Been spending the afternoon playing this... I'm lukewarm on the world/writing here (which may make or break the game) which leaves aside a lot of quirky design and smattering of mechanics that are serviceable at best, certainly nothing to win someone over. To say it simply, this game is a real slow grind... I've constantly been running out of fuel or food and had to cut voyages short (and it's adding up) The economy is pretty ruthless and while i've stocked up on almost enough cash to do so, I haven't even been able to upgrade to a better ship yet.

I'm still on the first captain, and feel like maybe i might enjoy it more if i gave it more time but it would seem pretty clear that further progression is going to be the same kinda grindy slow gated progress with maybe a hidden gotcha thrown in. So, I think I will retire my captain while i'm still ahead!

On a whim I put all my Epic Games freebies into a text file and used a RNG to play one game for at least one hour. Sunless Sea was the lucky winner.

The game is clearly not for me. As roguelike with visual novel elements set in a lovecraftian universe, it rolls together three things that indie games love and I hold with varying levels of indifference. The core gameplay loop is to sail around, discover islands and do fetchquests. When you dock into a port you get to read about your adventures in very vague terms and at the end you get some sort of currency, like "secrets" or whatever. In that sense it also adds spreadsheets to the mix of gameplay elements and I found it terribly uninteresting.

It's great to see original ideas like this in video games. Here we have a gothic roguelike set in an alternative version of the 19th century.

The gameplay is slow, punishing and held my hand less than I would have liked. That really suits some people but it made it hard for me to remain engaged.