early-access-review

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  • Early Access Review: Sunless Sea

    by 
    Mike Suszek
    Mike Suszek
    07.17.2014

    This is an Early Access Review, in which we hope to help you decide whether or not it's worth jumping into a game before it's officially complete. When describing Sunless Sea, you might refer to its text-heavy visual novel elements, or its myriad of RPG-like, story-building choices. It's a top-down seafaring game with simple visuals, in which players set sail across a massive sea deep below the earth's surface. Alongside the straightforward sailing, the battle, dialogue and decision systems are governed by plain menus and text. It's a basic approach that complements the mythical atmosphere, leaving the bulk of Sunless Sea's vivid concepts up to the imagination of the player. The project is far from complete, as over half of the sea's map is empty. There's another kind of emptiness in Sunless Sea, though, as even the accessible regions feel endlessly dark at times. This other emptiness, the pervasive, creeping fear of the unknown as you sail mysterious waters, is what makes Sunless Sea stand out, even at this early stage of development.