BENGALURU: Sunless Sea is set in Failbetter Games’ Fallen London universe. To summarise (heavily!), Victorian era-London was stolen by bats and transported miles below the surface of the Earth to a vast underground cavern containing a subterranean ocean. Still with me? You are a captain, looking for...well, various things actually, but all of the potential goals you might have will require you to set sail upon the ‘Unterzee’, the titular sunless sea.
If, like me, you’ve had no prior experience with the world of Fallen London, that setup and introduction is likely to leave you reeling just a bit. That said, it’s hardly an insurmountable issue; on the contrary, the strange and fascinating world of Fallen London constantly teases you with bits of lore and knowledge so that you always feel like it’s worth your while to learn a little more about this mysterious world you find yourself in.
Although it seems criminal to pigeonhole Sunless Sea into something as mundane as a genre, it’s probably best described as an exploration-heavy roguelike. As a roguelike, the game expects you to fail (that is, die) often, at which point you’ll start afresh with a new zee-captain.
However, you’ll be that much richer in knowledge and you can occasionally pass some items or skills down from one of your captains to his/her successor too, so it never feels like a completely blank slate. Every captain you create can have their own individual goals and ambitions, from wanting to write a novel to exploring the furthest reaches of the Unterzee to ruling over your very own kingdom to just getting very rich. One of the most fascinating aspects of this game, though, is that — past a point — you can decide when you’ve gotten as close to achieving that goal as you’re going to, and retire your current captain. Putting the means to determine their endgame in the player’s own hands is a genius bit of game design and it makes the
players feel like they’re the masters of their fate, etc.
Which is good, because the game takes every other opportunity to mess with you. Sailing too long away from the lights of ports or lonely lightships means that your crew’s terror will rise — not good. Monstrous zeelife inhabits the Unterzee too — of course — so you can very easily go from hunter to hunted. Your range is limited by how much food and fuel your little ship can carry, so every time you leave the bay of Fallen London, you’ll wonder if you’ll be able to make it back again. There’s weight to your choices in Sunless Sea, because this is not a forgiving game.
You’ll notice I haven’t gone into any details about the plot of Sunless Sea, and that’s deliberate — because the heart of this game is its writing. The Unterzee is absolutely filled with a host of stories, little and large, and it’s up to you to find or steer well clear of them. As with all things, these stories vary — some are wonderfully written, some are achingly poignant and some are just downright unsettling. I cannot overstate this enough — if you’re a fan of writing that conveys a lot through very little, you must play this game. Fallen London is an absolutely phenomenal world to explore, and you really should give it a try.
(Arjun is a gamer, book lover and an all-round renaissance man)
Arjun Sukumaran
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