Sunless Sea

What an amazing world this game takes place in! It's VERY original and with great artwork does the job of presenting and immersing you into a Cthulu-esque setting. You are the owner of a ship and try to survive in an underground sea in a steampunk setting. Trading, fighting and exploring are the main ways to make money and upgrade your ship, hire employees and invest in town-building. But don't invest too much in your current character: you'll die often. Which is accounted for, as you basically build a legacy, but unfortunately, it takes away a lot of the possible enjoyment of this game. My first experience with this was when I finally managed to make enough money that I could venture out into the dark and explore more of the world (you have to have enough coal and food for a longer journey, otherwise you run into problems quick). I was nearing my limit and running out of resources when I saw a new town. I docked there, ready to replenish everything. But I made too little by trading and wasn't able to buy enough to get me back. So I was kind of forced to continue exploring, ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere, sat there for a while, lost a few employees to insanity, and eventually my captain died. I restarted, did the same routine for about an hour to save up enough money to try again. I was halfway when an ice giant came into view, did some sort of ground stomp and killed my ship in one blow. I restarted, did the same routine for about an hour, explored a new area, met two pirate ships and got destroyed without getting of a shot. After restarting three more times, I was done with this game and never looked at it again.

This game is difficult. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you. However, despite the difficulty, this game sucked me in with atmosphere and story driven game-play. Prepare to have captain after captain die on you... But prepare to be intrigued to no end as you seek how to stay alive, or what might happen if you make one decision over another. Also be prepared to be afraid. Genuinely afraid. When you're out on the open under-zee and you turn the lights on your boat off to save on fuel... There is terror. Will you make it to another port? Will you ever see your home again? Are you and your crew lost? What is that sound? This game is designed to push you to extremes and make you both curious and afraid. It is wonderful, and I recommend it highly.

Really could not get into this game, everything about it just felt subpar.

From the looks of it I figured it to be a darker version of the old Pirates! game. And it is, in it's own right. But for my taste there are way too many different 'resources'. So many it stops being immersive, and more like a board game with the main challenge to remember where to get the exact resources for the current story line. A whole game full of memorize sources and fetch things, strung together with dark steampunk/horror stories. Entertaining, but a far cry from strategy gems like Master of Orion, exploration highlights like Morrowind, text-monsters like Planescape, or steampunk RPGs like Arcanum. I'll keep playing it for the larger story that is - ever so slowly - unfolding, but while I like the world I find the game mechanics a bit tedious. Hmm.. maybe 3,5 stars.. I might have been lucky (or overly careful) so far, but the game seems not quite as hard as most people say. Just very, very slow. Still have my first captain, almost the whole map uncovered, but still the first ship and the first engine...

Judging by their name Failbetter games are a collection of idiot trolls. Think of something - literally anything - you could waste your time doing and whatever it is it's time better spent than a second's worth of attention wasted on Sunless Sea. It's time you're never getting back. Sunless Sea isn't challenging. It's 90% figuring out the correct order to do things so you have a perfect chance at passing rng challenges and so you don't run out of resources... and 10% luck. There is no skill and no thought involved. The dolts at Failbetter tell you you're going to fail a lot and ya know what? That's not okay, especially since there's no real benefit to doing so like they claim. Do you really want to spend hours with such mind numbing tedium only to suddenly have it all lost through no fault of your own? And it is godawful tedium too! The movement speed is an absolute joke. Forward progress is slow and - actually there is no progress. If you're lucky and discover the exploits that actually allow you to grind out resources in the most infurriatingly tedious way conceivable until you're actually able to afford better ships and upgrades, then congratulations you suck at life! No seriously, all you're really getting are some higher stats so you can have a better chance at... what, exactly? This "game" has no point. No objectives that make sense and never pay off. Whatever passes for a narrative here amounts to nothing more than ZOMG RANDOMZ!! and shallow inane attempts at what I can only guess is supposed to be humor. Sunless Sea is a glorified browser game. It's not worth playing at any price because it's not even worth anyone's time. If it shows up for free, give it a hard pass.