Sunless Sea

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 176 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 116 out of 176
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 176
  3. Negative: 28 out of 176

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Lobuno
    Feb 8, 2015
    6
    You play as the captain of a steamship in a post-retro-fallen-lovecraftian London UK.

    Nice atmospheric game. Correct graphics and sound for and indie release. The storytelling is good, a bit confusing at times because of the language used. The game is mainly that storytelling, and a lot of exploration. It can be slow and boring at times because of the sluggish pace. Overall a nice    You play as the captain of a steamship in a post-retro-fallen-lovecraftian London UK.

    Nice atmospheric game. Correct graphics and sound for and indie release. The storytelling is good, a bit confusing at times because of the language used. The game is mainly that storytelling, and a lot of exploration. It can be slow and boring at times because of the sluggish pace.

    Overall a nice indie game, but it sure doesn't deserve the 10's I've seen on several critic/user reviews.

    In mi opinion it deserves: 6.5    … Expand
  2. Meeleepit
    Sep 3, 2020
    6
    Sunless Sea is not for everyone. This game requires a lot of reading and imagination.

    Starts of very confusing and keeps this pace well above 10 hours of play but afterwards game starts making sense. Game requires a lot of grinding to stay afloat .

    Lore and story of the world is the best part.
  3. Foxman8472
    Feb 17, 2015
    5
    I'm not sure what to make of this game. It's roguelike, but has a lot of grind. It's based on exploration, but resource management makes exploration incredibly costly. It's got trade, but it's poorly implemented. It has combat, but it's minimalist. Resource management is very hard and that limits one's adventurous desires to just strolling around the neighborhood, killing bats underI'm not sure what to make of this game. It's roguelike, but has a lot of grind. It's based on exploration, but resource management makes exploration incredibly costly. It's got trade, but it's poorly implemented. It has combat, but it's minimalist. Resource management is very hard and that limits one's adventurous desires to just strolling around the neighborhood, killing bats under constantly dwindling supplies, dragging to the inevitable loss at the hands of starvation or lack of fuel.

    What are we playing for? The story is a mess. I know that it's an already fleshed out universe from Fallen London, but the text is somewhat cryptic, the design is not the most user friendly, and the tutorial is absent - so it's hard to delve in gameplay-wise, and I need that to happen in order to enjoy the storyline. It's got no info of where to go, what to start with, and you're just thrown in like that. And you die, and you lose (almost) everything, and then you die again.

    Under that hard, unwelcoming shell, there might be some sweet pulp; However, it's this shell that's off-putting. If one does not get a foothold in the world, gain something to push him forward or have any event happen that can get him directly involved. It's not that the game is bad, but it's poorly balanced. If there's a hook, it's hidden too deep and most people won't grab it. Shame, it did a lot of things right...    … Expand
  4. zappo
    Mar 2, 2015
    7
    I have spend now around 10hrs playing this game, and I'm ready to write a review. Let's start with a short summary:

    Seldom have I played a game that gives me such mixed messages. Sublime text based story and a truly wonderful world battle with bad game mechanics and pure boredom. And while I wish I could fully advise to buy this game, I feel troubled by some pretty bad design choices.    I have spend now around 10hrs playing this game, and I'm ready to write a review. Let's start with a short summary:

    Seldom have I played a game that gives me such mixed messages. Sublime text based story and a truly wonderful world battle with bad game mechanics and pure boredom. And while I wish I could fully advise to buy this game, I feel troubled by some pretty bad design choices.

    The good:

    This has been said before, the game world and the writing are simply great. The whole world, while really dark makes complete sense. Every port that you explore has new interesting stories to tell.

    The choices you have to make are meaningful, even if you succeed in challenges you often have to deal with negative effects that come sidelong. Like some artifact you get that is worth a lot but raises your Terror levels. The card systems is kind of artificial, but works really good. You always know what you need and what your chances are to succeed in a challenge.

    As a whole the setting is wonderful and you strife to learn more from this world, explorer the secrets of the deep Zea and deal with it's terrors.

    The neutral (People might find this good or bad according to personal taste):

    The game is really hard. Ressource management is brutal, most of your money is spend on fuel and food. Building up something extra takes a long time.

