KickStarter Sunless Sea - an undersea trading and exploration game

[Angthoron]

Oh yeah, and another thing. When I get bored or seriously frustrated with a game, or one of game's unskippable aspects, I tend to use mem editors. It lets me skip the boring part and then it's fun again, or at least it's amusing in the sense of how OP you are, or all the paths that you can see that you'd otherwise need a full replay for...

Well. None of that here. I tried, bros, I honestly tried. It's just a long haul to long haul from one port to the next with little to no reward, zero chances at trade, all the upgrades are in London so you won't even spend time looking for better shit in different stores, stuff is gated behind "cards", half of which I've no idea how to get (and no, I don't mean Memory cards. The fucking Khan-stuff for example, what? How do I establish a spy network?). Encounters are largely unrewarding, unless you're fighting a rare monster, you better run because wow, 1 fuel and 1 supply really outweigh the hull damage, the fuel and the food you just ate, really.

Oh and to top that off, some of the Officers still have placeholder items that "will unlock in future content".

Are you fucking kidding me.

 

[Angthoron]

I think the reason for the writing's tonal inconsistency is that the Failbetterverse was written piecemeal over a long period of time, and these pieces have accumulated into the mess it is today, without the benefit of editing to retcon out the pieces that don't fit well. So we have what Kennedy thought was a good idea at point A (maybe he read some Pratchett), followed by what he thought was a good idea at point B (maybe he read some Mieville), and not something that had been planned out and thought through extensively in advance.

Yeah, it definitely gives that vibe. You have aforementioned writers, possibly Silverberg, maybe LeGuin, and it's all piled into this one jumbled unedited unproofed mess. Some of the bits are very good, I'll give it that. But most are not, and for a game heavily riding on text (Since we're already talking about SR2 here, let's continue), unlike SR2 where you can technically skip all the text quests and be none the poorer for the experience, this is really a crippling blow.

This is definitely at least a 50% off or so. It has merits, it has potential, it has atmosphere, but it's just not glued together well enough.

 

[Bubbles]

Oh and to top that off, some of the Officers still have placeholder items that "will unlock in future content".

Yeah, that's their usual business model, a bunch of prominent DLC hooks that might be offered three or four years down the line.

 

[Kem0sabe]

It's not really a proper rpg tho, despite the good writing and exploration, the character development is extremely limited, the combat is mediocre , the ship equipment itemization is not that varied, and the amount of backtracking and repetition is quite high.

It's a nice little game to play for short periods of time, I quite like it.

 

[Heresiarch]

After playing for 12 hours I find that the game is better if you play longer.

One of the biggest mistake for me was treating it like a Sid Meier's Pirates!/Space Rangers 2/Uncharted Waters. It can get extremely frustrating to play like those games because resource management and hardcoreness are much higher than those games. Once I put my mindset into as playing a survival game/roguelike, then it turns out to be much more manageable. Instead of exploring blindly with extremely limited fuel & food around, looking for trade routes which are far less profitable than other games, I weighted more heavily on how to survive, avoided unnecessary risks, etc.

The writing, as mentioned before, is all over the place, some are very good and some make me doubt that I am reading English. Some stories can be very intense to follow, which to a certain extent do provide a Lovecraftian horror feeling. The text stories are all much much shorter than those in Space Rangers 2, and you won't see game-in-game text adventures, but I understand that because in SR2 if you screw up (which is very possible due to the long length and complex solutions in most text adventures) you can immediately retry, but in Sunless Sea it is probably to punishing due to the roguelike, permadeath nature.

I haven't touched with combat aside from killing crabs/bats/the weakest pirates so no comment on that.

I don't regret buying this game and have actually restarted with a new character.

 

[Angthoron]

Yeah, that's a valid view on things, too.

For me it doesn't work like a roguelike because RLs are typically quick. You get from action beat to action beat quickly. Here, it might take a very long time, and the reward is usually just another "big whoop". And, of course, RLs usually have an endless stream of items, again, not a thing here. I feel that they should've hired someone that has a slightly better mechanical comprehension of RLs - faster into action, faster out of it, more player agency, some connection between text adventures and map action... Otherwise, they have top-notch arts, all-over-the-place texts, and very bland gameplay that doesn't know what it wants to be exactly.

Still, not an unplayable game, just not one that I'd give 100/100 by any means.

 

[Kem0sabe]

That 10/10 review from euro gamer is such bullshit

 

[sser]

That 10/10 review from euro gamer is such bullshit

I liked how they noted the reviewer was the only person not directly familiar with the game's writers. As if having an entire staff watch you 'rate' a fellow friend carried no pressure at all.

 

[panda]

Played for several hours today. The game quite addictive, but fells like weaker version of Space Rangers.
Core components is there, but implementation is just worse. Except setting/atmosphere - those are rather cool.
Combat is ok, but nothing more. Worst part about it so far is loot - hardly enough to cover fuel/supplies spent. And even if it was done intentionally to show how dangerous "zee" is, in the end it simply limits amount of roles you can try from the start to just fetch quest delivery boy. In comparison SR2 almost immediately allows you: trade, fight dominators(need to know what you are doing however), do fed-ex or occasional text quests, engage in piracy or be a bit of everything. Yeah +planet scanning, black holes, and even that RTS part.

