Sunless Sea is a survival role playing roguelike game developed and released on February 6th, 2015 by Failbetter Games on PC and Mac.

Development

In 2009, the same company had launched a browser game called Fallen London that sets up the universe this game also takes place in, a topic I will talk about later in the post. On September 3rd, 2013, they launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the game with a goal of 60,000 british Pounds. After a month, they had received over 100,000 GBP from over 4000 backers and development was under way. In May 2014, a Steam Greenlight campaign was also launched receiving approval after only 15 days.

On June 17th, 2014, an early build of the game was released on the official website; it also entered in the Early Access Steam program on June 1st, receiving updates continuously up until launch. Downloadable content was also released later in 2016 called Zubmariner that added another layer for the world.

Setting and Origins

The original browser game, initially called Echo Bazaar was a choose your own adventure game. It was set in an alternative victorian era London with heavy gothic influences. This London had fallen and its boroughs are now embodied by different islands that inhabit the underground sea known as the Unterzee. The bazaar they all collectively make is a sentient being that is regulated by several Masters over different areas. The city came to this state because in 1861 it had been sold to the bazaar by the Traitor Empress to save her dying husband, and it was taken a mile underground by a swarm of bats.

London is not the only city to find itself in this predicament. In fact, it is the fifth to be taken over a period of thousands of years, though the lore has it that is still maintains contact with the surface. Because now it is closer to hell, the known rules of reality no longer apply. Different devils and sea creatures roam the Unterzee and the surrounding isles instilling fear in the local populace. There are places where inanimate objects come to life as well, providing both enemies and golems, a source of cheap labour.

Gameplay

Sunless Sea takes place in the world its predecessor brought to life. In it the player starts off as an explorer whose traits and goals you can quickly set up before you take the helm of a small steamboat. As an aspiring captain, you start off in London's harbours with some food and fuel and a little saved up cash. Now a few avenues open up for you during your exploration. You can visit surrounding isles and talk to the locals to help them out. Doing so can reward you with snippets of lore, resources and crew members.

But these new allies on your ship also require food, so one should not stray too far from port as you'll soon find dangerous creatures abound and the lack of supplies can push you to make some horrific decisions to stay alive and achieve your goals. But are your dreams worth following more than that of your followers? You can choose to let them loose or keep them on at a cost. Each such decision you make can have far reaching ramifications on the world you inhabit.

Discovering it during your travels is one way to win, but you can also try to amass wealth to retire. You can do this by either trading with the numerous isles, by doing their bidding or by Clearing the monsters around. Depending on the monsters or factions you fight you can earn money, food for your crew, different artefacts and fuel. Some of those artefacts are illegal and can get you in trouble with the ruling police force but can reach a high price on the black market or sometimes they might be a valuable commodity for someone.

Exploration is key to uncovering this. Also, upon multiple visits to some islands you might get treated to some interesting information about the world and its denizens while also doing some quests and discovering some interesting writing that contributes to a victory condition pegging you as a famous novelist in the game world.

Reception and Impressions

The game launched to mixed and positive reviews by critics but earned a high score by users of 83/100 on Metacritic and Very Positive overall user rating of 83% on Steam. This resulted in good sales of 100,000 copies of the game in one week after launch. I couldn't find any more recent numbers, but they're probably pretty good since it deserved a sequel being announced last year in the form of Sunless Skies and will be launching to Early Access on Steam on the 30th of August, 2017, and it seems to bank on the strength of its predecessor.

My opinions on it are these: it is a great roguelike that ditches the platforming skills you need in most games that rely on the roguelike elements. Here, you focus on exploring the underground world in search of interesting stories and quests and avoiding horrid death and weird, dark outcomes of yourself and companions. You can still get yo keep something of what you have achieved if you do die by writing up a will for your future playthrough in which you can leave a your new shiny steamboat, or money, or writings and connections along with what you have discovered of the partially randomised map. If you are into some interesting steampunk victorian take on sea exploration and ship combat, coupled with some very interesting writing that contributes to generating your own story, then I highly recommend Sunless Sea to you, just be prepared to do a lot of reading if you're interested, or just read the summary at the bottom of the pages, but you're missing out on a core aspect of this wonderful dark weird game.

Here's some parting fanart that emodies the feeling of hopeful fear you get playing this game.

What are your thoughts? Have you played the game? If so what are your thoughts on it? Share them below along with your feedback, it is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading and keep on steemin'!

(clicking on any image will take you to its source)