Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition

Genre: Survival Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Digerati Best Sellers compilation, along with Slain: Back From Hell and Snakeybus.)

Sunless Sea was originally released on PC in 2015 and brought to the Switch in 2020 complete with its underwater expansion included, and it is a difficult game to classify. There’s not quite anything else like it out there. Probably the genre it seems to fit in best with is Survival Adventure games like Don’t Starve and This War of Mine, because the world is dangerous, death comes easily, and players need to carefully manage their resources or find themselves shipwrecked, starving, or lost to fear in the murky waters of the underground sea of the game’s setting.

If there’s one thing Sunless Sea gets absolutely right above all else, it is atmosphere – this game is absolutely oozing with it, and again, there’s nothing else quite like it. There’s definitely a hint of Lovecraftian horror here, but there’s also a fascinating alternate history at work behind the game’s unusual setting, with Victorian-era London swallowed up into a nightmarish underground, and its denizens adapting to life underground, with the culture growing in strange directions as a result.

This atmosphere is largely told to us through the game’s exquisitely well-written text relaying the first-person feelings of the protagonist as well as the encounters with various people on his journey, including the reactions of his own crew. However, this is further reinforced by the murky seas and cities the game’s visuals depict, and the somber and even a bit mournful soundtrack that breaks the silence every now and then. While this game doesn’t impress on any sort of technical level, the presentation here is nevertheless superb.

The gameplay here is fairly unique too, with players navigating their ship from port to port and either avoiding or engaging both pirates and watery monstrosities in battle. The money needed for the fuel and cargo that form your ship’s lifeblood largely comes from landing in foreign ports, conducting a survey, and returning to London to report on your journey, but there are other potential opportunities as well, such as purchasing and transporting goods, taking up offers of various interested parties with errands to run or seeking passage, or various other events you’ll stumble across on your journeys.

Be aware, like most games in the Survival Adventure genre, this is a hard game, and it is very easy to die, either to a misjudged combat encounter, or a mismanagement of resources. Right from the start, players are told not to sweat it too much when they die, which takes on a strangely cheerful tone for such an ominous message.

As much as I love how unique this game is and how wonderful its presentation is, I do have some issues with it that sap my enthusiasm for it. Firstly, it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how to make your journeys profitable, with early runs doomed to run out of resources. What’s more, the game’s tutorial is not especially helpful, especially with the game’s unorthodox controls making it unclear how to access pertinent information or vital resources.

One thing that really annoyed me was how the game refuses to let players keep any sort of map, despite that one of the key missions they’re undertaking is scouting the area for information – you’d think cartography would be one of the most important elements of that information. And as much as you’re constantly feeling the pressure to get more resources, damned if the ships in this game don’t feel slow as molasses in the water, even at top speed.

Edit: It seems I was in error on this point – the game does indeed let you keep a map, but from what I can tell, it looks like you can’t always access it. I chalk this error up partly to this game’s terrible tutorial and awkward controls.

As a result of these issues, Sunless Sea is in many ways just as frustrating as it is enticing. This game has so very much to offer with its delightfully unique world, its wonderful writing, its fantastic presentation, and its unique gameplay, but I feel like the game’s issues mean that this will be an acquired taste – one that some people will absolutely love, but others will find too frustrating to learn to adapt to.

tl;dr – Sunless Sea is a refreshingly unique game that probably best fits into the Survival Adventure genre, putting players in the role of a sea captain piloting a ship through the murky, Lovecraftian underground sea of a condemned Victorian London. It’s a brilliantly-realized world with a strong presentation, fantastic writing, and some unique gameplay, but this game is also an acquired taste due to its odd controls, unhelpful tutorial, and slow movement. If you’re patient and have a taste for something different and difficult, this game may very well be worth a try, just be aware what you’re getting into.

Grade: B

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