Here initially you can't even trade because uhm... just because.
I mean, factual reasons quickly become obvious if you try: low starting capital, high fuel/supplies cost, unexplored map, single base/hub. Supplies cost especially strange: you can buy a fucking ship gun or two for the cost of rations needed to be able to travel 5 minutes(real time).
Why it was made this way I can't understand. To artificially ramp difficulty? It slows down your progress, that's all.

So, for the first hours you captain must struggle to survive do fed-ex quest and nothing else. Or he'll find himself couple of hours away from London in the middle of nowhere dying without fuel and food. Rather frustrating because you are bound to do the same shit over and over again.

However, everything becomes better later on once you can afford actual exploration. That's where i stopped with my second captain so far and i must admit i really liked long range deep see trip experience.

 

[omega21]

Is there still placeholder content in? That's why I stopped playing initially.

 

[Riso]

The problem with the game is the fuckers making it are used to do free 2 play grinds to get you to empty your wallet with micro-payments and they did not adjust to a proper single-player experience.

 

[Angthoron]

Oh, another thing that the game suffers from heavily is the lack of fellow captains. Neutral, friendly, hostile... Anything would do. As it is, you're the only captain in the world, despite the fact that it's mentioned that zeefaring is a pretty common profession.

 

[GrainWetski]

Darkest Dungeon isn't much of a roguelike, either.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Space Rangers was a flawed but very enjoyable game. Sunless Sea makes it look like a fucking masterpiece.

Played it for 15 min, quit. Gathered some willpower and played it for an hour. Quit. I don't think I'll ever try it again as I don't really see ANY reasons to do so. Maybe I didn't get it and missed the part where it starts shining and being addictive and engaging, but it's very easy to mistake it for some hipster shit game.

 

[Heresiarch]

Once you know how to properly make money and how to control your fuel/supply (which may take at least 3 to 4 hours), the game becomes much more fun to explore around. Not just exploring the map, but also exploring all the hidden events in each location.

One thing I do like it better than Space Rangers 2 and other games is that each location is unique and has many different random events that are once again, unique to each. This is a sharp contrast to most other exploration games in which ports are just copy & pasted locations using a samey menu. Another important point that seems to be overlooked by everyone is that most locations are not static throughout the game. Most ports have actions that you cannot do until mid or late game, or just plainly tell you to not do these actions unless you have a good reason; and even more interesting is that the game tracks how much time you have spent in the world or a place or what things you have done so far, and then all of a sudden a new action will pop up or a dramatic events will happen during your everyday trip. This really puts a lot of personalities in the world. Not to mention all the NPC quests, story quests, etc. which are all fun to follow and some have interesting moral choices.

I would also recommend to play the game with minimum consult to wikis because it will make exploration much more rewarding. The majority of items can be found or bought only on specific ports which the game gladly gives you basic tips so you can find out by yourself.

I like the game as a exploration survival roguelike with some horror elements mixed in; which is different from other non-roguelike seafaring/trading games. In those games I can easily work out a trade route or take a few bounty quests to rack up sizable credits/gold and then upgrade my ship and go blasting dominators/pirate ships, having no fear of the gameworld. In Sunless Sea I dare only to stay faaar away from anything that looks even remotely dangerous and if stuff suddenly goes hostile on me I would go SHITSHITSHIT and run like a baby. Even when I am ashore, with every new (and sometimes old) action I try to do is brimmed with both excitement and fear, because a wrong choice can very well destroy my whole progress. Or worse, sometimes I don't even know if that was a wrong choice until revealedlater in game.

 

[Starwars]

The change in quality in writing still manages to amaze me. Just found the Mirrored City (or whatever it was called) and "exploring" that was actually quite cool. Much better writing and quite a lot of it. Some locations are pretty nice.

I think I will continue to play the game at least until I've discovered most of the world, I do enjoy the game enough for that. It's just such a shame that there are constant annoyances that gets in the way of it being truly good.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The lack of actual npc captains is pretty jarring to the overall atmosphere of the game, also the amount of backtracking because you lack an item for a quest/story...

Overall its a fun experience, but not worth the current asking price. I advise people wait for a 50% off discount.

 

[phtmyr]

This game really frustrates me. There's something interesting out there to be found out so I keep playing but the game is so, so slow. Simple addition of a game speed option would make the sailing a lot more bearable. Implementation of a fast travel system with combat encounters done in different configuration (like in Fallout, Pirates or Cutthroats) would be even better. I usually set my general direction towards Fallen London and Alt+Tab out of the game until I hear a crash sound...

I also prefer if the text adventure parts of the game (Which are the best parts) carried out over a nice full screen interface instead of using the small gazetteer.

I'm about 5-10 hours in, still in my first game and explored most of the map.

