Sunless Skies - Two Minute Review!

Free from Epic games June 27th to July 4th 2024
Title: Sunless Skies
Summary: 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 for PC, Mac and Linux.
Release Date: Jan 2019
Developer: Failbetter Games
Publisher: Failbetter Games
Platforms: PC
Genres: Action Adventure
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Sunless-Skies is a narrative-driven gothic-horror RPG, where you navigate a train through space. Notably however, this is not a space combat or exploration game. These elements exist, but they make up less than 20% of the gameplay. The majority of your time will be spent reading EXTENSIVE walls of text, or carrying out fetch quests.
That said, the writing and art are exceptional, immersing you in the game's unique atmospheric setting and narrative. From the outset, you begin crafting a story that develops your character throughout the game, adding a layer to their backstory every time you level-up. This impacts your STATs, allowing you to use specific items, and giving additional options or probabilities in events. Arriving into a dock engages you in choose-your-own-adventure-type branching stories, with knowledge and resources used to unlock new jobs and deepening the narrative. Allying with factions however, will impact where you can travel and in-game events you will experience.
Combat is simplistic, with basic AI, and is generally not worth engaging in, but can mostly be avoided. Exploration is fun, with three of the four maps randomised somewhat each playthrough, and the constant risk of being stranded adds tension. However, the slow travel pace contributes to a sense of monotony and makes the gameplay loop of tedious fetch quests feel laborious. This game demands not just patience but dedication from its players. While you can upgrade your ship, they are expensive and offer minimal bonuses, highlighting a poorly balanced progression system.
Ultimately, "Sunless Skies" offers a richly detailed and atmospheric experience with exceptional writing and art, and many interesting mechanics and well-implemented systems, but the pacing, repetitive tasks and the sheer volume of text to read leads the game to having a very niche appeal. Only a few will be able to endure its 30-hour campaign.

[@seeess925]

Clearly doesn't know what progression balance is. Considering this is one few games that gets it right. This includes costs for upgrading having relevance due to scarcity. The opposite of poorly balanced. It's really well designed.