Bioware’s online-focused shooter had a rocky launch, with the loot-grinding and shallow, repetitive gameplay being singled out for criticism. Travelling across the wilderness of a devastated Russia and trying to find a new life, Exodus broadens the horizons of previous entries in every way possible.Īfter months of anticipation and trepidation, Anthem couldn’t stick the landing. The third installment in 4A’s popular post-apocalyptic series, Metro Exodus takes protagonist Artyom and the players further than they’ve gone before. Who saw that coming? Without an announcement or any sort of marketing campaign, Respawn Entertainment released their free-to-play take on the battle royale genre - and it was good! Really good, in fact so much so that it might be capable of contending with Fortnite and Battlegrounds going forward. This is a stupendous game, one I’ve barely scratched the surface of and I can’t wait to explore the High Wilderness some more. Now, however, I can say that Sunless Skies is an improvement in almost every way. I had never played a game quite like Sunless Sea before, so I hesitated to compare it to others. It’s a strange and beautiful world, but the sense of ‘place’ that it is is simply unrivaled. The descriptions of the various ports you visit, the conversations you have with your crew, the encounters in various locations - all of them are well-written, certainly, but they also have an aura of strangeness about them that draws you in and makes you seek them out. Much like Sunless Sea before it, the writing is perhaps the best part of Sunless Skies. The sound design deserves a shout-out as well - the little creaks and groans as your locomotive glides through space really do pull you in. Little touches, such as the puffs of steam vented from your locomotive as it overheats, really bring it to life. This is no AAA game, but the world it contains is vibrant and genuinely breathtaking at times. It doesn’t hurt that Sunless Skies is a beautiful game. Balancing those impulses - the urge to explore and fill in more of the map versus the caution required to survive what’s out there - is the core tension of the game, and you’ll feel it constantly push or pull you in a given direction at any time.

However, dangers also lurk in the skies from pirates to maddened explorers to swarms of giant bees and worse creatures, there’s no shortage of threats capable of having your little locomotive for lunch. Exploration is the heart of Sunless Skies, and the Reach begins as a canvas with the tiniest portion filled in the rest is out there, waiting for you to stumble across it.

After a short tutorial, you’re more or less left to your own devices. Once you’ve chosen a few traits for your new captain, you’re thrust into the Reach, the starting region of Sunless Skies. Against this backdrop, you play the captain of a spacefaring ship - locomotive, actually, because this game really takes the ‘steam’ part of steampunk seriously! - out to make your fortune or, at the very least, survive. Sunless Skies is set in the High Wilderness - a lawless expanse of space - amidst a burgeoning conflict between the Victorian Empire and its independently-minded colonies. Inevitably, a sequel was announced and did exceedingly well on Kickstarter, and now it’s out in the world - so how does Sunless Skies hold up? A survival/roguelike game, with strong storytelling and exploration elements, Sunless Sea managed to stand out from every other game in that genre thanks to the strength of its atmosphere and writing. HYDERABAD : In 2015, Sunless Sea put Failbetter Games on the map.

Sunless sea map