Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

Just finished the game. Every problem you run into can be solved through tedious combat or talking/stealing. I'll spare the details. Combat was too easy, boring, and repetitive. If the Combat was harder than it'd still be boring, but frustrating. Now, my build was a Silver Wing talky man with psychic powers. I'd like to point out that I thought combat was too easy, while playing with a build that did not focus on combat. Yeah. It's ok for CRPG's to have bad combat. As long as the dialog is good. The dialog is not good. Typos everywhere. Bland characters, companions, and interactions. However the setting of the Dome and the employee wings is a really cool idea. It is a shame that the employee wings reputation is largely ignored in the second half. Unlike most other CRPG's the final level isn't trash garbage. It's still not good, but it didn't make me want to quit the game. Overall the best thing about this game is that it is not very long. Most other CRPG's are far too bloated and cram packed with too much stuff, and you'll never actually finish them.

It's clear that the creators enjoyed Fallout 1,2. This has the same feeling, the exploration, the creation and the discovery of this world. I played in 'story' mode am 35 hours in and I love it. The game is isometric and 3D so you can rotate around and the backgrounds are not just 2D images like in the old days. The graphics are great, the music awesome and overall I the game experience good. There is a flaw where you have to align yourself with an item to interact with it but ok nothing is perfect. You can save at any time by pressing the quicksave button and it will create a new quick save (excellent!). The only thing that was hard was how to use the controls on my XBox controller(PC). Note you can double click left or right terminal and move through the toolbar them with the L key. Press and hold Left (for left toolbar) or Right (for right) terminal again to see the active keys. The camera has 3 modes which you can select by clicking the 'R' button. Assign weapons by clicking 'X' on the weapon to select primary or secondary weapon.

A great Fallout heir, a good story.Excellent RPG in the spirit of the old school. I recommend it! We need such games!

A short summary of my playthrough: - Went the Charisma build route + Psionics - Had fun for the first 15 hours, enjoyed the game mechanics + combat. Prologue and the story up to Act 1 was good. Random encounters were interesting, exploring map design of different bases were fun. - After the 15 hours, Act 1 --> Act 2 was just a repetitive experience. Explore new places + see new factions, fight higher level monster from Act 1 (mostly). I was ready to drop the game and find a new game to try. - After a while, I just didn't care anymore and started stealing from caravans, starting fights with NPC for experience points which renewed my interest to finish the game. End game part was nothing noteworthy to talk about. What I liked about the game: - You usually have enough of whatever you need: food, drinks, perk points to invest in your combat & non-combat abilities. - The survival aspect of this game wasn't difficult (see reason #1), and you can always set up camp to rest up and decrease your fatigue. - If you have enough perk points invested in a certain skill, for example: Criminal, you get 100% success to lockpick a certain project. - A variety of weapons to try, with different ability associated with it that makes combat a fun experience of trial and error to find what works against different enemies. What I would have liked to see in the game: - You can't specify a point on the map and have your characters walk there. Instead you have to scroll to the exit point of the map manually and have your character move there. There are limited options to exit to global map. You just have to find the exit that leads to the global map which involves a lot of walking/ taking elevators and etc.. - You can't respec in this game and certain attribute points are needed to see different endings for the game - Companions are not that useful and you can't choose what attributes to increase when they level up (but playing this game as a lone wolf is really viable so that's a plus!)

I am having so much fun with this game! Feels a bit like Fallout 2 with a more complex set of skills and better engine and story line. About 50 hours in. Nice to have an old-fashioned CRPG where I need to use a whole variety of skills and combat isn’t the overwhelming focus. I’ve snuck around, picked locks, hacked terminals, fixed reactors, crafted all sorts of goodies (what looks like junk is not when you get into this), cooked meals, talked a lot, solved puzzles, laughed at Easter eggs…. I just had a weird-ass conversation with a bunch of people who had been driven insane and got them to give me the artifact I needed because I could speak their lingo. Well, and I’ve killed a few things too. Combat is not the main strength of this game, and I suspect you will find it unsatisfying if you approach it that way. The difficulty level can also make a huge difference. At the second lowest level I find it fairly easy and can focus on the story and atmosphere. At higher levels there is more difficulty and micromanagement. I recommend starting low and then moving up if you find it too easy.