It was back in the sunny days of the Summer that I looked at Sunless Sea, but it feels fitting that as the nights start to close in that the team at Failbetter Games release an update to the Early Access build.

The long and short of things is that the latest update which went live a few days ago makes some big changes to combat. The Steel update rips out the original turn-based combat which, although I didn’t have any major problem with, received some negative feedback from others. Replacing the turn-based action is a new real-time system, which is ably demonstrated in the above developer video showing off the new combat…which looks like a solid re-imagining of combat without losing sight of the heart and soul of the game.

Steel also makes some tweaks to the balance and layout of the map, to get the most out of the new game, Failbetter advise you start a new story with a new captain and chart.

I enjoyed it back in the Summer, but has anyone played it since the Steel update?