Sunless Sea

About Sunless Sea

Sunless Sea is made and published by Failbetter Games, the London studio behind the browser game Fallen London, and is set in the same world. It was funded on Kickstarter in 2013, went through Steam early access in 2014 and came out on PC, Mac and Linux on 6 February 2015. The Zubmariner Edition, which bundles the underwater Zubmariner expansion, followed on PlayStation 4 in August 2018 and on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in April 2020; the console ports were made with Nephilim Games. There is also an iPad version.

London has been stolen and carried down into a vast cavern beneath the earth, on the shore of a dark underground ocean, the Unterzee. You are a new captain with a small steamship, a few crew and an ambition you choose at the start: find your father's bones, make a fortune and retire, become a famous explorer, or something stranger. Reach it and your captain wins.

Play has two halves. On the map you steer the ship in real time, slowly, by lamp light, and fight other ships and zee beasts with cannons and torpedoes. In port the game turns to written storylets: you pick from choices on cards, some of them tests of your five skills (Hearts, Iron, Pages, Mirrors and Veils), and the islands hold over 350,000 words of tales. Officers such as the Haunted Doctor each have a story of their own to draw out.

The horror is quiet and constant. Your ship's lamp is the only light on the water. Darkness raises your crew's terror, and as it climbs they have nightmares, see things that are not there and eventually mutiny. Fuel and food run out, giant crabs, bats and sentient icebergs roam, and stories end in madness, cannibalism or worse. Your captain will die, and the next one can inherit a home, heirlooms and money left in a will.

Against other horror RPGs it is slow, written rather than shown, and often cruel, and critics praised its writing above all. It suits readers who like Lovecraftian and Gothic horror told through stories, and patient players who do not mind starting over. Its sequel is Sunless Skies.

How to play Sunless Sea

1. Choose your captain's background and ambition, then leave London's harbour in your steamship.
2. Steer across the zee in real time, managing fuel, supplies, hull and your crew's terror.
3. Dock at islands and ports to trade, take on officers and play through their written stories, choosing options and passing skill checks.
4. Keep your lamp lit to hold the terror down, or put it out to slip past enemies and save fuel.
5. Return to London to rest and resupply; when your captain dies, pass on what you can to the next.

Tips

• Return to London often in your first voyages; terror drops when you come home.
• Carry more fuel and supplies than you think you need.
• Watch your hunger and fuel gauges on every long trip; running out far from port is a common death.
• Write a will and buy a home when you can afford it, so your next captain starts with more.
• Read the stories closely; many have choices that are cheaper or deadlier than they look.

Questions