How is Sunless Sea now?

Sunless Sea
1

I had played the 0.4 version for 2 hours before, hardly say I liked it.

Not just because I am a non-native English speaker and those tiny texts are driving me mad, but the game mechanics per se is discouraging: endless repetitive grinding for money to buy fuel and supplies because they ran out so d___ably fast, the ever-growing Nightmare with no effective remedy and the boring and time-consuming battle. To me, these are distracting factors that hinder me from enjoying Sunless Sea’s story.

It seems Fallen London has influenced FBG so deeply that FBG is trying to copy and paste what is proven to be successful in Fallen London into their next game (which I think is totally normal because FBG has just create one game before). However, we all know that PC game is far different from text-based MMORPG.

Of course, merely 2 hours of play may be a bit too short and my comments above may be superficial. And I notice that Sunless Sea has changed somewhat (like the battle? I guess) after watching the recent trailers. Considering the close link between the stories of Fallen London and the Sunless Sea and FBG may open new storylets or opportunities for people who play both games, I wonder, as a fan of Fallen London, should I buy Sunless Sea?

So here are some questions to those who have bought Sunless Sea:
How is Sunless Sea now comparing to its 0.4 version? Does it worth playing, especially if you are currently playing Fallen London?

2

It is a lot better than the first early access version. However, there are a lot of loose ends.

  1. Unfinished content: Carnelian exile and Aestival are both unfinished.

  2. Combat system needs polishing: Can’t pirate ships, high level enemies are jokes with proper equipment.

  3. Really grind at high levels: Sometimes it’s just a question of how long you want to spend doing the optimal trading route to get those 77 secrets for the Zong of the Zee. I wouldn’t mind something like the Empire of Hands zeppelin side quests.

On to the good part!

  1. Super good atmosphere. Plots can be saddening or happy, has good variety of options and there are definitely well-thought out plots in the game.

  2. Good replayability: Over 50 hours logged now, nuff said

8/10, would not give it a 10, but if those 3 points I mentioned are fixed, definitely 10/10

3

Two hours is hardly scratching the surface delicious friend :D[li]

Believe me, when I first started playing this game I was discouraged as well as everything seemed so futile, I had no idea how to make money, supplies and fuel never gave me a break when I was trying to figure things out, it can be tough.

But give yourself a few runs. Accept the blind bruisers offer of free supplies, always make sure to compile a port report. Explore different options on the many islands you find, find out how they are useful. There are a few &quotBig&quot Quests that you can start relatively early in the game and provide a goal for you to accomplish with honestly mind-blowing rewards that really make you feel like you’ve hit a mile stone when you beat them.

Terror and Nightmares can be a problem at first yes. But that’s just the way it is in the beginning. Your early captains are meant to die. A lot. Heck, my first run I ran out of fuel and supplies half way to VenderBight, The tomb Colonies and sat there and watched my crew starve to death. With a couple of runs under my belt I look back on the instance and feel a face palm, I mean, it just seems so manageable now. Over time, the supply and fuel situation becomes second nature as you start to know just how much fuel is takes for you to go a certain distance and back. You start finding out how items in one port can be transformed into a more valuable item at a series of different ports for a net profit. You find out what ports give you valuable items you need to finish a quest.

The game really hits it’s stride once you know a thing or two about the game, which can be frustrating at first, but remember, your first captain is destined to die. (and his son, and his son, and his daughter, and so on.) but you go into each new run with a broader idea on how things work and suddenly the beginning doesn’t seem so bad at all :D and as you get further and further you can jump right into a new run with way higher stats than you usually do and with a lot more money, causing you to essentially &quotSkip&quot the early game and get right into the activities and quests you want to do.

The battle system at first is very… limited, but once you find yourself with a new ship with new item slots, finding out how some items you get effect combat the system starts to really flesh itself out and the rewards you get for hunting large creatures are well worth the fight

Overall I would say Sunless sea is worth playing, but I agree with you entirely on the beginning portion of the game. There is a bit of a, I guess, &quotKnowledge&quot Gate with this game that must be overcome before it really starts feeling good, but until then, I encourage you to keep on trying and learning as much as you can, it feels amazing when you complete a big quest that’s stumped you for so long in one run and then can do it with ease in another run.

4

To address the specific points you brought up:

  1. Fuel has been made way, way more plentiful, and since the map is now complete, there’s a lot more places to dock and a lot more stories to tempt you out of home waters.

  2. As stories have been added and completed, providing rewards that encourage an exploratory playstyle, FBG have ruthlessly removed most sources of grindable rewards.

  3. I’m told that Terror has been nerfed (to the point where some of the more advanced players now complain that it’s not enough of a menace; your mileage may vary).

  4. Combat, obviously, has been completely changed.

  5. FBG have stated that they don’t intend to make a huge amount of interlinkage between FL and SS. There’s a little, but neither is required for the other.

5

[quote=nameless]
high level enemies are jokes with proper equipment.[/quote]

Bugger fixing this one, because I’d never fight anything if it was &quotfixed&quot.

6

[quote=nameless]It is a lot better than the first early access version. However, there are a lot of loose ends.

  1. Unfinished content: Carnelian exile and Aestival are both unfinished.

  2. Combat system needs polishing: Can’t pirate ships, high level enemies are jokes with proper equipment.[/quote]

[li]
I hope they fix the inability to capture ships. Honestly each captured ship should increase a pirate quality which should open up stories at Pirate related ports like Gaidur’s Mourn.

Speaking of which, why do some of the less exotic, closer islands seem so empty? There doesn’t seem to be a major story associated with ports like Gaidur’s Mourn, The Chapel of Lights, Demeaux’s Island, Codex, Abbey Rock, etc. That or I just haven’t gotten far enough to reveal them. Why haven’t some of these places received the attention that The Principles received??

Gaidur’s Mourn, especially, seems under-utilized as it seems such a rich, central location. A bit of text there produced my first true &quotwow&quot moment (the bit about falling on to a skewer).

Also, I think letters of marque would be so, so interesting, with all the potential allegiances and necessity of identifying other ships’ flags, etc.[/li][li]
edited by MrChapeau on 2/7/2015

7

Thank you all for your sharing, I think I will give it a try!

8

I suppose these places don’t have major stories in themselves because they tend to have roles in major stories begun elsewhere.