Recent Playing: Sunless Skies
Oct. 17th, 2023 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rocky41_7I have FINALLY finished my first playthrough of Sunless Skies so here I am to talk about it. I should say upfront it didn't take me that long because I was putting it off, but because there's a lot of content and I've been very busy the last year (I graduated in May!) The Steam page description for the game is:
SAIL THE STARS. BETRAY YOUR QUEEN. MURDER A SUN. Sunless Skies is a Gothic Horror roleplay game with a focus on exploration and exquisite storytelling.
It's a very brief description for a pretty detailed game. Sunless Skies is part of Failbetter Studios' Fallen London universe, but you don't need familiarity with the past games to play this one. This was the first FL game I had ever played and I didn't find my experience hampered at all (and I've heard the gameplay is a huge step up from Sunless Seas, the last game).
First, Sunless Skies is a HEAVILY text-based game. There is gameplay, in the form of flying your train around the universe and occasionally battling enemies while managing your resources, but the overwhelming bulk of the game takes place in the text, so if you're someone who doesn't like a lot of reading in your games, this one is probably a miss for you. That said, the text is very well-written, which is a relief from some of the more recent text-based games I've played which just do not hit hard enough for something so reliant on the prose.
Second, the atmosphere of the game is exquisite. It captures so well the kind of eldritch/Lovecraftian horror I love. It never overplays its hand, either by wielding the cudgel of eldritch horror too frequently--it often lurks under the surface or just around the corner, hinted at but not seen directly--or by explaining too much--you must accept that most things about this world you will simply never understand, and that's appropriate for your poor captain.
Third, while the graphics are somewhat limited--the game is primarily an isometric view of the map with landmarks, landmasses, and engines seen from overhead--what does exist is beautiful. Even well into the game I still found myself charmed by the beauty of the stars passing by under my engine and the details on the map. The character avatars too are unique and varied, with so much personality in each of them.
Fourth, the options! Because it's text-based, Sunless Skies has a bit more freedom to give you a massive breadth of choices on how to play your captain and what you want to do while exploring the perpetually-dangerous universe. There are many things in the game which are not super relevant from a gameplay perspective, but which may make a huge difference to you and your PC from a roleplaying perspective, so if you're someone who gets really into developing your PC's motivations and personality, you'll enjoy this aspect.
Fifth, the game provides two difficulty modes, which is great. With the first, if your captain dies, you have to start with a new one. You'll retain some benefits from the last captain, but you will also be largely reset. Under the "merciful" mode, you have the option to continue from the last save with your same captain OR accept that captain's death and start with a new one. If you love a game that really challenges you, Sunless Skies can be that. If you prefer minor challenges and a focus on story, it can get you closer to that too. Sunless Skies, particularly early in the game, can be brutal in terms of managing your nightmares, terror, fuel, supplies, and trying to discover new ports and necessary landmarks. I've heard it's not as challenging as Sunless Seas, and there are various adjustments--such as aiming assist--which you can use to lighten the load, but it will certainly present you with difficult choices at some points.
If you want any advice, prioritize obtaining and getting the stats to use the wrath of heaven canon. It is ridiculously OP and allows you to 1-2 shot most enemies in the game, which is useful because the combat is easily, to me, the worst part of the game. It's so frustrating that for the first three-fourths of the game, before I had the wrath of heaven, I just avoided combat entirely.
Overall, this game felt really creative to me, I had a lot of fun with the narrative, and I've already started my next playthrough in order to play an absolutely bastard captain. Thumbs up from me!
SAIL THE STARS. BETRAY YOUR QUEEN. MURDER A SUN. Sunless Skies is a Gothic Horror roleplay game with a focus on exploration and exquisite storytelling.
First, Sunless Skies is a HEAVILY text-based game. There is gameplay, in the form of flying your train around the universe and occasionally battling enemies while managing your resources, but the overwhelming bulk of the game takes place in the text, so if you're someone who doesn't like a lot of reading in your games, this one is probably a miss for you. That said, the text is very well-written, which is a relief from some of the more recent text-based games I've played which just do not hit hard enough for something so reliant on the prose.
Second, the atmosphere of the game is exquisite. It captures so well the kind of eldritch/Lovecraftian horror I love. It never overplays its hand, either by wielding the cudgel of eldritch horror too frequently--it often lurks under the surface or just around the corner, hinted at but not seen directly--or by explaining too much--you must accept that most things about this world you will simply never understand, and that's appropriate for your poor captain.
Third, while the graphics are somewhat limited--the game is primarily an isometric view of the map with landmarks, landmasses, and engines seen from overhead--what does exist is beautiful. Even well into the game I still found myself charmed by the beauty of the stars passing by under my engine and the details on the map. The character avatars too are unique and varied, with so much personality in each of them.
Fourth, the options! Because it's text-based, Sunless Skies has a bit more freedom to give you a massive breadth of choices on how to play your captain and what you want to do while exploring the perpetually-dangerous universe. There are many things in the game which are not super relevant from a gameplay perspective, but which may make a huge difference to you and your PC from a roleplaying perspective, so if you're someone who gets really into developing your PC's motivations and personality, you'll enjoy this aspect.
Fifth, the game provides two difficulty modes, which is great. With the first, if your captain dies, you have to start with a new one. You'll retain some benefits from the last captain, but you will also be largely reset. Under the "merciful" mode, you have the option to continue from the last save with your same captain OR accept that captain's death and start with a new one. If you love a game that really challenges you, Sunless Skies can be that. If you prefer minor challenges and a focus on story, it can get you closer to that too. Sunless Skies, particularly early in the game, can be brutal in terms of managing your nightmares, terror, fuel, supplies, and trying to discover new ports and necessary landmarks. I've heard it's not as challenging as Sunless Seas, and there are various adjustments--such as aiming assist--which you can use to lighten the load, but it will certainly present you with difficult choices at some points.
If you want any advice, prioritize obtaining and getting the stats to use the wrath of heaven canon. It is ridiculously OP and allows you to 1-2 shot most enemies in the game, which is useful because the combat is easily, to me, the worst part of the game. It's so frustrating that for the first three-fourths of the game, before I had the wrath of heaven, I just avoided combat entirely.
Overall, this game felt really creative to me, I had a lot of fun with the narrative, and I've already started my next playthrough in order to play an absolutely bastard captain. Thumbs up from me!
