Sunless Skies (Video Game Review)

After a rather lengthy Early Access period, Sunless Skies has finally reached its release date. Serving as a sequel to both Fallen London and Sunless Sea, the game ditches the familiar near-underworld cavern of the setting in favour of a new frontier: The stars. Unfortunately for the mob of pioneers in their flying trains, this new environment is just as demented, surreal and dangerous as the one they left. Oh, and someone is killing off the godlike entities which govern the universe's laws while you're up there.

The Synopsis

I'm going to skip on this one just for once. Why? Because going into detail about this undermines some of the allure of the game. Much like Sunless Sea, most of what you will end up doing is broken down into mini-missions and is extremely open-ended. While the story does have a start and multiple endings it features rogue-like elements and is so off-hand that the atmosphere, exploration and environment are its major draw. It would be like trying to outline Wing Commander: Privateer; technically you can do it but it doesn't fully convey the nature of the story or its style.

Thanks to Sunless Skies' story structure, in place of the usual image we have a link to the trailer video, which features most of the basic visuals and narrative stylings. If it looks good to you, then you're going to love it.


The Good

The world. All of it, really. It's a simple thing to put down, but Sunless Skies honestly features one of the single most engaging worlds that I have played through in years. Whereas Sunless Sea was Discworld if given to Alan Moore, Sunless Skies is Mortal Engines if given to Neil Gaiman. The very nature of reality about you is constantly in shift, you have entire realms where it is breached and completely warped, or forged from things which seem impossible. The visuals of certain areas create a perpetual sense of unease, and you can travel from a flying ruin of Big Ben to what looks like a crystalline organ of a long-dead monster.

The stopping points throughout Sunless Skies are much more numerous than with its predecessor, but it hasn't come at the cost of their quality. If anything, Failbetter Games in Sunless Sea. For example, an entire quest chain follows trying to fix a circus and its various acts, the complexity and requirements of which forces the player to travel about from one end of the map to the next in order to fulfil it. While in most cases (looking at you, Bethesda) this would be a fetch quest, the style in which this is presented turns it into more of a long-form puzzle. You need to consider how the logic of the very setting applies to the problems, and think back to all you have learned thus far. You might be given the odd location, but the game rarely resorts to a "go here, collect this" mentality with events.

Furthermore, the terror effect is back with a vengeance. While Sunless Sea implied creepy elements and moments of sheer horror, Sunless Skies dips into moments of full-fledged John Carpenter nightmare fuel. The most notorious among these thus far is the Liberation of Night in Eleutheria, where things which simply should not exist crawl about the area once the lights go out. Or, more importantly, anything relating to the Clockwork Sun of Albion and a half-baked attempt to create a British seaside resort among the stars. The latter especially can produce some startling descriptions of things which seem to be built from the ground up to be wrong. However, what is most impressive is how much of this is alien, but layered. You can immediately recognize its horror at a glance, but the more you know of the setting, the more terrifying it often is. This goes for more situations than can be counted, and it reflects on just how well the writing team has gotten to grips with the various minor elements of the overall setting to use each one so effectively.

Speaking of more terror, the mechanics of the previous game are back. As you can raise, level and progress with multiple captains, you can alter their skills as the story goes along. These are often used with various challenges, but terror is the most prominent among these stats to keep an eye on. This reflects on just how unhinged your character is becoming, as the longer you are away from port or in more disturbing areas, the higher it will go. When it reaches the top, very bad things happen. Ones which are usually followed by death. Some quests though? They require you to reach this point.

The actual method of traveling has changed substantially this time, as you are now flying across the heavens rather than in a boat. Rather than a rocket, however, you are instead in an airborne battle train. It makes as much sense in context, and within the overall setting, I assure you. How this changes things relates largely to the use of the ship in combat, as it can perform strafing runs, tight turns and abrupt shifts in battle. This makes fighting far less methodical than before, and focuses more on keeping track of multiple targets while estimating the locations of threats. As you have access to a variety of guns, this means you need to consider timing and range as well, and makes winning battles all the more rewarding.

The other management element which returns is the need to manage and upgrade your ship. Fuel, food and battle damage all need to be dealt with one at a time along with upgrades, and then there's paying for it. Sunless Skies offers no small number of ways to earn a living, with keeping track of economic demands or issuing reports being the big ones. However, it's easier to manage than in its predecessor and lacks the severe learning curve of calculating possible quirks or demands.


The Bad

If there is any one failing to be pinned down, it's the fact that Sunless Skies seemingly requires the player to die multiple times before truly getting to grips with things. Now, this is a rogue-like so it's to be expected, and the game does offer a vast multitude of interesting histories and objectives to work with this. However, the opening few hours are among the most lethargic, and it can seem as if you are putting in a great deal of effort to go nowhere upon first arriving. While your perseverance is rewarded, it nevertheless can seem as if you're banging your head against a brick wall for a while.

Another issue lies in how the game is paced. Most Failbetter Games are built from the ground up as time vampires, and have the content to keep you invested. The problem is that the way more than a few crew quests and major port events are structured means that you can go hours without any direct payoff. There are relatively few substantial missions which have a quick and easy payoff, meaning that, though there is plenty of content to go around, it can seem to take an age to get there at many times.

Really though, that's about it.


The Verdict

The story is most definitely the strong point in this one, but with such an excellently realized world, it would almost always have to be the case. It has stronger combat gameplay, a better travelling pace, and a less sparsely populated world, so there's always something to keep you engaged. It's honestly one of the few releases which I would deem an essential purchase from the indie market of late. If any of this has given you the slightest shred of interest, then I would definitely recommend giving this one a look. 

Honestly, we're barely into the year and already this is a contender for best game.

Verdict: 9 out of 10