Sunless Sea: a combination of a roguelike 2D game with a modern text adventure. That certainly sounded dull to me. Buying it nevertheless got me one of the biggest surprises since I first basked in the glory of the original "Elite". The 2D "roguelike" part of the game has you exploring the shifting map of the "Unterzee" in beautiful, lovingly detailed graphics. Whenever you hit a port, you (can) play through stories in the fashion of a point-and-click text-adventure, greatly enhanced with complex dependencies among each other. These stories, like the game world, are shifting and can be quite different in another playthrough. The writing is superb, easily matching the best fiction authors I know. Failbetter Games also provides regular updates with more stories. Perhaps the most controversial part of the game is permanent death. While many people complain about it being unfair, I did not experience that yet. Unlike FTL, where you can lose a game by simply being unlucky, every single death in Sunless Sea was entirely my fault. For me, this is the one game that perma-death really adds value to, since it gives your decisions weight. Believe me, when your captain is already a week old, and you cannot go back to a save game, you will think very hard when that nice "Wistful Deviless" shyly asks whether you want to give her your soul for "keeping it safe". You can also provide for your "successors" by leaving them a legacy, so starting over will be much easier. Every aspect of the game is interwoven with stories, to the extent that you even use them as currency. For example, experiencing a small, one or two paragraph-long story might yield a "Zee-Story" or a "Tale of Terror!!" that will spark interest in the realm behind mirrors or other, stranger places. Sunless Sea plunges you into a dark, mysterious, shifting and uncertain realm H.P.Lovecraft would have created if he had the chance of making a computer game. This is why you will love the game - or hate it.
seriously, how much more classy can it get? This is also the reason why I bought the game on a whim, and I do not regret it. I played about 4 hours so far, so this is an early review. Other people mentioned the graphics already. I personally like them - for everything else, check the screenshots. Where this game truly shines is the atmosphere. You get some real suspense hiding (or running) from a bunch of robots with shotguns that really hunt you like an animal. It's a surreal experience, to say the least. And finally, the satisfaction of finding a revolver (almost out of ammo of course), but finally being able to blow at least one of the bloody smug bastards' heads off. Carefully, you plant an alarm clock and hide nearby while it starts ticking towards the chime, aiming the revolver. You only got this one shot - make it count! Did I mention this game has a lot of style, not only visually? :-) The only reason I do not give it 5 stars is that it gets a bit repetitive. Then again I have not seen all of it. For example, I just found an intriguing machine I do not know what to do with yet (because I got shot in the head shortly after). Some people will complain about only being able to save at certain spots. However, after thinking it over, it adds to the suspense. What you do counts, since you cannot easily save the game every other moment.
first of all: despite comments to the contrary, I can play the game _and_ the Elven Resurgence DLC without an online account (don't even have one). So that rumor is definitely not true. There is one _slight_ flaw when playing as "guest", i.e. without a Triumph account: the game does not store the start settings. On each start, I have to set my graphics and language preferences again. This unnecessary complication is the reason I did not give it 5 stars. The game itself is a very nice cross-breed between the city building of old Civilization games (though not as in-depth) and strategic combat. The AI isn't half-bad either and fights well. However, in the early campaign (where I am right now) the AI does not build as many troops as it could; i.e. it could be harder. Maybe that will change. The "heroes" have pretty different characteristics and there is a host of spells to choose from that can alter the direction of combat. I haven't had that much fun in a turn-based strategy game for a looong time.
if anyone could ever mold pure atmosphere into computer code, this is what it would look like. A quiet, strange trip along some interesting characters, albeit a bit short, judging by the first episode. This is definitely something that has to be experienced firsthand to be appreciated.
