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Next week’s free game from Epic is about sailing the seas in a hollow Earth

Failbetter Games' Sunless Sea will be available free on the Epic Games Store February 25 - March 4

Another week means another batch of free PC games from the Epic Games Store, and another hint at what’s to come next week. After this week’s batch has run its course, you’ll be able to pick up the roguelike nautical adventure game Sunless Sea, which will be free on the Epic Games Store starting February 25.

This one’s a bit of a hidden gem, if you haven’t tried it out. It was one of our favourite games of 2015 when it came out, thanks largely to the strength of its spec-fiction writing. Sunless Sea is about exploring the mysterious reaches of the Unterzee, which is an ocean that exists beneath the surface of the earth in Failbetter’s weird and Lovecraftian Fallen London universe. You’ll collect weird bits and bobs to trade to strange personages who you’ll encounter on dark and mysterious islands, all while trying to fend off madness and cannibalism aboard your craft.

You’ll die, most likely, and each time you do it’s permanent – that’s the “roguelike” bit of Sunless Sea. But you’ll learn more about the Unterzee each time you embark on a new voyage, and the journey is always a rewarding one full of strange and delightful surprises.

An expansion, Zubmariner, launched in 2016 and took the expedition to the ‘zee-floor’, while the 2019 follow-up Sunless Skies ventured heavenward into the uncharted blackness of space. You can read our glowing Sunless Skies review here.

Once again, Sunless Sea will be available for free on the Epic Games Store from February 25 – March 4. Lately, Epic has taken to revealing a surprise game on the day of the changeover when it’s only announced one beforehand, so it’ll be worth checking back even if massive armies of bats and subterranean nautical adventures don’t strike your fancy.