Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition

This game improves the idea of Sunless Seas, with new ansd useful mechanics . For now, the only region avalaible, the verdant Reach, is very rich and full of life and stories and most importantly the game is currently playable without relevant bugs. I am enthralled by the fact that is only the starting point and other three whole region will be added.

(Full disclosure: I work at an unrelated business for someone who contributed some writing to this game.) Sunless Skies is a worthy successor to Sunless Sea, improving on its predecessor in almost every way: a larger world, more stories, faster pacing, streamlined controls, and improved graphics and visual effects. Perhaps most importantly, it is also much more accessible. The biggest problem with Sunless Sea was probably its initial difficulty curve and the requirement to start over almost from scratch with each death. Skies allows you to choose to make the game easier, for example by letting your captain to return to the last visited port after death or by being able to stretch fuel and supplies farther. If you're not familiar with Sunless Sea or Fallen London, this is a great place to start. If you like narrative games like 80 Days, RPGs with deep and strange stories like the Torment games, or games where survival and exploration of a physical space play an important role, you'd be remiss not to give this a go.

I've spent countless hours in the Sunless Sea and some more in Sunless Skies. The most notable difference is that the 'Sea was a brand new idea at the time. It was scary, punishing and so, so, so slow. The characters were amazing, stories terrifying. Coming back to 'Skies a few years later, it's like starting a game you loved as a kid and finding it's not as good as you remembered. Let me explain... The mechanics, graphics, art, pacing, music, it's all on a different level compared to 'Sea. But it's also been many years since that original game has debuted and the magic, at least for me, has faded. The standard for rogue-like RPGs is different today. And while technically a better game, the end result just only partly works. The atmosphere is eery, space is literally very alive and terrifying - I don't remember the last time I was scared to enter a new location in a game. But then, in 'Sea you had a vast open Unterzee to explore. For some reason the Skies act more like a maze you need to navigate quite often, which quickly becomes an exhausting chore. Combine exhausting navigation with spamming enemies and "random accidents", in the end I just started killing the game as soon as I died, just to get the satisfaction of progressing in the story. And that brings me back to my original issue. The writing was amazing a few years ago with 'Sea, but here it seems like it should have tried aiming for a new level, too. You have games like Oxenfree, Endless Space 2, Mass Effect, take your pick - all with stellar world building and narratives. Here? I felt like the universe failed to fully draw me in - always suspecting the characters are living and interesting life beneath the surface of the stellar game engine, I was never allowed in, only acting as a ferry, leaving me ultimately feeling robbed of a potentially epic experience. Ultimately I'm glad this game exists, but it also feels like it could gave been so much more.

Sunless Skies is my jumping-in point for this series; I had not played Sunless Sea or Fallen London, altough now I plan to go back to those at some point. I really like this game - I've played it to multiple endings and have gotten multiple achievements. Essentially, its kind of a medley of different game genres ie. pick up and deliver, heavy narrative, chose your own adventure, RPG, "dice rolling" from stats. I think what really sells it for me is the interesting, unique universe they've created. It's its own thing and the game wants you to put together the puzzle of its lore piece by piece as you start connecting little experiences, characters, and language (the lingo of the game). Its fairly daunting at first, but it does start to make sense. I rate it a 5/5, but its not without its flaws. I don't agree with some of the design choices, but they are sideline issues that don't merit me sidetracking this review to mention. The real strengths are its lore, sound and music design, art assets, and whimsical exploration as you do your best to increase your possessions traveling across the skies.

The trouble with story-driven games is that when you die you must start over. Well, it usually happens in most games, but in this particular style that means reading the same text and make the same decisions. As it is quite easy to die by combat or starvation, you'll be facing the same text over and over again. The designers had a neat idea: when you die, a new captain recovers what he can from your ship and begins from there. Nice! but then... Why I am in the starting port again and no in a port near my deathpoint? Why is the same Incautious Driver in front of me to recruit? (I ended really hating him) And the same passengers willing to embark, of course. Third time I started over, I closed the game and never launched again. Other issue is the money; one of my plays was quite long, visited a bunch of ports, traded resources and completed contracts... and was only able to buy a single cheap improvement for my ship. So the possible fun of improving your character is not there, either. Polished graphics and sound, good idea, well written text, and a good story that is a pain to go through.