Re: FREE GAME: Sunless Skies

On 6/27/2024 8:02 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

 <BANG!> Yes, that's how I'll open this week's free-game-on-Epic
announcement. I'll open it with a BANG! There's no reason for this
onomatopoetic explosion; it's just there as a starter. But now that is
out of the way, we can get to the actual game.
   * Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/sunless-skies-bb4947
    This game, for me, is the epitome of Indie gaming: a
    solid title with workable (but slightly flawed) mechanics,
    an interesting (usually offbeat) concept, and visuals that
    are /just good/ enough. Take your steampunk spaceship out
    into the darkest pockets of ether-space, discovering strange
    aliens and horrors beyond imagining. The gameplay is a
    weird mixture of rogue-like shooter, RPG, space-trader
    sim... and visual novel? It's... fine. Honestly, I find
    the appeal of the game drains away pretty quickly, but
    I can appreciate the innovation.  The "Sovereign
    Edition" is essentially the base game with several
    years of bug-fixes and feature improvements.
   Your appreciation of this game will largely depend on how well you can
tolerate the "Indie-ness" it brings to the table. Either way, you have
only seven days to claim the game before you miss out... and then it's
gone and all you'll be able to do then is >whimper<.
 

This is set in the "Fallen London" universe.  There is an on-line RPG-like game where you play someone trying to build their fortune and get involved in some supernatural weirdness along the way.  I played it for some years, some years ago.  It gets VERY grindy at higher levels.
Then there is 'Sunless Seas', which expands a bit on the 'Fallen London' game and setting while being very different.  I've played that as well and its good.  Tough but interesting.
'Sunless Skies' is a quasi-sequal to 'Sunless Seas', using the same basic mechanics but was intended to be an upgrade and expansion.  It is set at some AFAIK indefinite future from 'Fallen London' and 'Sunless Seas'.  I had difficulty getting into it when it first came out and gave up pretty quick for various reasons, not all of which had to do with the game.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky dirty old man.