Sunless Sea

This is my first review ever in GOG. So, most people address the "tedious" game elements, such as upkeep, resource management, and abundance of failures. Personally, I believe that's the side dish, not the main course. Other than that, I also believe they blow it out of proportion. Getting started in the game does take its time, and just like they warned you in the start: your first captain is going to die. Mine did, stupidly so. The game's appeal is not trading, nor is exactly encouraged. It's totally plausible, and contrary to what some tell you, you can make a living out of it. However, the real reward lies in exploration. Once you get hooked into the world you yearn to sail, to push yourself forward, sometimes haphazardly so. When every travel starts from London, you want to stretch as much as you can before going back, and this is the game's first and foremost pitfall, one that I hate to love. It reaches a point in which you want to keep pushing forward, your fuel, supplies, or shattered sanity notwithstanding, and I admit that the best moments I've lived in this game have been when near death... or worse. If you're looking for a merry trading voyage, a game you will complete in a realistic amount of time, or one you will thoroughly master and dominate, this is not for you. If you're looking for an authentic world in which you're certainly not the center of the universe, one in which you will fail and lose regularly as you straighten your efforts, welcome to the Unterzee.

This game has an inner conflict going on, but not to a point of being not functional or even not fun as many reports in 'User reviews' section might suggest. The combat in particular is fantastically bland and not complex or rewarding. This however is a minor complaint because the role of combat in the game is minor. Same goes to 'trading sim' aspect of it. Remember, starting to play this game is venturing into the world where London was stolen by bats, people's memories are condensed into honey and sold as hallucinogens and sunlight drives sailors crazy. Big money or big guns are not as helpful as a will to explore and take risks. Find new knowledge, establish connections, do not always have enough food and fuel for a trip back. You will be rewarded with pages of excellent writing. In my humble opinion it is a far better reward than a pouch of virtual currency or satisfaction of overcoming an obstacle that was designed to be overcome. Not convinced? ... You can have sex with a humanoid squid in this game.

The atmosphere here is top-notch. It is especially impressive in the beginning, when you haven't explored the map yet and all you can see on your map is little old you in Fallen London, and the vast uncharted sea around you, while your tiny boat chugs along with its light barely illuminating the dark water around you. It's frightening and relaxing. This game scratched an itch I didn't even know I had. I recommend playing with the Zubmariner add-on and I recommend playing with manual saves enabled. The game is too unforgiving with permadeath. Being able to save at every port lets you explore more without worrying as much about the RNG.

Deeply immersive, thoroughly engaging game of exploration.

Basically a text-based adventure expanded by some exploration and battle elements. Too much to read. It is also hard to get the game started at the beginning because the tutorial does not explain exactly enough how to play the game (how to use the menues and buttons, description of icons / symbols, what is important to buy or to do is missing) Positiv: You can overwrite the permadeath concept by the option for manual saves