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Underrail is mediocre (imo)

Ryzer

Prophet
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Underrail is a game vastly overrated on the Codex for various reasons: it was made by a single person (which is respectable), the number of builds it lures the player into thinking it has, the turn-based combat which can be fun but isn't.

Underrail is a game with tons of fetch quests which are explained as follows: go fetch this, go fix this, go do that, as if the player was a post office worker. The problem is there is no other path to complete the quests and no meaningful consequences for completing them. You are forced to complete the quest in one way, the developer obviously intends unlike Vampire's, Fallout's, Planescape...
There is no interaction between NPCs, whereas Arcanum, released 14 years before, does have.
There are only 2 different maps: Bunkers and caves.
The game tricks the player into thinking there is a lot of building variety until you discover that many skills and feats are useless.

For example, what's the benefit of Persuasion? None.

What's the benefit of Intimidation? None.

What's the benefit of Mercantile? None. ( you get rich pretty fast)
More is not always better.

And most of the builds end up poorly, so like most players you dig for recommendations on the forums.

Underrail is overloaded with junk, much like Witcher 3, you gather tons of crap with little reason why.

Underrail offers crafting but imagine picking Arcanum's crafting system and draining all the imagination it has, you get underrail's crafting.

Walls in underrail make it difficult for the player to aim a target, an issue Fallout 1-2 doesn't have.

What a shame, I wanted to love it but it's not for me. The fun in this game stems from min-max autism turned to an absurd degree, but if you are like me, you won't appreciate Underrail.
 
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agris

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See, in a traditional RPGs like Fallout, you can create characters fully developed in speech skills without putting points in combat but in Underrail you can't.
This post explains it in details:
Persuasion is good for lore and earlier Oculus, but otherwise, most of its meaningful checks can be completely skipped by doing certain quests/actions beforehand. [...] With Intimidation you either leave it at 0 and use items to boost the value and pass some checks, or max it when you have Yell/Brutality.

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=8647.0
You are right that a total pacifist playthrough of Underrail isn't (edit: easily) possible, and while exceedingly difficult to do in F1, it is possible.

I actually think of Underrail more in the vein of Baldur's Gate 1 or 2; a combat heavy game with principal gameplay loops revolving around the interaction of character builds and gear, and how that impacts the ways in which you approach combat. I know mechanically there are big differences, rtwp vs tb, class vs classless, but there's some strong deep similarities. The lack of a pacifist option in Underrail reinforces that, as does the secondary role of speech skills (CHA driven options in BG1/2 are even more light weight than persuasion options in UR).

I will say though that moderate amounts of Persuasion do have significant and unique impacts to some quest resolutions: Rat King/Camp Hathor, Blazer's capture, SGS's support of the Eels fighting the Scrappers, support for fighting the Beast, etc. It is not Fallout, but I think comparing it to that vein of cRPG is misguided. I don't think Underrail is trying to be that type of game.
 
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Yosharian

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And most of the builds end up poorly, so like most players you dig for recommendations on the forums.
I mean this alone is pretty retarded, I am absolutely terrible at this game and I still managed to make a build that wrecks normal difficulty.

You can totally play the game blind and still make a build good enough to get quite far, I think.

The problem is that many players these days aren't used to thinking for themselves and actually reflecting on what feat combinations etc might work.
 

Alphons

Cipher
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Nov 20, 2019
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February update added an alternative for Oligarchs and fighting in the Arena is no longer required.

Just like in Fallout 2 you don't have to fight anyone but the final boss (Horrigan/ Tchort).

Intimidation check avoids fight with the vagrant.
Hopper round up doesn't require combat.
You can tell Newton that the bugs are gone even if you didn't kill them (he dies).
GMS Expedition doesn't require fighting- you can Persuade the raiders to leave you alone and even Gorsky to leave earlier.
Depot A can be finished without fighting if your character has decent Stealth.
Rail Crossing can be finished without fighting and you can save Buzzer with Persuasion.
Find Acid Hunters via the new questline and let them live.
Statue for Tchortists can be pickpocketed.
Finish enough Investigation quests to trigger the Tremors or just hack the elevator/ pickpocket the keycard.
If you've invested in Sneak and know what you're doing Deep Caverns are easy.
Then just poison Tchort and nuke him with a few C4s.
 

agris

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While I see what you're saying, and on paper it does appear to support a no combat playthrough, I think in practice it would be much much harder than Fallout without combat.
 

