So I've been playing Sunless Sea and I'm enjoying it
When the Kickstarter was going on, I hadn't been that interested...and then I checked out Fallen London
What an amazing world, a mix of Lovecraftian and Gothic elements, with a dash of steampunk and a sense of dark wit. It's extremely well written, bringing this dark atmospheric place alive with vivid descriptions. It's a world I wanted to explore more of and with Sunless Sea, I can.
Sunless Sea lets you explore the vast Unterzee, a sprawling expanse of ocean deep beneath the earth where grotesque things and terrible fates await those who dare venture into the abyss. As captain, you command your vessel and crew as you discover new lands, fight dangerous enemies, upgrade your ship with better parts and new weapons. Starvation, madness, mutinous crews, and horrors beyond comprehension await out on the black waters
You travel the sea, always mindful of your fuel, your food, the sanity of your crew. Pirates and worst things move across the water. Combat is quite interesting. In the damp dark of the Unterzee, light is your greatest ally. When fighting you have three category of actions: offensive (cannons, torpedoes, etc.), illumination, and evasion. Each action takes a certain amount of time to enact, and you can pause the fight and queue commands. You need to illuminate your enemy to be able to attack and also want to perform evasive maneuvers to reduce how illuminated your ship is. It's definitely an interesting take on combat, quite strategic
But the meat of the game is the exploration and discovery and the cost of pursing such goals. You encounter new places, collect weird and mysterious cargo from travelers, set out on quests, gather a crew, choose to stay among known islands or brave the suffocating dark of uncharted waters. Maybe your crew will go mad. Maybe you'll discover some incredible fortune. Maybe you'll run out of food and need to eat your mates to survive. Terrible fates await and like Fallen London, it's all delivered through such compelling atmospheric writing.