen London, and everybody said this was a major improvement. And you know what? This is a major improvement over Sunless Sea, but that doesn't actually make the game play good or compelling. I bought this a few years back as a way of supporting Fallen London, I do not do subscriptions, sorry for not being sorry. And frankly, I feel as cheated with this one as I did with Sunless Sea. Do I regret having bought this? Honestly, yes. Sunless sky should have been enough of a thank you for the fun I had with Fallen London, I really shouldn't have bothered with Zubmariner and Sunless Skies, they're all extremely bad games. (not an exaggeration) If you want a decent game go try Fallen London, it's free. If that's too restrictive for your given it's limited number of actions go read Lovecraft. But do not come here expecting a good game in the same vain. The devs that made this and Sunless Sea really do not understand what they made the core gameplay loop of these games. They think it's narrative, it's not. It's wasting time going from point A to point B at ludicrously slow speeds. It's not reading, it's watching a small locomotive float over a background Amanita would be proud of. If I wanted an Amanita game I would have bought one. I was here for story, not interminable waiting.

How can a game that is literally a progression of low resolution images and 2d animations have performance issues. How can my 1080ti which runs Fallout 4 at 4k at 60fps stutter and lag when running this? The answer to both these questions is fire one or more of the probably overpaid art team and hire someone who knows how to optimize a game. Sunless skies is a beautiful game that runs the way I would expect it if I traveled back in time and installed it on the Windows 95 PC I used to play Riven on when I was 11 years old. What makes its lack luster performance even more disappointing is the pathetically low resolution of the game world. There is no reason that simplistic graphics such as these aren't rendering at high resolutions. Instead what you get is blurry, barely 1 K textures which severely impact the quality of an otherwise expertly designed setting. tl;dr a beautiful concept hampered by poor optimization and low image quality

If you liked Sunless Sea, you'll like this. Basically everything is an improvement and the stories in it are amazing. If you like your games to be rich in lore and mystery and such like, then this is the one. It's really a great game and worth the price.

If you haven't played Sunless Sea yet, it's a dark masterpiece that's only flaws are 1. how difficult it is to learn how to not get your ass kicked 2. how it can repetitive at times because even after 1000 hours played you still mess up and have to start from scratch in a permadeath system Both of these are your fault. Get better. Jokes aside, both these games are phenomenal, especially for those who loves exploration, adventure, suspense, and Rogue-Like *PERMANENT* consequences for your action. Don't like how something turned out? Don't worry, there's always the next playthrough after you crash and burn or split and sink. Great games, must plays for anyone who enjoys strategic survival.

If you like impossible odds, dodgy controls, getting killed frequently and starting all over again, this game is for you. You're off on some quest to a destination "south-south-west" or whatever, but you never get there, because either your supplies run out (and you have no funds to buy new ones), or because you get mauled by a "marauder" or two, or because you die for some other random reason. Utter waste of time.