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.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 27/06/2024 16:02, 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.

I got it in early access, played it for a bit and then put it down until
the official release. The visuals are one of the best parts for me as
combined with the music they conjure up this strange world across which
you navigate and explore.

The gameplay I also like as it's a mix between trading, resource
management and a choose your own adventure. A lot of the stories are
really top notch and it's really good at a theatre of mind immersion. It
can be quite terrifying exploring new areas without knowing whether you
crew will go insane or starve.

The downsides, the first one is that it is (or was) very difficult and
it was easy easy to die not because you did anything wrong, as such, but instead you just choose the wrong direction to explore. That was
compounded by one save only and that was just for exiting/re-entering
the game so if you die, you die. They did acknowledge that this could be frustrating so introduced some save options.

The biggy is the combat, mechanical it's poor and it really doesn't feel
that it fits with the rest of the game.

Overall though I'd say it's worth a try but it's also worth finding a
brief introduction to the game to read that explains the basic of
resource management and also a few starter trade locations to set you on
your way.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:02 this Thursday (GMT):

<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<.

Certainly sounds like an interesting one.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)