Sunless Sea Reviews

Sunless Sea is ranked in the 86th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7.5 / 10.0
May 6, 2020

Sunless Sea is a brutal roguelike with amazing plots and writing that still hold up years later, but if you're looking to explore the Unterzee, the Switch port is not the way to go.

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Geeks Under Grace
Andrew Borck
8.5 / 10.0
Nov 14, 2018

A unique setting makes this survival/exploration game stand apart from the pack, along with it's RPG elements. If the sound of well-written stories of captains facing the horrors of the sea piques your interest, look no further. Sunless Sea is a standout in a well-saturated genre.

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8 / 10
Sep 16, 2018

Explanations of the lore, the world, and your place in it are in short supply but over time, you live, die and learn, rewarding those that stick with it with some of the slickest, well implemented writing in gaming.

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PowerUp!
Genna Maskell
7.5 / 10.0
Mar 15, 2017

Do I own the game or does the game own me? I can no longer tell, and truth be told I no longer care.

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68 / 100
May 4, 2015

Sunless Sea truly does capture what it must feel like to be a ship's captain on a dark underground ocean - sometimes it feels exciting and wondrous, but usually it feels lethargic and dreary. I should've stayed in London and became a shopkeeper.

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Apr 20, 2015

A blend of horror, humor, and deep-sea exploration, Sunless Sea surpasses a few shortcomings to deliver an engaging, inventive, and challenging indie experience.

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6 / 10
Apr 2, 2015

Amazing writing and a good sense of discovery makes Sunless Sea's glacial pace and mismatched roguelike elements worth plodding through.

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8 / 10
Mar 9, 2015

An extremely good game which just doesn't feel properly finished. It's not quite a final draft. It's still damned good fun though.

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4 / 5.0
Mar 3, 2015

Sunless Sea is a little darker and less cheerful than its already morbid sister Fallen London, but it's no less delightful. The Unterzee is awash with clever, well-written stories, and you're sure to find something new every time you set sail – even if actually finding it can take a while.

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Unscored
Feb 27, 2015

Sunless Sea's contemplative pace and reams of text won't appeal to every player, but if you have a little patience, and an appreciation for atmospheric story telling, then it'll be hard to pass this one up.

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77 / 100
Feb 19, 2015

Sunless Sea is ultimately a chronicle of tragedies. Success is dependent upon you building up achievements, stacking your legacy high enough that the next captain can set sail with a proper cannon and better rig, which is in turn entirely in service of exploring whatever remains in the vast darkness out East. As someone who played Skyrim and spent hours wandering every square inch of the underground kingdom in Blackreach, I found Sunless Sea's heady darkness appealing.

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8 / 10.0
Feb 19, 2015

Sunless Sea stresses a fondness for resource management, vaguely turn-based combat, roguelike principles of calculated disposability, and basic role-playing. All of this builds to a confident level of intimidation – it can require an exceptional amount of time to procure the particular nature of Sunless Sea's identity and intentions – but not without a certain indelible magnetism. Making sense of Sunless Sea's complexity just seems to be one of its underlying challenges.

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IGN
Top Critic
8.3 / 10.0
Feb 19, 2015

Sunless Sea gives you a wonderful world to explore that's packed with memorable written vignettes and danger.

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8.5 / 10.0
Feb 18, 2015

Fantastically weird and powerfully written, Sunless Sea is sure to satisfy genre fans and could very well make some new converts into the world of Weird fiction.

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Feb 12, 2015

Sunless Sea is a masterpiece of interactive storytelling, atmosphere and exploration that spins a unique, tense and frequently tragic new yarn every time you play. It's a shame that the spiteful economy and repetitive early game gradually forces you to focus on the systems, not the stories, but the quality of the writing elevates Sunless Sea into something rather special indeed.

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80 / 100
Feb 11, 2015

Wonderful writing resting on top of infirm foundations. Almost a classic, Sunless Sea falls a few leagues short of its final destination.

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9 / 10.0
Feb 11, 2015

Sunless Sea is a great video game and the team at Failbetter Games has clearly invested a lot of love and attention into its development.

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8 / 10.0
Feb 11, 2015

The static narratives and roguelike gameplay in Sunless Sea don't always gel together harmoniously, but Failbetter Games has succeeded in delivering a tense and engaging experience and a rich and atmospheric setting.

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Feb 11, 2015

Sunless Sea is a dark game combining Lovecraft-themed exploration with Victorian Gothic visual novels in exciting (and chilling) ways. The end result isn't perfect, but its sense of terror and wonder makes it a worthy follow-up to Failbetter's Fallen London.

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Feb 11, 2015

'Sunless Sea' is the perfect game for someone who's been waiting for a subterranean, steampunk, nautical, difficult, heavily text-based adventure. I highly recommend it for everyone else as well, especially those who appreciate deliciously whimsical, macabre prose and don't mind a bit of backtracking and dying.

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