    You will die quite some time, and dying is really punishing in this game. In the beginning you loose everything and you will have to start all over again. If you find this troubling I advise you to turn off permanent death witch is an option. (But default is unforgiving mode, so be careful)
    Also ff you die there is no random content, except the position of islands. So you will have to go through everything you did again.

    Overall the pace of the game is really slow. Most of the time you will stare at your screen seeing your little steamer make it's way through an almost black screen. Of course this adds a lot to the feeling of the game, but if you are after fast paced action, you won't get it in this game.

    The bad

    There are way to little options for ships, equipment etc. After 10 hours I haven't bought a single thing! I have now 2.000 money to spare, which is not bad considering the time I spent and there simply isn't a single thing that would make sense to buy. I repeat that 10 hours in the game and I haven't bough a single upgrade because there is nothing to buy:
    - New gun -> you will avoid fights 90% of the time anyway
    - New engine -> makes you slightly faster but consumes more precious fuel
    - New ship -> WAY more expensive then 2.000 echo

    While we are at it: combat sucks. You will be stuck with a single gun forever because you can't buy another ship, so you have tactical options of 0. Also combat is really dangerous most of the time, so you will avoid it as best as possible.

    Trading also sucks. There simply isn't anything you can trade with the starter ship that has enough margin to cover fuel & food and getting a trading ship is really expensive.

    Also this is a roguelike game, but dying is the worst thing you can do. You will want to avoid dying in any way possible because it's so extremely punishing. The permadeath option makes about as much sense as for Monkey Island.

    The Verdict

    So where does that leave us? Incredible writing vs. crappy gameplay. I the writing good enough to take the pain? I would say yes, but turn of permadeath or you will never explore the wonders of the Zea and only do the same stuff over and over again (remember, the definition of madness...).

    This game has been compared to Faster then Light (FTL) a lot. But let me say this to you straight away: It's NOTHING like that. FTL is a game stripped down to it's core gameplay. With incredibly deep and tactical fights, fast gameplay and a different outcome every time you start new. The combination of ships, weapons, crew members, augmentations etc. are endless in FTL and you get stuff pretty fast. On the other hand the story is spare and you will just get to make a handful of decisions along the way.

    That is about the complete opposite of Sunless Sea. Story driven, slow, very spare random elements, a complete lack of equipment and very flat sometimes really boring gameplay. To break it down for you: In FTL hardly every nothing happens in Sunless Sea you don't do anything at least 60% of the time.

    Would buy again? Yes, but a very close one.    … Expand
  5. Azuth
    Jun 9, 2015
    5
    Interesting idea, wonderfully written stories with a lot of choices to be made and a world that initially seems interesting to travel in. The problem is that after a while (and a couple of captain deaths) the game starts to feel really repetitive and slow. You more or less repeat the things you did with the last captain hopping to progress a bit more. Trade is also limited and upgrades fewInteresting idea, wonderfully written stories with a lot of choices to be made and a world that initially seems interesting to travel in. The problem is that after a while (and a couple of captain deaths) the game starts to feel really repetitive and slow. You more or less repeat the things you did with the last captain hopping to progress a bit more. Trade is also limited and upgrades few and far apart. All in all this is better appreciated as a piece of art rather than a game.… Expand
  6. Sjalka
    Feb 10, 2015
    7
    Sunless Sea offers an open world with an abundance to explore and interact with. It has a beautifully drawn 2d top-down world and I instantly felt the victorian steam punk alternative world.

    However the game can easily overwhelm a newcomer with its many plots, sidequests and stories and items - along with a punishing difficulty (at first) that literally leaves you dead in the water    Sunless Sea offers an open world with an abundance to explore and interact with. It has a beautifully drawn 2d top-down world and I instantly felt the victorian steam punk alternative world.

    However the game can easily overwhelm a newcomer with its many plots, sidequests and stories and items - along with a punishing difficulty (at first) that literally leaves you dead in the water quickly.

    Once you become a bit secure and can deal with your most basic needs, the game turns into quite a grind - but usually offers more depths to it.

    Combat and crew management could have been much nicer - as i never really related to my crew.... at all much.

