SUNLESS SEA

Début très long et répétitif mais le jeu devient passionnant au bout de plusieurs heures, quand on commence à avoir pas mal d'argent pour aller explorer plus loin. Ce jeu c'est principalement un gros bouquin à choix, entrecoupé de phases d'exploration en bateau où l'on doit planifier ses expéditions. L'exploration a un réel intérêt car plus on va loin (donc plus on prend de risques) plus elle est récompensée, que ce soit en ressources ou en histoires. Mais au début on est forcément très limité dans notre progression, on a peu d'argent, de ressources, on est donc contraints d'explorer les îles proches. Au bout de plusieurs heures de galère on fini par avoir de quoi survivre et explorer plus loin, on commence alors à en apprendre plus sur l'histoire du jeu, c'est là qu'on découvre le vrai intérêt du jeu. Celle-ci est dense, très bien écrite et à la hauteur d'un bon bouquin horreur/fantastique, elle peut sembler décousue au premier abord mais on arrive à assembler les pièces du puzzle au fur et à mesure de notre progression : les histoires des différentes îles commencent à avoir des liens entre elles et former un tout cohérent, et on a envie d'en apprendre davantage sur ce monde souterrain dont on ne connait rien. Bref un très bon jeu d'exploration et d'histoires, avec quand même de gros défauts tels que l'UI qui est vraiment mal foutue, l'extrême lenteur du gameplay (tout est lent : la lecture, la vitesse du bateau , les trajets , la progression en général ..) et la répétitivité (car quand on meurt on doit tout refaire , même s'il y a de l'aléatoire au niveau des histoires et de la map pour varier un peu).

Sunless Sea is a difficult, complicated game. If you love Fallen London for the lore, the interwoven storylines, and the almost sandbox level of player agency, you will love some elements of Sunless Sea. If you also happen to love grueling survival horror that requires you to be good at pressing buttons and balancing resources, this your perfect game. If you get sad when your characters die, are bad at combat, and don't estimate distances well, you will have some things to overcome as you learn to play this game. Mostly the dying. Lots of dying. As someone who considers themselves not very good at traditional video games, I am not very good at this game—the questlines are complicated, the mechanics overwhelm me at times, and I often push the wrong keys and radically mess things up. But I've also sacrificed seven captains to the Zee and kept on Zailing! There's a lot to love here as you improve at the game, expand your chart, and dive deeper into the fascinating stories. Even as a very casual gamer, after 28 hours of pretty engaging playtime, I really feel like I'm getting the hang of it. Give yourself time to lose some captains, buy and sell the wrong things, repair your ship at bad times, buy the wrong ship, get into cannibalism, accidentally lose your soul to a Pentecost Ape, and have to start all over from the beginning. You will figure it out. Or you will sink beneath the waves.

The world and characters you meet are amazingly weird and wonderful. The phase of playing this game when you first explore the different ports is an amazing experience. Fair warning though: The pacing of this game is slow and once you experienced most of the distributed stories and try to acchieve a certain quest it can become somewhat grindy.

Based Lovecraft game with a cool sequel.

The game is amazingly atmospheric but awfully dull. Namely fuel management being utter misery and the combat being lack luster at best.

Sunless Sea: A Unique Experience for the Patient Explorer This review has been a long time coming. I've been playing Sunless Sea on and off for years and likely have way more hours than listed on my profile. I'll start by saying that I recommend this game, but only for a select few. For the vast majority, I would probably suggest staying away. There are several people like me who both love aspects of this game and despise others. The game is interesting in that there are phases where I feel like I've figured something new out and really enjoy it, but then monotony settles in. Initial Impressions The atmosphere of this game is incredible. The art style, especially of the islands, is basically perfect. The sound and music complement it well. Starting out, unless you have played Fallen London, most players will likely be pretty confused as to how the game works. It's somewhat like a visual novel with a lot of text and ability to make choices. Layered on top of this is a vast world filled with a TON of lore that is barely ever fully explained. You do start to piece some things together, but there is an intentional ambiguity that I personally find a little irritating. Once you start out, you're given some barebones tutorial-like quests to get you used to some of the mechanics, but this lasts only a minute. The initial exploration of the game feels amazing. It's scary sailing on the sea, not knowing if you'll stumble on anything. Early Game Confusion Pretty quickly, though, confusion sets in. Where are you supposed to go? How do you make money? What the heck is the "something awaits you" mechanic? The design decisions of the actual gameplay boggle my mind. Much of my early play was basically running a loop between a few cities where I knew I could make a little bit of cash, but it was barely enough to subsist and was painfully boring. Everything can be a struggle and a grind and if you die (which is pretty likely) you have to basically start over and do all of these things again which can be brutal if you haven't set up some of the inheritance/legacy system which is also somewhat difficult to figure out early on. It literally took me coming back a few years later to understand some of the rhythm of the game and how to get things going. Gameplay Mechanics One thing the game does, which I can't tell if it is irritating or smart, is that most profitable trade/quest routes will either completely shut down or limit themselves through certain mechanics, forcing you to continue to find new avenues to make cash. I would say the best part of this game comes when you've been reading a lot of these little quest bits with characters from far-off lands, and then you actually make it to those lands and see them firsthand. It genuinely feels cool and like an accomplishment. Late Game Frustrations Following this second spike of interest is where the game mostly started to fall apart for me. The progression in this game is nearly non-existent. The new ships are not that much better or exciting. The fastest engine in the game is still somewhat of a crawl, and you can just feel your time being wasted as you realize you forgot to trade searing enigmas for a dread surmise or to bring enough foxfire candles. The combat feels like an afterthought and is extremely simple. Leveling up your stats really doesn't do a whole lot except help pass skill checks, which sometimes don't even make a difference. There are so many random mechanics and weird things about the game that are just not explained; you need to figure them out or look them up, and I wouldn't say they are all very rewarding. Story and Writing There are a few questlines and stories that are genuinely good and make you think a fair bit afterwards, like the sigil-ridden navigator, but many are pretty vague and hard to follow or connect with. That being said, the writing is excellent and the creativity is off the charts. Conclusion At the end of the day, I'm glad I played the game, and it is incredibly unique. However, I just wish so badly it was implemented differently so it didn't feel like there was so much repetition or that so much time wasn't wasted just sitting there. I absolutely love aspects of this game, but I know there was a way to do this that could have been so much more fun and accessible. For those with the patience and the interest, you'll definitely love this game (but still be frustrated). However, I think many, if not most people, will likely just not be able to stick with it long enough to figure it out. Sunless Sea is a niche game that offers a truly unique experience for those willing to invest the time and patience to unravel its mysteries.

I slain God's Son, Mt Nomad in my Frigate, The Windmill My crew clambered upon it's peak, and seized the golden heart and a brilliant diamond What did i get for that? Couple thousand bucks after some trading Killing son of god, good business