Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition Review

Welcome to the Unterzee. An underground ocean filled with islands and cities to explore, with interesting and twisted civilizations to discover. Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is brought to us by the good people at FailBetter Games, who have created a truly amazing world. One in which you take the role of a zee captain (not sea captain) as you travel from place to place doing everything from meeting interesting characters, to hiring crew and keeping a watchful eye on your supplies and fuel.

Sunless Sea is actually a bigger version of a previous browser game known as Fallen London, and has also won awards for best browser game from The Escapist back in 2009. I’m yet to try this browser game out, but it does look promising (and clearly had something to result in this full release) and it’s free, so you can always give this a go first and see how you feel about Sunless Sea.

“Lose your mind. Eat your crew. Take the helm of your steamship and set sail for the unknown! Sunless Sea is a game of discovery, loneliness and frequent death, set in the award-winning Victorian Gothic universe of Fallen London.”

A good comparison that I felt playing Sunless Sea was reading a book. It contains literally novels worth of storyline and multiple outcomes of paths to take depending on your constant decisions. There are some truly bizarre cultures for you to come across, and believe me these aren’t our typical everyday people. You will find some cultures blood soaked or scary and will ask you to do evil tasks for them, whereas some will ask you to wear a mask and act like a particular creature until you leave. Before you leave, its always a good idea to see what you can buy and sell, to try to make some money along your increasingly long voyages.

You have three main meters at the top left of your screen as well as a speed indicator. You must manage your inventory in such a way that you always have enough food for your crew, fuel for your steamboat and can maintain the sanity of your crew. Running out of fuel, food or a getting a high sanity meter can pretty much mean a mutiny is about to occur and you will, for the millionth time, die again.

Every city or town you come across has its own vibe, or theme if you will. Some islands are covered with spider webs from mountain peak to coast, some look like huge glowing mushrooms and others a volcano that could blow at any minute. It’s all hand drawn beautifully which from a top down view looks clean and visually stunning, you can see the effort that has gone into this environment.

Along with this environment also comes enemies. Other pirates and weird sea monsters are in the waters, so be prepared. Your steamboat does include weapons which can be changed to dual and rear later on, but for now you have a forward facing cannon which needs to recharge over time before it can be used again. Clicking to early may cause your cannon to miss and lose you vital time as your opposition come closer for the attack. Huge sharks and golden ships scour the ocean offering harder challenges later on in the game. There’s not a lot of action with this title, like I said its more like reading a book, and combat will likely be about 10-15% of your playthrough with the rest being decision making and chat boxes.

Conclusion

Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is a thinkers delight. Full of multiple paths and novel sized stories which will keep you playing for hours, along with a beautiful hand drawn backdrop to set the tone. Twisted communities and imaginative concepts, Sunless Sea is a great game for those with a hunger to explore.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.