Sunless Sea starts out pretty promising, with atmospheric purple prose, limited but effective art, and generally a good ambiance. You set out to sea and it feels like there's this big vast world to be explored. Then eventually you realize that there are only so many locations, all of which show up in every playthrough- so dying and starting over never feels like you're getting a fresh start, you're just mildly shuffling the map; the combat is frustrating and the trading aspect isn't developed enough for it to be a satisfying space trader-type game; and generally, an awful lot more is hinted at and implied by the text than the game ever actually follows through on. There is stuff of interest in this game, just not nearly enough to sustain the amount of time it takes to play it.
