Sunless Sea (2015)

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.

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!

While I really wanted to like Sunless Sea, with its exemplary writing and weird world, I really couldn't get into it. Slogging through mountains of text and unclear cluttered mechanics simply couldn't hold my attention when I have so many other games vying for my attention.

I don't fault the execution of the game design (although I'm told combat isn't very good), just that unlike my expectations, I just couldn't get into it. Your mileage may vary.

My fickle and occasionally treacherous best friend.

I've been zailing the Sunless Sea for a few months now, and things are working out smashingly. Of course, my first few captains died at sea from madness or starvation, and a few had to retire due to crippling poverty. But my current captain is created a snowchild and rescued it from melting, is lead advisor of the Rat Empire, and is raising her son to follow in her footsteps. All that, and she still has her soul, as well.

Sunless Sea is an exploration game based on Fallen London. It's basically one grand text adventure, but Failbetter has figured out it's better not to drown people in text, but to make them work for it and graciously hand it out in little bite-size pieces. Hence: the boat. The boat that is your pride and joy, your prison and (more often than not) your tomb. It's your way to explore these wonderful stories, that are hidden away on the many islands of a map that is yours to uncover. On your first runs you will sail into literal and cartographic darkness. With every new run, you will chart more of the Sea and learn to master it. This is incredibly addictive. I've taken great detouurs just to get rid of the last of the nagging uncharted spots on my beautiful map. When I die, it'll be the map that I will miss the most.

People say the sailing get boring, but I feel it adds everything to the game. The waiting, the anticipation, being scared of what you might find, being scared of death. I can't count the times that something really awesome happened, and in order to follow through on the story I first had to take my battered ship and terrified crew back through treacherous waters, hoping and praying I would make it back alive.

So yeah, the sea is my delicious and terrible friend.