Weregamer's Game Musings

OMFG, I've barely started the game and I'm already hooked and feeling alt-oholic. I only looked at character generation and the first few minutes of play last night, as I can't afford to miss a day of work just for a new game any more. But I'm already sure that this game is living up to high expectations. It's not perfect, there are some flaws that Rock, Paper, Shotgun already did a good job describing, but this is better than many of the game I've paid $60 for over the years. Going to be hard to tear myself away long enough to keep my wife and toddler from getting upset at me this weekend.

Apparently a surprisingly large number of fans were expecting to get a deep game like a Civ or a spacegoing Pirates! for $16 on a short development cycle; they also apparently did  not even look at the gameplay footage that's been available for weeks. Going in with my eyes open, though, I have little to complain about in the gameplay itself. It's pretty much what the video promised. The tie-in with Beyond Earth, modulo the bugs I'm about to mention, is no clumsier than I expected. The requirement to set up a 2K account to get the tie-in is not yet onerous - we'll see where that goes, and hope that it's not like EA's player abuse system. Where the game totally fails, though is that despite being developed in parallel, and despite Firaxis' experience with PC games, it comes across as a crappy iPad port. Most of these things are inexcusable, showing either or both of a lack of testing on the PC or a lack of caring about PC quality: It only plays in ...

I've been playing Sunless Sea almost every night since the official release, and I'm still enjoying it a lot. I've been thinking about why this, unlike most so-called roguelikes as well as the original Rogue and Nethack, keeps my attention, and not unrelated, the approach that is serving me well. The most unusual thing about Sunless Sea is that you have more to show for yourself after "losing" than in most rogue-likes. Not only have you learned better how to play the game, you can pass on a small portion of your accomplishments to your "heir". You can also unlock permanent starting advantages for your lineage by completing various accomplishments. Between these two factors, Sunless Sea is as much a builder's game as an explorer's. Seeing each captain as a building-block for your lineage - seeing your lineage itself as your "character" - gives intermediate goals and feelings of accomplishment instead of the letdown of "another f...