Sunless Sea Diary - The Map and the Stories It Tells

Like any normal human being, I am a little scared of death in the real world and I have been long taught that one should try to also avoid it in video games because there are negative consequences to deal with, like the need to get through levels again or the less cherished equipment for characters.

So when I first set sail from the London docks in Sunless Sea, my first order of business was not to fulfill my chosen destiny, which involved the bones of a father I did not know, but to make sure that I had plenty of the bare necessities: fuel and supplies for my ship and crew.

Once I completed a few missions and had enough in my hold to survive a longer exploration expedition, I decided to go north as far as I could and see what lay there and what story threads I could pick up.

I managed to visit Brite and another port before I was unceremoniously sunk by a very powerful iceberg that had become sentient, and that’s when one of my favorite Sunless Sea features first made an impact.

When a captain dies, the player can choose from a list of roles for his successor and each of them means that some elements of the past can be retained.

I ignored all other possibilities when I saw that I could inherit the map and continue to uncover it with my current character.

A long series of successful failures

I again went through the early quests, secured the needed supplies and went south for a while, even managing to return to the London docks before I once again went under the sea and my captain died.

My inability to keep a character alive for a longer period of time could be seen as a failure, but I constantly transferred maps in order to get a full image of the game world, which would in turn allow me to then plan how to achieve other goals.

The only problem with this inheritance is that, at one point, I would switch to another bonus.

I solved that issue by using actual paper to draw a crude map, something that no other title besides Sunless Sea has persuaded me to do in a long while, giving me another reason to love its innovative take on adventure.