Sunless Sea: Zubmariner

Mechanics

Similarly to the vanilla game, the core of Sunless Sea: Zubmariner is exploration of the underground sea. While playing, the crew of the player’s submarine encounters not only the old, well-known object and creatures—this time, they come into contact with sea monsters (zee-beasts) or, for instance, coral reefs that glow in the dark. The latter can help us in exploring the sea depths by serving as an additional light source (the reflector mounted on the submarine is still our basic tool) as well as to indicate direct danger to the vessel and its crew. In the game, there are creatures that can effortlessly annihilate a submarine. One of them is Thalatte which huge mouth can swallow an entire ship.

The story told in the expansion develops mostly in ports. This time around, though, such locations are found under the water, as well, but their inhabitants behave somewhat strangely (at least to someone from the surface). Some of the hide from the submarine’s crew, the insane ones can even attack the player’s subordinates. The course of the story, which is expanded with new themes, as well as its conclusion is depended on the player’s decisions again, and the key role in a mission’s success is played by our relations with other crewmates. The fact that the action takes down on a new, lower level of the sea has an influence on the game. The player has to incessantly control the level of oxygen that the crew has as well as to carefully observe the sonar’s indications that points both to places of interest and to potential dangers.

Technical aspects

Sunless Sea: Zubmariner for PC is powered by the technology of the vanilla game. Compared to the original, the graphics remain largely unchanged, similarly to the system requirements.