It's an alright game but sadly doesn't reach its potential.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

7 hours in since the version 1.0 release, still on my first captain (First captain gonna die my ass), bored out of my goddamn mind. I'm floating near 2,000 ducats even after buying a house to raise a kid in and I've explored about two thirds of the map and done some stories and nothing interesting is happening. Quickly reaching (Possibly have even reached) the point where I'm just going to drop it. I probably shouldn't have even played this long but since I already bought the bastard I kept thinking "Surely it'll get better. It's just a slow burn. Once you get some money/see more islands it'll really open up".

Ugh. Kinda pissed it's as dull as it is because it's a fun premise.

 

[JudasIscariot]

7 hours in since the version 1.0 release, still on my first captain (First captain gonna die my ass), bored out of my goddamn mind. I'm floating near 2,000 ducats even after buying a house to raise a kid in and I've explored about two thirds of the map and done some stories and nothing interesting is happening. Quickly reaching (Possibly have even reached) the point where I'm just going to drop it. I probably shouldn't have even played this long but since I already bought the bastard I kept thinking "Surely it'll get better. It's just a slow burn. Once you get some money/see more islands it'll really open up".

Ugh. Kinda pissed it's as dull as it is because it's a fun premise.

Have you been to the Surface yet?

 

[Ulminati]

Yep. Premise started out fun. I even managd to die once due to bad luck. Then I realized you can game the system. Started captain #2 by getting a bunch of fuel, then went to the surface and traded in the Mediterranean until I ran out of crew. Capt. #3 had salvage legacy, which gave me a nice lump to start with. I did a few runs to the salt lions for stone (stopped before the lady in red questline), which left me at ~3500 ducats. Then I went to the shadow Khanate and bought ~20 lightboxes. Stocked up on fuel and went to the surface again to fill them all. Then sailed ot the Isle of Cats where I could sell each lightbox for 4-500 echoes apiece depending on how the skill challenge went. (Either 400 + keep the empty lightbox or 500+lose the lightbox). After a handful of those runs I bought a fully upgraded dreadnought, a townhome, a will and a couple of heirlooms and that was pretty much it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Have you been to the Surface yet?

Nope. From my early access look at the game ages ago I know that's in the south, and all my exploring this time's been the north and middle.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Yep. Premise started out fun. I even managd to die once due to bad luck. Then I realized you can game the system. Started captain #2 by getting a bunch of fuel, then went to the surface and traded in the Mediterranean until I ran out of crew. Capt. #3 had salvage legacy, which gave me a nice lump to start with. I did a few runs to the salt lions for stone (stopped before the lady in red questline), which left me at ~3500 ducats. Then I went to the shadow Khanate and bought ~20 lightboxes. Stocked up on fuel and went to the surface again to fill them all. Then sailed ot the Isle of Cats where I could sell each lightbox for 4-500 echoes apiece depending on how the skill challenge went. (Either 400 + keep the empty lightbox or 500+lose the lightbox). After a handful of those runs I bought a fully upgraded dreadnought, a townhome, a will and a couple of heirlooms and that was pretty much it.

You actually don't have to go all the way to the Surface to fill up those boxes as there is an island called Aestival in the Unterzee where you can fill up empty lightboxes and I think it's usually not too far away from the Khanate...

 

[Angthoron]

Yep. Premise started out fun. I even managd to die once due to bad luck. Then I realized you can game the system. Started captain #2 by getting a bunch of fuel, then went to the surface and traded in the Mediterranean until I ran out of crew. Capt. #3 had salvage legacy, which gave me a nice lump to start with. I did a few runs to the salt lions for stone (stopped before the lady in red questline), which left me at ~3500 ducats. Then I went to the shadow Khanate and bought ~20 lightboxes. Stocked up on fuel and went to the surface again to fill them all. Then sailed ot the Isle of Cats where I could sell each lightbox for 4-500 echoes apiece depending on how the skill challenge went. (Either 400 + keep the empty lightbox or 500+lose the lightbox). After a handful of those runs I bought a fully upgraded dreadnought, a townhome, a will and a couple of heirlooms and that was pretty much it.

You actually don't have to go all the way to the Surface to fill up those boxes as there is an island called Aestival in the Unterzee where you can fill up empty lightboxes and I think it's usually not too far away from the Khanate...

In my game it's directly on the opposite side of the map (London being pretty far West), so that's like a good ten minutes wasted on FedExing, eurgh. Oh and Island of Cats is SW from London. Urgh. Feh.

 

[Ulminati]

Yeh, in my game, the Isle of Cats, the Shadow Khanate and the canal to the surface all spawned close together. Anyway, the premise of the game is interesting but the execution is lacking.

For me to even consider taking it up again it needs the following:
- Non-hostile captains sailing around that you can talk with/pirate/help out
- Way more content. Like 3-4x as many islands so you can't know for sure that a given island will exist in a given game
- Stories tying better into the game. Most of them are just "click for resourses and maybe you lose a crewmember".
- Less fedex quests that have you going to the same place and back umphteen times
- Faster travel overall
- More crewmembers. There's only 1-2 for each role. And don't have them all be available in London.
- Less retarded pirates. They're piss easy to fight at the moment.