Yosharian

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Excommunicator Mercantile unlocks the best gear, especially for crafting, in the game. It's virtually a must-have, meta skill. For someone to say that Mercantile does nothing because you 'get rich fast', that person must be pretty fucking new to Underrail.

Edit: what do you mean, 'no'? Are you a fucking retard? This guy's a fucking retard.
 
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ghostdog

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11,079
What does over-rated even mean? It scratches a niche. It has great single player combat, build porn and a lot of nice exploration. If you like that stuff, and a big chunck of the codex loves that stuff, then you will rave about it. It's an indie game made by a couple of Serbians in a cave, the mainstream media doesn't give a shit about. Is it better than Fallout? In some ways it is (way better combat) in some ways it's not (reactivity/writing). It doesn't try to be a Fallout clone, it was just, partly, inspired by it.
 

Gaznak

Learned
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Couldn't play Underrail at all. Don't like it visually and overall aesthetically, the overall impression is very cheap (sorry, devs, I know you made it in a basement somewhere in Serbian boondocks but nevertheless). I have nothing against indie or one-man-made games but I can't bear the cheapness, that is the lack of style for me. Underrail lacks it obviously, it's standard modern aesthetically untidy indie game. And whichever intricate and (probably) fun mechanics never saves it.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
This is why we can't have nice things.
Critique is how we get nice things.
If it made sense, yes. Both intimidation and persuasion have good uses. I put points into them, and they were helpful. Mercantile is essential for the best stuff. The combat is one of the most fun turn-based combat out there. I would have liked it to be party-based, rather than single character, but what the game offers is quite frankly top notch. You can build your character however you want on normal difficulty. I have tried a few varied builds, and they played very differently, but most importantly, they were all viable.

I can understand why Underrail wouldn't pander to a large audience, or even a large portion of the Codex, but if you're going to critique a game, at least make valid points, and don't spout bullshit. The only thing that is true from his post is that he doesn't find the combat fun, which is fine. You either like it, or you don't. He complains about walls, which is fine, yet I never had that problem. That one is funny, because I have almost 140 hours put into the game, and I am half blind. Still, not wall managed to be a hurdle for me. On the contrary, walls in Underrail are life savers! There are also more than one way to beat some quests. I have tried, and succeeded.

He also compares Underrail with Arcanum (one of my GOAT), but he also acknowledges that Underrail is made by one dude, while we know that Arcanum was made by a team. I would pick Arcanum any day of the week against probably any game, but one area where Underrail beats the crap out of Arcanum is combat. There's not even any contest. And at the end of the day, I play Underrail for combat, and exploration. Both of which this game nails.
 
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jackofshadows

Magister
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Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,485
As I see it OP, you wanted to love it because you'd thought it's basically a Fallout clone. Once you've realized that is false, you've lost your interest. Which would be fine but you've made the wrong conclusions and wrote untrue stuff about the game in question. So be kind, change your post and fuck off.
 

Ryzer

Prophet
Vatnik
Joined
May 1, 2020
Messages
5,212
As I see it OP, you wanted to love it because you'd thought it's basically a Fallout clone. Once you've realized that is false, you've lost your interest. Which would be fine but you've made the wrong conclusions and wrote untrue stuff about the game in question. So be kind, change your post and fuck off.
Might explain why I'm wrong instead of insulting me? Yosharian did attack me on mercantile, I accept it but it was just one of many examples I have in mind . Now onto the fact that I supposedly expected Fallout, I expected to enjoy Underrail but I find no fun in it whatsoever other than the min-maxing autism ( aka build variety which resolves around which type of gun you want to use. You want to go with PSI, use the psi build on the internet, make sure to pick the correct feats otherwise you're screwed, funnnnnnnnnnn!). No kidding I saw an advice about the game exactly as this one.
 

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