Sunless Sea
Sunless Sea
Positives:
The setting of the game is very interesting: you are on a boat...
that's about it. You have to venture to all sorts of areas of unknown to
discover whatever goal you are seeking, whether it be figuring out what
happened to your father or trying to buy a house and retire. Although
the game can be unsettling sometimes or even downright depressing, the
atmosphere sets the right tone with what type of game you are playing.
There is a right balance between keeping the lights on so you don't get
terrified or preserving fuel by traveling in the dark. Your crew will
get hungry but you can always try and find alternative ways to eat
through gathering the creatures of the deep or dining with strange
characters on tiny islands. Chartering each location you visit nets you
enough cash for the fuel you spent and developing a trade route for
about anything you can salvage will help keep the game moving forward.
You can either play the traditional rogue-like style (while passing down
your legacy to your heirs) or choose to manually save your game as you
progress. There is enough lore to keep you interested in finding more
spots on the map.
Negatives: Sadly, I only played for about a couple of hours. The game is rather cruel to beginners when you don't know what to expect. Your ship will feel worthless and you will constantly be running out of fuel/food after visiting just a few locations. The game forces you to return home to gain payment on whatever you collect. Although the game does have some randomness in the map and lore, the beginning of the game will feel monotonous (especially if you play it the way it was "meant" to be played) as you trudge through the same areas looking for new opportunities.
Overall: The game feels like it should have been made as a single-player game rather than a rogue-like. I feel the reason why I hated it so much was the trial-and-error in figuring what type of game it was trying to be. It acts like you should spend 40 hours exploring the entire map but then leaves you at a huge disadvantage without the experience (mentally and game-earned) of some of the most basic mechanics. The trailer does a great disservice to what I personally felt when playing the game. I think it is a good game, just not for me.
Then how about we take a short break and try again...
I've tried to figure out a good way to give props to this little indie game. The problem is I can't find the right words. My original review of the game still holds true even after exploring the whole map, but I can't look past its flaws. Let me pick them apart for ya'.
1) Enemy Engagement - When you are starting out, you have a weak little ship and a tiny peashooter. You will last 8 successful attacks by the enemy while it will take you 20 shots to destroy an average sized enemy. Run full throttle and boats will run away; tuck close to their rear and they will never fire. Keep creatures as far away as possible; back off when they charge and they will never hit you. Exploiting these terrible AI engagements makes it seem silly you ever tried to avoid them in the first place.
2) Islands - There are four things you can essentially do on each island: gather a port report (for fuel reimbursement), go on an adventure, have a random encounter, and trade. I love the adventure portion. You never know what you are going to find. My problem is with how some stories are tied to a "day" system. Basically, if you spend a minute or more out in sea you gain one action point and only one. This allows you to gain a little bit more knowledge of the island and maybe a small reward. Sometimes the islands are so close together or your ship is so fast that it never comes up before you reach the next port. Sometimes you need a dozen action points just to get to the meat of a story. This utterly destroys the immersion.
3) Traveling - Even with the smallest boat and fastest engine, your little boat will still take at least 30 seconds from one port to the next. This is a lot of downtime. Even worse is if you travel and unlock every island and die. The good thing is you can now save your game. Still like Eve Online, you will be spending a lot of time just watching your boat running FedEx from point A to point B. You can experience a lot of unsatisfying endings that simply end your game by accepting your fate.
5-13-2017