Sunless Sea

The core of the game is the writing, which I don't find all that good. And without the writing, the gameplay is far too weak to stand on its own two feet.

An exceptionally well written, atmospheric and content rich roguelike sailing game. It filters the usual suspects, people too dumb to read, too impatient to explore, too distracted to plan ahead, etc. if you don't consider yourself these things don't take advice from those who are these things. That is, every negative review. What this game sets out to do it does masterfully. Whatever expectations I set going into this game have gotten exceeded again and again. Every time I tell me myself "well surely NOW I've heard about everything in the game" I then stumble on some new rabbit hole showing me hours more of potential gameplay. To put it in context, in 50 hours I have not gotten a single ending or finished a single "ambition" yet, of which there is like a dozen. If I did get one ending it would take me roughly the same amount of time to get to the others. Since you need a new character. So there are easily hundreds of hours of exploration and reading to be had here together with the DLC. The stories are fantastic, the setting is incredibly deep, and the gameplay is simple but adequate. If this game seems like something you would enjoy don't miss it.

okay it hangs then it crashes and when it finally works, the whole UI disappears and i can't do a thing. not sure if the unity engine is plain bad for integrated graphics or if this game is just a really bad (forever in) beta game? I rather play the silly "causal" browser game.

If you are an avid reader and have a lot of imagination this one is for you.Your kaptain will often die on high seas if you do not make the right decisions. The setting is in the Fallen London tales

Were this a professional review, I probably wouldn't give five stars. I consider these reviews subjective, however, not objective, and can only describe my own experiences here. A review based on how I feel folks generally would respond to the game would probably have a number of stars based on a clearly defined scale elsewhere on the site. The only reason I say "your mileage may vary" is because my experience of this game has, apparently, been vastly more pleasant than that of others. So far, I am the only person I know who is unambiguously and simply very, very fond of Sunless Sea. I would compare the game to FTL or ZAngband, but neither of these has any safety nets for failure that I've encountered, which makes a considerable difference in enjoyment. Pros: I've been playing it nonstop for a week plus, and it's proven stable. I haven't encountered any errors to my knowledge. The lore seems internally consistent. It is possible to make progress, and there is a joy to seeing substantial differences as one captain gives way to the next. For me, at least. It could all come crashing down, but the game does reward early conservative playstyles, despite a general sense of time pressure. Cons: I've actually lost some sleep playing this game into long hours. There's some skinner box mechanics which can be addictive. It's slow going, and it can all crash down on you if a combination of bad luck and poor planning result in vast losses.