KickStarter Sunless Sea - an undersea trading and exploration game

[orcinator]

Gave the expansion a try, game is a lot more bearable with increased ship speed and infinite money but still isn't worth the time investment.

You can turn your boat into a sub with a button press and explore the sea floor but there's not a lot down there besides the six or so new locations, random loot (and the occasional random event related to lootable things) and random monster spawns (which seem really random, I didn't even think there was undersea combat until an hour after getting the sub when the game spawned the big lobster thing next to me). Exploration is annoying since there isn't a separate underwater map.

Also the only new gameplay mechanic related to subs is an oxygen meter that does nothing since you can resurface at any time.

It's a shallow expansion. It doesn't add any depth. [WATER PUN]. [WATER PUN].

 

[anvi]

Tags include "Story rich" and "Survival", the two things I hate the most in gaming.

 

[Ludo Lense]

So I take it this game is still not worth it? The pace is glacial with vast majority of your time being non-eventful sailing and writing is terrible even for genre fiction, to my surprise. I assume the zubmariner parts don't fix this?

 

[orcinator]

I assume the zubmariner parts don't fix this?

It's just more of the same with a different background texture.

 

[Gerrard]

I love the "the game is clearly not for you" attempts at excusing the shitty game design.

 

[SionIV]

Has anyone played this game? I've heard a lot of both positive and negative things about it, but I haven't played it myself, and I'm tempted to get it.

 

[alyvain]

I believe there is a thread on codex already.

It depends on what you like. Writing is quite good, mythos is excellent, but the way the game presents it is staggeringly uneffective. It is not fun to play. It is boring, it is slow, it is quite unrewarding. The first four or five hours it mostly works, but then it becomes a chore to play.

Some geeks do like it, but 99% you won't. When I replayed it last month, I just changed the speed of the engine and fastened event-triggers via .ini document in game folder.

I had a hypoglycemic rant after I played Sunless Skies. It is more or less the same for Sunless Sea. Sunless Sea is smaller (which is good), less shiny and has the same not-game design philosophy (which is bad).

 

[Reever]

I've got ~80 hours on Steam. It's a very flawed game carried by the writing and atmosphere. The world that they created is very interesting and has a lot of originality. Some of the islands encourage replayability but quite a few are pretty static. A lot of the details you might not get since the game is based on a browser game called Fallen London but you should still be able to enjoy the story either way and having some things unexplained might be part of the appeal.

The problems appear once you get to the gameplay. The combat is I think where most people will be turned off. It's slow, awkward and makes a game that is already really slowly paced even worse. You can do what I usually do and invest into Veils (the Stealth stat) and when you get near a monster turn off your lights and sail past them.
On the other side, I think the game makes a good job of making you manage resources (fuel, terror, food, crew members) and encourages have a well-laid route instead of wandering around. You might not always stick to that route because of various factors but it helps.
The main drawback for me was definitely the permadeath element. It's frustrating being 15 minutes away from one of the endings and doing one mistake that ends up pretty much wasting all of your progress. Some of the endings are really grindy too. Knowing the game helps you reduces the chances of making a mistake but not always. There are things that you can transfer to your new captain like money, weapons and permanent upgrades, but all of your progress towards any island's storyline is lost. There's an option to turn permadeath off with the only in-game downside being a Steam achievement. The problem with that is that it removes a lot of the tension, in my opinion. Or maybe I'm just too stubborn. The game is also filled with noobie traps that might make the game frustrating.
There's also Zubmariner DLC which is very good, most of the writing is better than the original but is not required. I'd say pick it up once you know you'll enjoy the game.

 

[Zariusz]

I always wondered, did Codex Isle had anything to do with our prestigious forum or was it just a coincidence of name?

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

Leave it to the codexers to be overly critical of a game that at least tries to innovate and create an original setting! This is why you all deserve the decline!

 

[rumSaint]

I have played this game and must admit atmosphere and writing are top notch. Setting is very interesting and stories you get through are pretty interesting. Survival aspect is pretty cool and even if you fuck up it can get to some interesting conclusions. Zubmariner expands story to underzee and it's even better.

But game have some serious flaws:
- Pacing is awful early as it takes forever to sail from point to point;
- Even if you sail faster there is this stupid "something is waiting in the port" mechanic in game which forces you to go out from current location to get this info to proceed with plot;
- Every time you die/retire map resets (unless you have some specific heirloom) and stories reset so you have to go through the stories again it also undermines your impact on the world
- Combat is ass

I still kinda like it.

 

[whydoibother]

Try Dredge. Similar mood and general design, though different mechanically.