Entropy and empires collide in Sunless Skies, the best game of 2019

I’ve never even thought about playing it this way, but man. What you describe, the incredible times when the sky just stretches out with just the sound of your engines chugging away…Gonna give that a shot tonight.

Thanks Armando, I totally missed that and thought I was losing my mind…

So…the only new game I played last year was your favorite? Man. Who knew?

Exceptional pick, Mr. Chick. Truly a wonderful, awe-inspiring and terrifying game.

The review is as poetic as the game itself!

Even screenshots show how much of an improvement this game is. Sunless Sea put the text in a small window in a corner, compared to Fallen London it felt like a switch from Baldur’s Gate to Neverwinter Nights. Sunless Skies nows that it’s all about the text. The only sin of this game is that it’s hard to process for someone like me who is not a native speaker. Also they’ve committed a sin by promising an enhanced edition (Sovereign Edition) later so I can’t play it at the moment.

Surprised this is your #1, but it is a great game, and truly beautiful.

Man. So I need to find time for this, and Control, and Disco Elysium. I wonder if they’ll be on Gamepass sometime.

Did you get a chance to try playing with your space goggles? What did you think?? My research suggests that this kind of thing isn’t for everyone but, dammit, I like it!

So what’s the best way to try this?

I tried just starting it in Steam while wearing the headset, but I guess I’m not used to flying blind on mouse + keyboard like that.

Thanks for posting this. I bounced off Fallen London because I hated how tethered I felt to, well, London. I will have to give this a try.

Yeah, when I played Sunless Seas, I felt like every time things were getting super great…I had to beeline it back to a base to refuel/refit.

And Tom’s review makes another great point. The trade system in the game is fairly unique. It’s an interesting mechanic without being a terribly difficult gameplay loop, if that makes sense. It somehow seems easy, but not boring, if that’s possible. Basically, the trade system should click pretty much right away, and then it’s simply executing it – but you know what you need to know to execute it, too.

It’s a gameplay thing that probably wouldn’t work in a game where trade is the core game element. Here, though, it’s a way to offer you lots of carrots to keep you moving forward in exploration and in the world, and that means that the game can spin more story towards you – which is the king that every system in the game is still geared to serve.

So am I the only one who thought it was a lot of schlepping back and forth then? Bit surprised this tops lists.

funny; I kickstarted this game and still haven’t played it.

I use Virtual Desktop and disable the default desktop theater mode in the game properties.

Then I set my office chair on full recline so I can gaze upwards comfortably and I keep my hands on the desk. I don’t mind flying blind on keyboard in Sunless Skies since the gameplay is pretty sedate. The only problem is re-orienting my fingers on WASD any time I take them off. I have accidentally side-slammed into a few docks! But once you get your fingers positioned, it’s very playable by feel.

But, yeah, gamepad games are a lot easier to play in this VR IMAX mode. Moody side-scrollers like Inside or Little Nightmares work really well.

Some desktop theater modes lock you to a horizontal plane but it’s much better if you can orient the screen anywhere on both the horizontal and vertical for a comfortable view. One benefit of playing like this is being able to position your head any way you want, not always locked into looking where your monitor is.

This game has full controller support doesn’t it?

Well, jeez, maybe it does! Guess I just stuck with M&K and never tried it.

Same. But then, that’s most videogames I have Kickstarted, which is why I have largely stopped doing so.

In this case I am mainly waiting for it to be actually finished getting content, because I am unlikely to play it repeatedly.

Same here, and while I fully intend now to give it a go, I suspect I’ll wait till the Sovereign update hits.

Same here.

Yeah, I looked to see if there were any ETAs on the Sovereign edition, but didn’t come up with anything.

Is this what everyone else sees for the Patreon password interface? No username? No text on the button?