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[oasis789]

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[Parsely]

I think there's already a thread for this.

[Zangi]

Though, the OP is better constructed here.

[Parsely]

Though, the OP is better constructed here.

Agreed. Much better.

[CognitiveDissonance]

Though, the OP is better constructed here.

Agreed. Much better.

So much better I want this! I want this now!
Well, at least I can throw money at the KS when I'm home.

[Cthulhu]

Something I'm a little wary of.  These events seem very specific.  After a few games am I going to have seen all the events there are?

[Sappho]

Yeah, I started a thread for this a few days ago, but I agree that this one is better. I can't wait for this to come out...

[Mephansteras]

Something I'm a little wary of.  These events seem very specific.  After a few games am I going to have seen all the events there are?

Wouldn't surprise me. Then again, FTL has that problem and it's still a blast so...I'm not going to stress too much about this.

[nenjin]

Backers for $10 or more can get their hands on the Early Access version of this, your key should have been mailed to you or your can request it from the Humble Bundle Store.

It's also up on Steam for EA purchase as well. Nope.

[Sappho]

I put a few hours into it earlier today. It's pretty brutal, though once you get the hang of combat it becomes slightly less so. I like it so far. Can't wait to see it expand, although it seems it likely won't have too much replay value, since it uses the same story system as Fallen London.

Also, there appears to be a bug where you can repeatedly turn in one of the missions for echoes. Might have been fixed already, but my version isn't on Steam so it won't update until I update it... I might leave it there until I get the hang of the game, just for emergencies...

[nenjin]

Played about 40 minutes or so.

If you've never played Fallen London, the way Failbetter does things is going to seem a little strange. Part of me was wishing they'd diverge a little bit from FL-style gameplay, but SS is basically FL on a boat. Which isn't all bad, but for a veteran of FL, I dunno. It's a little disappointing to see the same items, same quirks, same places you've already visited in FL. I'm considering not playing it anymore until Gold, because like Sappho said, it doesn't seem like there's going to be a ton of randomness. Just like you can do pretty much everything in FL on one character, barring a few important story choices, SS seems much the same.

Still: it's flavorful, dark, detailed, wordy and everything that makes FL good. I just somewhat dislike how the game seems like a vehicle to drive new players to FL, because there's a link right in the start menu to go to the site. For their first PC game, I don't really blame them for doing what they know. On the other hand, given what I know about Failbetter and how they price their story content.....part of me can't help but wonder if we'll be paying $20 for 5 minutes of additional gameplay once they release it and start putting out additional content. Because that's how FL goes.

Anyways, for the price I think it's worth a look if you like exploration, reading and a gothic vibe.

[E. Albright]

Ugh, speaking as someone who just finally managed to break their Fallen London habit this past week (I got my Overgoat, Fluke Core, Zubmarine, and vial of Master's Blood; as far as I'm concerned, given my Gloomy destiny, I won, dammit, even if Failbetter won't give any endgame beyond moar grinding), you're not painting a pretty picture of SS. Which is disappointing, because I really want to like it, but if it's FL on a boat, I don't think I can take the flat linear grind, no matter how crisp the writing is.

How much gameplay (timewise, since it doesn't sound like there's all that much variety-wise) would you say there is in the game as it stands?

[Sappho]

It's definitely more gameplay than not gameplay. Most of the time, you are steering your boat, exploring, trying to dodge giant underground crabs and pirate ships, fighting enemies with their quite original combat system (so far I like it, though it was confusing at first and I'm not sure how it will change at higher levels), trying not to get lost or run out of fuel or supplies, and watching out for bats. The FL-style story is what takes place when you're at port. There's a limited amount of things you can do at port (though hopefully this will be expanded quite a bit), so you don't spend a whole lot of time there.

The game doesn't progress terribly fast, either. The boats all move pretty slowly, and you have to spend a lot of time going from place to place. You can make money by selling reports of other locations to the authorities in Fallen London, or by loading up your cargo hold and trading goods, but neither of these will make you rich very quickly. Improvements to your boat are quite expensive, as are improvements to your lodgings, so without cheating it would take a long time indeed to get through all the content. Actually, I'd like to see more ways to get money a little more easily, because what with having to refuel and resupply pretty often (and spend money reducing your terror), it makes it nearly impossible to make any real improvements.

I haven't seen any Let's Plays released yet, so maybe I'll do one to give people a preview. Anyone know if they've specifically forbidden making videos of the game or anything like that? I don't want to piss them off, but it seems like something that might be in demand.

EDIT: Does anyone know if there's a way for those of us who pre-bought the game to get it on Steam?

[nenjin]

@Sappho

Not yet. There may be a place on the Humble Store to request a steam key for your product, but I think it's on Failbetter to make that available. I'll be checking when I'm not at auction.

As for gameplay....it IS grindy. You grind for the components of secrets, so you can upgrade your stats, based on which officers you picked up. While you're out to zee, it does feel way more like a game than FL, which is just bouncing from storylet to storylet. But as soon as you're doing activities in port, it starts to feel a bit too much like FL for my liking. But, ya know, bitching aside, it's a pretty slick-looking product and is a definite upgrade over the whole FL experience. I think it's maybe just the gazetteer window I don't like so much.

And as Sappho mentioned, there is a whole resource management component to it that FL doesn't share. So as you're sailing around you're draining fuel and supplies, "spending" your crew on storylet options, managing terror from events and areas.....so as a survival game it's got quite a bit going on, and playing it with only autosave means it can be a very brutal game.

I'm not totally sold on combat yet. It's definitely unique, abstracting a ship battle via queuing actions with cooldowns, trying to close the distance and illuminate your target so you can fire. Having only fought the basic pirates who die in one attack I don't have a good sense of how it actually works yet.

[lordcooper]

It's also up on Steam for EA purchase as well.

In almost two weeks.  You broke my heart man.