Sunless Skies' enhanced Sovereign Edition out next month on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch
And as a free update for existing PC players.
Failbetter Games' superb interstellar narrative adventure Sunless Skies is finally coming to consoles next month, on 19th May, in the guise of the much-enhanced Sovereign Edition - which will arrive as a free update for existing PC players at the same time.
Sunless Skies is, of course, the follow-up to Failbetter's Sunless Sea and, as its name suggests, trades the nautical adventuring of its forebear for a rocket-powered jaunt across a "universe steeped in celestial horror and ravaged by Victorian ambition".
The end result once again offers a blend of rogue-like exploration and strikingly evocative storytelling - albeit with a much greater focus on more fulsome narrative arcs this time around - with enough finessing to the formula that Eurogamer slapped an Essential badge on Sunless Skies when it released on PC in 2019.
Sunless Skies' Sovereign Edition, however, massages things still further, promising improved character progression, a new interface, more ways for players to define their character's past, plus the ability for experienced captains to continue improving their capabilities once the level cap has been reached. It also brings new trading opportunities, an exotic new locomotive engine, and reworked starvation mechanics, introducing "increasingly dubious gastronomic options" for players that find themselves in desperate need of a snack.
And on the 'less sexy but still extremely welcome' front, there's better performance, "greatly improved" gamepad support, and "literally hundreds" of fixes and smaller tweaks - with a more expansive list available in Failbetter's announcement post.
PC players who already own Sunless Skies will automatically be upgraded to the Sovereign Edition at launch, and their existing saves should continue working just fine, with a few caveats.
All being well, Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition should arrive on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on 19th May, but Failbetter warns console release dates might slip in the "unlikely" event any hiccups are encountered during the submission process.