Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

I intended to use this game to fill the void finishing Atom RPG left me but it ended up being way more fun. I don't usually get addicted to games, it takes a certain type of itch to get me to play games during sleep hours. First of all you should know this game lets you play as a mentally challenged person. If learning how to play fallout 1 and 2 is too scary for you as well, this game gives you quite a similar experience. (though only the prologue is completely thorough as far as I've seen, it's still enough afterwards) Very fun to have lower than 3 intelligence. You don't even get screwed over on the perk/skill point side like other games since you get special abilities for your unique brain. Probably a good idea to save before following "risky" choices though. Your character has a hard time realising what's actually dangerous and the narrator doesn't like it when you derail the story... This is still being updated as far as I know. Best of luck to the devs.

Caveat: The game is still in work and I only have a couple of hours playing it. Fallout 1 or 2 meets Baldur's Gate. The opening voiceover is a bit goofy, but the story isn't bad and the world seems fairly well-created. Character creation seems incredibly flexible, but in this pre-release state it's hard to tell how good it'll end up being; lots of the skills are still unavailable, but character building basically mimics Fallout, including tag skills. Inventory is grid-based, which is not my preferred style, but they just rolled out autosort which helps. NPC interactions seem decent, quests are plentiful, and the world has lots to explore. What will hopefully be improved: Pathing is a bit awkward/slow when on diagonals or short distances. Bartering could use an 'auto balance' feature to automatically adjust equivalence in cash. There are some game-freezing bugs that I'm sure will be worked out. Graphics are about right for the 1990s and have the feel of a sprite-based, locked-angle isometric game, but the game supports full 360 degree camera rotation. I realized the game defaults to 'low' quality. When I cranked it to 'ultra', graphics got quite a bit better. Right now the game isn't ready for prime-time, but the devs don't claim it is. This is definitely on track to be a very fun throwback to the cRPGs of my childhood.

Encased is a fun game. The first half of the game was detailed and level design was good, and the quests were fun. The second half of the game felt less fun. In fact, the main quests felt like a drag. I've figured out why. There were a few quests in the second half that were essentially point and click adventures - not very fun or engaging. This in itself is fine EXCEPT that the major locations that become available in the second half the game were overly big, meaning it's a drag to run around the huge map doing something that isn't inherently fun. Furthermore, despite the huge size of the locations, they were devoid of content. This made the second half of the game feel empty and tedious. If the developers did nothing other than shrink the size of Carmine and Phalanx Base, the second half of the game would have been more enjoyable. Overall, I would still give it a good score of 4/5 since I liked it enough to play through it twice.

A few hours into the game now, and really enjoying the humor and the atmosphere. The playthrough still hasn't really begun, but this has the polish of a labour of love - not a cash grab. Even the voice acting ranges from decent to good, and I normally always disable voiceovers in games.

2025 and still: - infinite enemy turns - crashes after entering elevator in power armor - quest triggers failing to trigger preventing progress ...and many more under this terrible jank there is a good game buried somewhere, but for me its basicly unplayable note that not many people experience the bugginess so it may be connected to sysrem/hardware configuration