Sunless Sea

Visuals and sounds are pretty good and the game has a good deal of high quality lore. Unfortunately the game designers have confused the words "time" and "challenge". The amount of grinding and boredom necessary to progress in this game suck out all the potential and leaves you with just-another-mobile-type-game/timesink. And in case anybody are wondering: its NOT a rogue like - the world is not dynamic and will not change on new play throughs. And despite the permanent death mode - its not really difficult. You can get by most of the time without being particularly careful - and suddenly be teleported to some obscene location with no supplies. Whoops - restart the grind. Some specific problems with this title are: 1. Movement of your ship is slow as hell. Travelling takes forever - and it does only get marginally faster with upgrades. And its not making it any better that the upgrades takes days (yes real days) of grinding to finance. 2. The user interface is clunky at times and most story options do not have hotkeys (big issue when the game is a grind). 3. Quest / tasks are scarcely documented and essential information is often not available (in the Journal) after the quest dialog is closed. 4. The combat system is MMORPG like with a sh..-ton of HP and low damage. The first kill of any enemy type is interesting - after that its you and the eternal grind. Damaged? There goes the spoils to finance the repair. 5. Perma-death (lineage or not) combined with grinding is just a horrible design decision. 6. Most of the game world is just dark water under the boat - nothing interesting is going on. Conclusion: This game has potential - but i get the feeling that instead of trying to make the game fun and punishing they settled for dull and punishing. What surprises me the most are the lack of microtransactions - i mean why make the game a mindless grind if not to profit on the players frustrations...? Don't buy it in its current state.

Sunless Sea is a richly realized, immersive world with beautiful characterization. Playing more like an H.P. Lovecraftian version of the classic space RPG Escape Velocity (as opposed to FTL), the richness of the game's lore does a lot to make it a truly special game. Sadly, that is deeply marred by Failbetter's awkward attempt to meld a deeply immersive exploration-based RPG with Rogue-like game mechanics. Enemies with one-hit kill attacks, permadeath, or situations that intentionally cripple the player are fine in a game expected to be played in 5-15 minute bursts...however, in a game where hours or days' worth of effort can be destroyed due to random chance, or circumstances deliberately made opaque or confusing to the player, it's discouraging, frustrating, rage-inducing and unfair. I would only cautiously recommend this game, as even though it rewards persistence, the game will constantly throw things at you that will be downright unfair -- like characters suddenly turning on you, or disappearing for reasons that aren't made clear.

Sunless Sea will cause your confusion, your hunger, and your death. Intensely and often. It is a game of exploration and discovery, both inner and outer. The game designers have decided to lose their heads and then reassemble them using this game as the main tool of invention. The clues will make you ponder, the quests will make you frustrated, and the pirates and living icebergs will try to kill you. I've yet to play a game quite like it, for better or worse. The imagination used in creating this game is immense. Some of the early quests might get a repetitive since you'll have to restart games often due to death at sea and repeat them many times. It's also a slower paced game. If you're looking for instant action (or hate reading text) then this one's probably not for you. If you like bizarre, fictional worlds littered with odd characters, esoteric mysteries, and giant crab monsters, then this one's right up your darkly lit London alley.

I started playing this game when it was on early access and loved it from the start. The game has seen some big changes and balances since then and has improved with each one. Its all about choosing your story (or not) and then taking to the underzee (you read that right) to find wealth, fame.... maybe your fathers bones, its totally up to you. You are the captain of your vessel and its upto you to craft your own adventure. Fuel and food supplies are vital and each journey will require some planning. You really do feel tense when you set off to an undiscovered part of the map and dont know when the next port will appear. Random events add to your anxiety which can cause further problems or might bestow you with some lucky find. Fear is also a huge part of the game. As your vessel sails through the blackness your crew get scared and might behave irrationally and the terrors of the night might invade your dreams and give you the occasional vision. You can manage your fear by retuning to your home port or visiting the local bars, brothels etc, at other ports, or by leaving the lights on your ship but this can attract some of the creatures or other pirates of the underzee. Combat is simple enough and there are some tactics to it although having the bigger gun certainly helps and ship upgrades are available and necessary for those longer, more rewarding journeys. Officers can also be recruited to give stat boosts to your ship. They all have their own backstory which can be unlocked through sharing secrets with them. Imagination is your biggest companion for this game as most of it is text based, a little like Zafehouse Diaries, but you have total control over the ship. The stories at port develop wih quests or certain actions and are well written and sometimes quite chilling. The game is unforgiving but its supposed to be. Play it with permadeath on to get the most out of it. Now go and take to the underzee with your zailors and report back tothe admirals office with your port stories, secrets and moves in the Great Game.