The follow-up to Sunless Sea is in
keeping with Failbetter Games’
fondness for putting players into
crisis management mode from
minute one. As second in command
to a dying captain, you’ve got to guide
your tired locomotive into port, and
then take over. You’re free to choose
your own path from
there, but without a
map it’s not going to be
easy. Fame, fortune,
and a long-standing
mystery are among the
goals, but your initial
job is just to stay alive.
In many respects,
it’s similar to its
predecessor. At once a piece of
interactive fiction, an RPG, a survival
game, and a top-down adventure.
You explore the world at a slow,
methodical pace in a rickety craft that
can’t take much punishment, picking
up cargo and the odd passenger and
ferrying them between ports. On land
or in the air you’ll face choices
(usually between bad and worse)which can be influenced by the
character you rolled at the start, and
the dice that subsequently determine
success or failure.
Break it down to its fundamentals,
and Sunless Skies can sound
unremarkable. It works because of
how brilliantly those disparate
elements combine to
produce exciting
stories, from scrapes
you survive by the skin
of your teeth, to
moments your own
hubris gets you killed.
Where Sunless Sea fell
down slightly was the
way the natural
repetition of its roguelike structure
gradually sucked the life out of those
stories. You’ll soon discover Failbetter
hasn’t exactly gone soft, but it has
found ways to cushion the blow.DEAD AGAIN
Start again, and you’ll gain much of
the previous captain’s experience to
spend how you like, while keepingyour ship minus one installed add-on.
Depending on what’s removed, this
can feel like a real kick in the teeth,
especially if it’s something you
recently spent money on. In other
words, death is a punishment, but it’s
not too severe—and it can even be a
blessing in disguise. Every episode is
informed by the type of captain you
were at the start and the decisions
you’ve made ever since; some even by
your predecessor. And so while some
things will be familiar on a replay,
plenty won’t. On a new run, you can
pursue a new ambition, or go for the
same goal with a head start—perhaps
with a different backstory that means
you can use guile to get through
tricky situations instead of muscle.
Beyond the changes you make, the
sheer range of scenarios and potential
outcomes means you’ll discover
something new on every run. This
time you might risk pressing on
through a storm for the chance to
encounter a three-headed fox, rather
than turning back because you’ve
already lost half your crew, and bad
things tend to happen more often
when you’re short-handed. If it’s all
getting a bit much dying needn’t
mean starting again—when it’s game
over you can choose to carry on from
the last port you visited instead.
All of which makes it easier to get
to what really makes Sunless Skies
great—the writing. Evocative, witty,
and razor sharp, it turns text into a
reward—you’ll find yourself seeking
the right combination of items just to
open up new lines of conversation.
They’re the most important currency
in a game that gives you a clutch of
weird and wonderful tales to tell,
even when you fail miserably. In
these moments you’ll realize that
while you may not have achieved
your goal, Failbetter certainly has.NEED TO KNOW
WHAT IS IT?
An adventure on the
high skies, with
roguelike elements and
lots of lovely words
EXPECT TO PAY
$25
DEVELOPER
Failbetter Games
PUBLISHER
In-house
REVIEWED ON
Intel Core i5-8350K
CPU, 8GB RAM, GeForce
GTX 1060
MULTIPLAYER
No
LINK
failbettergames.com/
sunless-skies90
The sharpest writing
around wrapped inside
an adventure that’s
tough, but rarely unfair.
Failbetter’s finest hour.VERDICTEvery episode
is informed
by the type
of captain
you wereW
e have a Marvel Cinematic Universe, so why not a
Failbetter Interactive Universe? The third game in the
world of Fallen London also has its share of daring
heroics in the face of impending doom, but instead
of saving the world you’re usually trying to save
yourself. In a place where time comes in barrels and souls in jars, where
the horrors of the skies can cause you to lose your marbles, it’s probably
easier to lapse into villainy. Not least when food supplies run out, and your
crewmates begin to look awfully tasty.CHUFFING GREAT
Enjoy a train ride into madness in the disturbing,
unforgettable SUNLESS SKIES. By Chris Schilling
FOUR OFF THE FLOOR A quartet of faces in the cloud...
PARSIMONIOUS
CHAIRMAN
A bad egg who wants you
to take out the Tacketies—
for a fee, of course.INDURATE VETERAN
Scowling, scarred, and
smoking, she’ll pay a
pretty penny for your
port reports.AMENABLE
HOST
Help him investigate his
mysterious past, and he’ll
cure what ails you.REPENTANT DEVIL
On the straight and
narrow? Maybe. Who
knows? But now there’s a
corpse on board...REVIEW