When I reviewed Falibetter Games' Fallen London some time ago, I talked about how much I enjoyed the dark, twisted, yet also funny world the writers have created; it's not every day you journey through a London realized in an intriguing Victorian Steampunk aesthetic. While that literary RPG was great in terms of content and ideas, the app itself had huge issues that, unfortunately, kept players away. I'm glad to say that Sunless Sea [$9.99 (HD)], Failbetter's sequel of sorts to Fallen London, works pretty much like a charm on an iPad, and that made playing it much more enjoyable than Fallen London simply in terms of it actually working as it should.
The good thing about the app working well is that you can focus on the game's immersive stories and fantastic?though often mad?characters you encounter along the way. In terms of narrative, I don't think any App Store game can compete with what Sunless Sea has to offer. And for those who hate just reading text, Sunless Sea adds a sailing mechanic to the Fallen London recipe that allows the game to become more than just words on a screen and really shine.
How does Sunless Sea play" If you've seen any screenshots before, you probably know that a big part of your playtime is spent sailing across a gloomy, uncharted sea called the Unterzee. You start as the captain of a pretty-weak ship and set out to face all that the sea will throw out you. Your ship requires fuel to move and to operate its lights, and the crew requires ...