UnderRail

You like Jagged Alliance? You dig Fallout 1+2 and Arcanum to boot? Well, Underrail will scratch that itch. It has all the old-school bits people miss in an RPG these days: Lots of stats, attributes, feats, skills, skill checks, crafting, great TBC and lots of text to read. The atmosphere is great and somewhere between Metro and Fallout. It's got awesome places to explore too. So why not full star-age? Because its not perfect. The writing is not Plancescape: Torment levels, but not bad either. But then again, how many games can claim Planescape: Torment level of writing that are not PS:T? Some bits and pieces tend to be repetitive, and sometimes things are dull. But such bits are far and few in between. Then again some section are really tense and contrast glaringly with those dull moments. Still, it's a more than solid Hardcore RPG with leanings towards combat and exploration form a tiny 3 man serbian dev team that has been in development for quite some time. You like classic RPG...well grab this one too. Gonna be a classic soon enough. :)

This game is a great example of what can be achieved when a developer has the right combination of creativity, competence, good planning and no publisher interference. The game plays a lot like fallout 1 & 2 but stands own its own and even surpasses those titles in some ways (eg: combat and exploration). Pros: - Deep character development system: The stats, skills and perks are tightly integrated with the game mechanics (combat, exploration, stealth) - Combat system: Turn based combat that allows a variety of different builds to work. The tactical options expand as the character develops. Requires players to think through encounters. - Innovative new XP system (called Oddities in the game) that rewards exploration and discourages grinding. - Excellent atmosphere, that is well suppored by the sound and ambient music. The visual themes also support this well - Consistent gameworld - The towns & NPCs are "realistic" within the framework of the world. Similarly, how the PC affects the world is consistent within this framework. - Many role playing possibilities and late game C&C as the player encounters different factions - A LOT of content and replayability for the price Neutral: - Story is grounded within the reality of the world. Don't expect "epic" questlines. While this is a positive for me, many people may consider this a negative. - Graphics wont win people over. Cons: - The font scaling is off and is tiny at high resolutions (eg: 1440p) - in those cases, you are better off using 720p and scaling to your desktop resolution using your GPU. - The first series of quests and starting area is pretty linear and can get repetitive (especially if you keep restarting new characters). It can take 4-5 hours to resolve the initial main quest to open up the rest of the game. In my opinion, only minor gripes plague the game. This is the kind of game that needs to have enough commercial success to encourage other developers follow suit.

I was one of the early backers of this game, when it was still in early access on Steam. I have put 58 hours into it overall and have never played threw the game completly. If you are wondering why that is please keep reading. The game is overall fun and has a ton of amazing stuff. But it has also a lot of frustrating elements, that i would like to ellaborate on: Pros: -deep character development -a lot of option for building your character (including stealth, melee, "magic", and so son) -interesting setting -crafting system Cons: -extremly hard, frustrating and partly flawed combat -no acceptable map feature (you will get lost a lot) -no fast travel option (while it is nice that you have to explore areas and stuff like that this can also be extremly frustrating and take a lot of time -only mediocre storytelling and dialogues, don't expect another fallout 2 -no companions The main issue i have with this game is the combat. By far the most frustrating thing are enemies that can just keep stunning you forever while you have no chance to react at all. You also usually have to walk up to opponents just far enough so that the combat doesn't start automatically. Then you initiate combat on your own to be able to attack first, since usually you can't do anything if they start. I don't dislike hard games, i played this game on hard. But i dislike design flaws that simply make it frustrating instead of hard. This alongside the non-existance of a map made me decide to stop playing the game pretty far into the story because everything was just a little too much work for my personal taste and i simply had no idea where to go next. If you want an oldschool CRPG experience and don't mind a little frustration along the way then this game is for you. But make sure to read some guides on how to min-max your character, or you will have to start over a lot.

I'm about 30 hours into Underrail and it just keeps on giving. The Fallout influence here is strong, but it's not a Fallout clone by any means. Combat is much deeper and more involving than Fallout, as is dungeon exploration, which there is a ton of in this game. What it gets from Fallout is more in the flexibility of character options, but there's less emphasis on world reactivity and more on deciding how exactly you want to destroy or evade your enemies. You cannot go all diplomat in this game, that's for sure. Many character builds are possible. Obviously there's combat, and lots of it, but you can also focus on crafting, sneaking, social skills, breaking and entering and psychic powers and all of these dramatically change your game. One of the signs of a well designed RPG is when there is good reason to specialize in everything but spreading your character thin between too many skills results in a weak build. My first character wasn't specialized enough so I started over about ten hours in, and I was happy about it -- that's how good this game is. I'm already thinking about what my next build is going to be like. The Underrail world is really well crafted. There much mysterious lore to discover and the underground post-apocalyptic world you inhabit reveals itself slowly through natural conversations, rarely through forced exposition. The writing is not Torment or anything, but Underrail isn't there to tell a story -- the story is there to take you on a tour through Underrail, all of its treacherous caves, abandoned bases, underground cities and I don't even know what else yet. I'm already absolutely convinced that this game will someday stand alongside games like BG2, Fallout 1/2, and Torment as an example of the genre by which others are judged. There have been a lot of revivalist RPGs in this vein lately, and 2015 has been a killer year for them, and I've played them all. Underrail stands at the top of the heap, hands down.