    All in all, the game with well worth it - and i can only recommend it.    … Expand
  7. mbcu
    Apr 5, 2015
    5
    First of all ignore all those big scores from "critics". If you think that a publication naming itself "Eurogamer" would be biased toward European games then you're right.
    This game is first and foremost is incoherent. Is it an action game ? No, combat sucks. Is it a trading game ? No, trading is so pointless there's even a loading message advising you against it. So given a ship and    First of all ignore all those big scores from "critics". If you think that a publication naming itself "Eurogamer" would be biased toward European games then you're right.
    This game is first and foremost is incoherent. Is it an action game ? No, combat sucks. Is it a trading game ? No, trading is so pointless there's even a loading message advising you against it. So given a ship and crew when you start the game, what should you do ? I can't tell because I don't know. All you can do is set sail, reach an island which hopefully gives you a little resource to allow you to repeat the process next time. In this game money is so scarce you'd even have to sell the introduction manual. A few ways there are to make money are available only in online forums. Even so these all require unreasonable amount of time for grinding and save skumming. It really doesn't help either that the ship moves very very very slowly. You will spend most of the time watching your little ship struggling painfully to get to the edge of monitor.
    Playing this game is like coming to a party when everyone is about to leave. Try as you want, you just can't get into the crowd. This game is derived from Internet game called Fallen London with rules and lore no one but fans know. Indeed it has interesting premise, about exploration and Cthulhu-like atmosphere. But with poor presentation and incoherent gameplay, I am not going to spend another hour finding out. Neither should you.    … Expand
  8. BSim500
    Mar 26, 2015
    5
    This is a difficult game to review. On one level it has a certain charm, graphics, atmosphere, ambient sounds, etc, are fine. It's very different and hugely creative. On another, it degenerates into a cross-between "rogue" like gameplay and the mother of all grind-fests. You can trade, but it often isn't worth it since most trades rarely cover the cost of fuel or supplies of the journey.This is a difficult game to review. On one level it has a certain charm, graphics, atmosphere, ambient sounds, etc, are fine. It's very different and hugely creative. On another, it degenerates into a cross-between "rogue" like gameplay and the mother of all grind-fests. You can trade, but it often isn't worth it since most trades rarely cover the cost of fuel or supplies of the journey. There's combat, but that isn't worth it either since it costs more to repair your ship than you get back. You can upgrade your ship, but that isn't worth it either as you end up far worse off in terms of increasing fuel costs relative to static quest rewards. Ship movement is painfully slow. As others have said, "story" seems to consist of 200x sidequests with no real main quest "glue". Game has a lot of potential, but also has seriously unbalanced resource management & mechanics in general.

    I think this is really one of those games where either the "feel" of the game will "click" with you, or it simply won't, and for me it didn't.    … Expand
  9. Wrathzo
    Mar 22, 2022
    6
    Sunless Sea is a survival/exploration role-playing video game with roguelike elements developed by Failbetter Games. The game takes place in the universe of Failbetter's browser adventure game Fallen London, in which Victorian-era London has been moved beneath the earth's surface to the edge of the Unterzee, a vast underground ocean.

Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best PC Game of 2015
74
#74 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 38
  3. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. RPGamer
    May 13, 2015
    80
    Sunless Sea is a unique experience that few fans of careful planning and literary cannibalism should ignore. Proponents of Fallen London's dark sensibilities and chilling, lore-rich writing will more than forgive its few mechanical trespasses; however, even less patient gamers may want to peek in to experience the sights and sounds of the zee.
    Read full review
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    May 13, 2015
    85
    Real history can be a bit boring, so that's probably why Sunless Sea is set in an alternate world of 19th century where the city of London was transported underground by bats. The player is a steamship captain who must explore the vast underground sea, battle monsters and solve different types of quests. The writing and the atmosphere in the game is excellent, which is why I was really drawn into the events that were happening. It's a shame that the combat mechanics are oversimplified and simply not fun. The game is also too difficult for beginners. [May 2015]
  3. Games Master UK
    May 6, 2015
    69
    Unforgiving and tough, but the exploration of an unusual world can be fascinating. [May 2015, p.63]
See all critic reviews »