Sunkenland

Introduction

Sunkenland drops players into a world consumed by rising water, scavenging sunken cities for resources, building modular bases that float above the waves, and defending against raids from rival NPC clans hunting the same territory. Developed and published by Vector3 Studio, it entered Early Access 25 August 2023 for NZ$28.99 and remains in active development today. Nearly three years on, it holds 23,740 Steam reviews sitting at Very Positive, roughly 80.4%, with recent sentiment running somewhat softer at 77%. This review reads a substantial share of both the negative and positive samples, and finds a game with real, distinctive appeal, alongside genuine technical and security concerns worth reporting carefully — and one persistent claim in the negative sample this review can directly correct.

A distinctive setting and a genuinely fun core loop

Start with what draws consistent, specific praise across this review's sample: Sunkenland's flooded world gives it real identity within a survival genre that often defaults to forests or deserts. Scavenging sunken cities for resources and building modular, floating bases draws credit as a genuinely distinctive twist on familiar survival-crafting mechanics, and the core loop of gathering, building and defending against NPC clan raids is described by a large share of reviewers, particularly those playing co-op, as genuinely enjoyable. Several reviewers specifically compare it to established survival favourites like DayZ, Rust and The Forest, treating that comparison as a compliment given how young the project still is.

Real stability and security concerns worth taking seriously

Set against that praise, this review's sample raises specific, credible problems. Save stability draws real, repeated complaint — several reviewers describe losing an entire base's progress after saving and quitting, and at least one detailed reviewer describes a major update that wiped existing map content, including previously described features like a nuclear plant, without warning. A separate cluster of reports concerns multiplayer security: reviewers describe hackers joining password-protected servers and destroying player bases, and — more unusually — at least two independent reviewers, one in the positive sample, report their webcam indicator light activating unexpectedly while playing. This review treats that specific claim carefully: it's reported by more than one player independently, which raises it above a single unreliable account, but a review corpus cannot audit what a piece of software actually does on a player's machine, and this review won't assert it as a confirmed finding. Players with specific security concerns should investigate independently rather than take either the claim or its absence at face value.

A correction worth making plainly: this game is not abandoned

The single most useful thing this review can add is a direct correction to a claim that recurs throughout 2024 and 2025 reviews: that Vector3 Studio has abandoned the game, gone silent, or shut down. Checking the game's own public update history settles this decisively — Sunkenland has received multiple named updates and hotfixes every week through July and August 2026, including one dated the day before this review was written. Whatever gap in communication or updates prompted those complaints when they were posted, the current, verifiable record shows active, ongoing development right up to today. Reviewers relying on outdated "abandoned" reviews to make a purchase decision would be working from information this review's own check of the record contradicts.

Final Verdict

Sunkenland offers a genuinely distinctive survival-crafting core wrapped in a flooded-world setting that stands out in a crowded genre, and its developer's current update cadence shows real, active investment in improving it. What keeps this from a stronger recommendation are real, specific problems — save-corrupting bugs, at least one destructive content-wiping update, and multiplayer security reports serious enough to flag even though this review can't independently verify them. For Early Access survival fans willing to accept real instability in exchange for a distinctive setting and confirmed active development, Sunkenland is worth trying. For anyone who saw the "abandoned" reviews and wrote it off, this review's own check of the record suggests reconsidering.