Sunless Sea: Everything is Calm Until You Die

I was searching out some games as Christmas gifts for my brother, which happened to be during the Steam Halloween sale.
I had heard decent things about Sunless Sea, and it was cheap so I picked it up as an extra gift for my bro on top of the other games I got him.

Then the sleepless nights begin:  Will he like it?  Is it fun?  What the heck is it even?

Walk to PC, go to gift holding queue on Steam, download to self.

Then the addiction begins.

Sunless Sea premise:  in the 1800's, the city of London was stolen by bats (apparently this happens).  London was taken to the depths of the Unterzee, a dark subsea area where apparently there is some bubble of air, like a giant underground lake or something.

None of that matters.  There's no sun.  It's dark.  It's scary.  And it's called the Unterzee.

Welcome to Fallen London.  This is as lively as it gets.

You start off with a small boat, some crew, a tiny amount of fuel, supplies and money, and the warning that your first Zee Captain will probably die.

The game itself is mostly story-driven, with you exploring the Unterzee and filling out your map while visiting the new ports you discover and advancing storylines there.  Some stories are fast deliveries (deliver this stone to here, drop this person off), some are self contained on an island (talk to all these people, learn some things, watch the mansion burn down), and some are longer stories (discover the secrets behind your first officer's unknown past).

The scholar likes weird things from far away islands.  He pays well sometimes for curiosities.  And cool stories.

You can also try to do some trade, those the benefits are minimal (making a couple of Echoes (money) per bottle of wine you ship minus the cost of fuel and supplies to get there is incredibly barely hardly profitable).

You need fuel and supplies to survive.  Collect other cargo and curiosities to trade or advance storylines.  Try not to die.

Basically you'll be doing a lot of the same:  buy fuel and supplies in Fallen London, go out to sea and explore, and return to Fallen London before you run out of fuel or supplies or you go crazy from the Terror you build up out at Zee.  You get some of your money from either selling rare items you find, but most of it comes from visiting islands, gathering news there, and selling it back home for cash, which you use to buy more fuel and supplies and go out again!

Yet somehow this is incredibly fun.  A mix of relaxing boat driving and exploring the curious nature of sometimes wacky story lines of the Unterzee.  I love to say "Unterzee."

The many paths to fame, fortune, and weird stories begin in Fallen London

I discovered Mutton Island!  There's nothing there except a pub and some crazy people.

All seems simple and well and relaxing...but the Unterzee is trying to kill you.

At some islands, you may run into thieves, murderers, cannibalistic cults, dark cellars that are super scary, etc.  You'll be lucky to escape with all your money, crew, and sanity.

Things are scary.  Nightmares.

Lots of the story elements rely on D&D type rolls or something.  Basically you have attributes which you can build over the game, and can be augmented by the Officers you recruit to your ship.  Veils help you avoid being detected by pirates and Zee-beasts at Zee, while also helping your success percentages in rolls involving sneaking around places on islands where you shouldn't be.  Iron deals with boat to boat combat damage as well as story tasks involving brute force.  There are also Mirrors, Hearts, and Pages that all do stuff too.

As you get further from London, there's a lot of empty space.  The Zee is vast and dark...

Sometimes an enemy ship will pop up.  You can hide with high Veil numbers and by shutting off you boat lights.  Dodging line of sight around little islands and in fog can help too.

They can see me.  Everything is fine.

You spend a lot of early game hiding/dodging enemy boats and Zee beasts (the Zee bats are weak but incredibly persistent).

But sometimes you'll get caught.

You can stand a fight, where you get them in your sights and build up a meter which after a time (determined by your Mirrors level) can shoot at them.  

Or you can run.  Put your boats engine into overdrive for a speed boost to escape.  You might get away.  Or your engine might explode and bust up your boat's hull.  Zee beasts ramming you, crashing into rocks, and enemy boat guns also damage your hull.  It can be repaired (at a price) but once your hull is reduced to zero you drown.  Your captain is dead and you start anew.

On that point, you are supposed to die, especially your first game.  After each death, you leave a Legacy behind, passing on some things to your successor.  It's a small consolation.

Also the islands drift around after every death so your map needs complete reexploring!  Fun.  Tedious?  Maybe but for some reason I keep doing it.

My first Zee captain took too much hull damage from Zee-bats and my boat sank and he drowned.

My second Zee captain (after being unable to fufill the wishes of the Demonic Santa Clause creature Mr. Sacks and barely escaping his wrath with my soul), spent too much time in a dark basement and gained too much Terror leading to his crew going mad, a mutiny, and his murder.  Sad too, he had down some exploration, had a good business relationship with the London Scholar, was having a bit of a tryst with one of his officers, and had bought a nice personal lodging back home.  Oh well...

My third Zee captain got shot down by pirates after about only 30 minutes of play and no accomplishments.

My fourth Zee captain is ongoing.  He is bound for success, with the name Captain Smushyface.  His goal, amongst the other general game elements, is to discover the secrets behind the disappearance of his father at Zee.  He's got a nice upgraded boat, solid income, and is working on some foreign relations right now.  He is bound for glory....or an untimely death at the hands of a rock monster.  Who knows?

The temporary safety of returning home...