Sunless Skies

One thing Sunless Skies understands deeply is that, if your game is story-driven, the greatest reward you can give the player for their efforts is not an item or XP, but rather delicious words. After all, we are here for the story being told; the game mechanics, in the end, are just one tool of many used to tell that story.
I don't want "epic loot" -- no, that disappears forever the moment I put down the game. Show me something I could have never imagined in a million years. Paint me a picture that will live in the recesses of my skull for a lifetime and a half. Knit me a dream out of the threads of fate.
I have a whole folder's worth of nothing but screenshots of text, because Sunless Skies understands this, it understands me. It knows the kind of fare I prefer, and it meticulously feeds me in deliciously sized morsels.

this just in: victorian london once again transported to a slightly more unpleasant place than usual. residents should be aware that time now comes in barrels

A good successor to Sunless Sea, but, if you're new to the game's world, I highly recommend starting with Sunless Sea, as that game does a much better job explaining the basic lore of the world, its history, characters, commodities etc. Sunless Skies skipped a lot of that.

It lacks the grandeur and expansiveness of Sunless Seas. There, the narratives were constantly shifting, and even when you thought you had a grasp of what was going on there was a sense you might lose that grasp at any moment. Even if you repeated actions, new bits and morsels of narrative leaked through that expanded or twisted or just simply delighted you to read more about the world created.
Here, the different strands are modeled too closely after what Kennedy already did in Sunless Seas. Make no mistake the game is fun, the exploration exhilarating, but the patterns are there, and once revealed the entirety of the world becomes rather simplistic. It is worth a spin or three, certainly, but will have you appreciating Sunless Seas all the more.

I feel as though Ive made no progress in the game after 44 hours and without a frame of reference it feels disheartening. Ive explored and gotten used to the Reach, but once I reached Albion i felt like this was the peak that I reached. I found myself in a frustrating loop of dying and trying to build up to Albion all over again. Maybe my play style is inefficient or I just didnt learn how to best make use of all the port encounters along my journey. Hung up my train conductor cap when I found myself not enjoying the game mechanic of traveling the stars with my train. Which really fucking sucks because I love engaging with the games writing and all the cool encounters and characters found in it. I still think it was really fun so please give it a try at least.
Also not so hot take here but I think cannibalism is okay after running out of supplies numerous times in my playtime.

Play it like a space merchant game and get lost in the story before you even notice! The start takes a bit to ramp up but don't be afraid to die as a lot will carry over.
For difficulty I would recommend the slight arcing of shots aim assist. The arcing is truly slight, you'll still need to aim decently. Later on enemies get physically larger so they're easier to hit but early game this will help reduce stress a lot. I also recommend using the medium consumable speed. It helps you enjoy the story without being too worried about death so when it eventually arrives you won't feel like you've gone through hell and now you need to go through it again. Default difficulty settings are without any assistance.

BUY ON SALE
This review is to express some of my grievances towards this game whilst also warning people who haven't played this game about some things to look out for. In short - this game is fun and I definitely recommend it if you are into visual novel/story type games. I honestly do not recommend buying this game at its full price tag. I encourage you to buy it on sale.
Before completing my play through, I previously refunded this game 2 times. The third time I bought it, I finally sat down to play it to completion. If you are going into this game thinking it will be an exploration-sandbox game, you are wrong. That was my mistake the first 2 times. I'd say this game is 80-90% reading. That isn't to say it's a bad thing, just be aware of the experience you are getting.
The story is very captivating and it is told well. The sound and visuals also make the story much more immersive. The characters are all unique and provide a breath of fresh air from the main storyline with their own questlines.
While having a main story to follow I don't feel as though the game is forcing me to stick to a certain path as it is decently broad in the choices/things I want to do in world.
Now, because I love this game so much, I want to talk about some aspects which frustrated me and may frustrate you.
1. The Gameplay:
As I said before, this game's enjoyment factor is mostly reading. But is flying around on your locomotive fun? Well, no. I like the steampunk feel of your ship and the novelty of flying at the start is great, but when you need to fly around selling cargo or picking up quest items constantly, this loop gets really, really boring. The story is what saves this game. Even with the engine upgrades, journeys still feel like a chore (although upgrades certainly help a lot). Accumulating a lot of money also takes way too long. Flying from station to station completing prospects comprised a good portion of my playtime. Don't get me wrong though, I still like the idea of flying around (it just gets repetitive) - more so than the pure reading of Fallen London , where the Sunless games' idea came from.
Some other reviewers have also complained about the combat. To me the combat wasn't amazing, but it was OK . However, a common complaint is that it's too difficult to fight or outrun enemies. I did not find it as difficult as some people were saying it was. I think they're just exaggerating. If you keep getting killed or chased down, then you don't have good enough gear equipped - but I understand that equipping good gear may be difficult with my next point.
2. Levelling up and Stat points:
There are 4 main stats in this game. Iron, hearts, veils, and mirrors. Every time you level up, you pick a new facet which increases two of those stats by 5-3 points. However, the max player level is 20 (so 20 facets total). This means that stats are a bit scarce and you must choose wisely.
The problem with this is that facets are little snippets of your character's backstory, so instead of crafting my character's story the way I want to, I'm instead picking the most optimal stat paths. This is all to be able to equip better gear, which is annoying and diminishes the role-playing aspect. You can still increase your stats by trading EXP points after hitting level 20, but that process is also long and annoying.
I also noticed some inequality in the importance of some stats. I tried focusing on veils to be stealthy the first time I played. I then noticed that most of the time, many stat check events required your iron, hearts, or mirrors - making my veils stat kind of useless.
The game also uses PERMANENT STAT LOSSES , which is absolutely bullshit. There are some events (sometimes not even events with possibilities of failure) that will just yoink a point from one of your stats. Because of how scarce stat points are, this is extremely annoying if you're trying to equip some endgame gear. I can understand the purpose of having real meaningful consequences, but this is just not fun.
3. Saving:
All saving is automatic whenever you dock at a port - no manual saving or loading older saves. I guess it's convenient, but I really don't like it, I'd prefer just manual saving. I believe manual saving allows me to experience all choices and possibilities. Call it save scumming, but I want to see all dialogue options without having to play the game a second time - which I absolutely have no energy nor will to do so. This game is great once, not twice.
4. RNG:
I can understand the purpose of RNG in this kind of game that tries to depict consequences and also be more dynamic (not sure if that's the term I'm looking for). However, even though at times the RNG aspect can be fun, I would lying if I said it didn't irritate me when my crew and captain someway, somewhere, somehow, fucked up a 92% chance of success event. Of course I know why they stuffed up - it was that 8%, but fuck.
5. Special currency/resources:
The game has some special resources you can acquire that will help you complete certain goals - things such as moments of inspiration or cryptic benefactors .I think this is a really cool idea, but sometimes I found it limiting. Although it feels really cool to call upon some cryptic benefactor or the crown to help solve an issue, the special resources are scarce but vital for progressing in some areas. I can understand the reasoning behind making them scarce, otherwise the game would be trivial at certain points - but this limitation made me skip out on a large portion of the Blue Kingdom zone because of how often you need to burn those resources there. Takes a bit too much time to gather them.
6. Romance:
Yes this game has romance (not much). I found it kind of unnecessary and weird, especially the options on who you can be intimate with. I mean, it's funny to think about, but not my cup of tea. This is just a minor complaint - definitely not worth worrying about, but it was such a strange experience, I wanted to mention it.
7. Runs bad:
I don't have a very beefy PC, but even so, with a system requirement of 4GB, this game sometimes start chugging (low frame-rate and freezing) when it really shouldn't. Watching a YouTube review made me think this wasn't just a 'me' thing.
8. Supply/Fuel consumption:
I played this game with the fuel/supply consumption set to the lowest level difficulty. I wanted to fully experience the story without having to manage dwindling supplies. And after seeing how much fuel my ship can burn through using the higher tier engines while on the LOWEST consumption difficulty setting, I can't even imagine what it would be like to play the game with that setting on normal difficulty. Might just be me since a lot of Failbetter Games fans' opinions seem more accustomed to the harder difficulty from Sunless Sea.
9. The ending:
I really liked the ending (the ending I chose to pursue), but I found it kind of underwhelming in terms of the visual aspect. I know this game is all reading, but I wish there was some kind of final area to explore or a cool cutscene to tie up this cool story.
Anyway, That's all the grievances I had with Sunless Skies. I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting, but those above were my main issues. All in all This game is fun but flawed .Yknow, I'm recommending this game, but now I don't know if I can recommend in good faith when thinking about the problems I dealt with and the time I wasted. I also played this game on merciful mode instead of legacy - I think if you're looking to have have a good story experience with no worries, you should play on merciful.I guess I'm recommending it based on my personal experience of fun to annoyance ratio. A great story experience but oh so many problems
I would say to BUY IT ON SALE ONLY