Preview RPG Codex Preview: Underrail

[JarlFrank]

Tags: Stygian Software; Underrail

Underrail, the post-apocalyptic indie RPG which has a demo out and the developer posting regularly on the Codex, has been officially previewed by none other than me.

The indie RPG Underrail, which had its demo released recently, feels and looks very similar to one of the most popular Codexian classics - Fallout. When I played the demo, many of its aspects reminded me of Fallout. The flavour text when examining some objects, the character system, the combat, and even the atmosphere in some parts of the game. But is it actually good? To find out, read the following preview!​

So, don't waste any time and go read that preview! (And play the demo if you haven't already.)

Read the full article: Underrail Preview

 

[Sputnik]

Could you please resize the screenshots? Currently the article is impossible to read.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'd include them as thumbnails if I knew how to.

The Brazilian Slaughter

 

[CappenVarra]

Hey, how about including the images so they don't break the site width and offer "click to embiggen" like every other piece of content on the site? Pretty please

EDIT: ninjas

 

[JarlFrank]

Sadly, the new forum software doesn't allow that (yet) so we have to make do with imagehosting sites and using img tags.

The Brazilian Slaughter

 

[JarlFrank]

Screens are resized. Text inside them is now hard to read though.

The Brazilian Slaughter

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

JarlFrank nice review!

Styg awesome work, still waiting for a way to give you my money!

Brazilian Slaughter - You have nothing to do with this man and I won't participate in the silliness

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Agree with your conclusion but I'd also add, in addition to typos/grammar errors, that the game needs somebody with a little creative writing background (like The Brazilian Slaughter) to spice some of the dialogue up and bring it from "serviceable" to "interesting".

 

[Excommunicator]

it is very much possible to complete this game without a single kill

Just to clarify, when you say this you mean that no specific skill is essential to completing the game, as opposed to not needing to learn (m)any skill points to play through the game?

He should have made psi into a more utilitarian and less conventional magic system, and hopefully stealth is toned down a lot later. Still pretty amazing how efficiently he has worked to create this.

 

[JarlFrank]

it is very much possible to complete this game without a single kill

Just to clarify, when you say this you mean that no specific skill is essential to completing the game, as opposed to not needing to learn (m)any skill points to play through the game?

Yeah, by that I mean that no specific kill is essential to completing the game. No main quest (at least in the demo) absolutely requires you to kill anyone or anything.

Since you also get experience for successful lockpicks/hacks and for quest completion, it should be possible to level up enough to get high stealth and social skills without killing a single enemy ever, and if your stealth, persuasion and intimidation are high enough, you can avoid pretty much every combat situation.

There's no rat diplomacy, however.

 

[asper]

it is very much possible to complete this game without a single kill

Just to clarify, when you say this you mean that no specific skill is essential to completing the game, as opposed to not needing to learn (m)any skill points to play through the game?

He should have made psi into a more utilitarian and less conventional magic system, and hopefully stealth is toned down a lot later. Still pretty amazing how efficiently he has worked to create this.

KILL, not Skill

 

[JarlFrank]

Oh, he said skill, not kill, heh.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO TOTALLY AVOID COMBAT IN UNDERRAIL

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I agree with this preview almost wholeheartedly.
I will be continuing with my own works of the game. Really enjoying it so far.

 

[Excommunicator]

it is very much possible to complete this game without a single kill

Just to clarify, when you say this you mean that no specific skill is essential to completing the game, as opposed to not needing to learn (m)any skill points to play through the game?

He should have made psi into a more utilitarian and less conventional magic system, and hopefully stealth is toned down a lot later. Still pretty amazing how efficiently he has worked to create this.

KILL, not Skill

All that talk about stealth must have made me think skill instead of kill.

So we know there's a non-violent route, but I guess my question still stands? Are the skills balanced well enough that none are so valuable that you automatically pick them?

 

[EG]

Similar to Fallout . . . So it's already better than AoD.

Poor Vince.

 

[JarlFrank]

So we know there's a non-violent route, but I guess my question still stands? Are the skills balanced well enough that none are so valuable that you automatically pick them?

Yes. As I said in my preview, just about any character build is valid. The fact that there's also a max skill level for each character level (as in, at level 1, you can't raise any skill past 15, etc) forces you to pick multiple skills rather than just specializing on one thing exclusively, so putting as many points into a useless skill as you can isn't a death sentence (like putting everything into outdoorsman and neglecting all other skills in Fallout would be). And, as far as I've seen, there aren't any skills that are useless - except maybe for crafting skills, but I wouldn't know since I never use crafting in any RPG.

You should have at least one psi, combat or stealth skill, though. Going pure diplomat/crafter might fuck your character up, but other than that, all is valid. You can go pure stealth and make it through. You can go pure combat and make it through. You can go pure mage and make it through. Or you can try to be a jack of all trades and make it through, too.

The character system is very flexible and balanced. None of the skills are so overpowered you absolutely have to have them (except maybe stealth at high levels), and none is absolutely necessary. You can get by without a single combat skill, or without a single psi skill, if you want.

 

[Rivmusique]

You made this sound pretty good, will have to give that demo a go.

 

[EG]

... putting as many points into a useless skill as you can isn't a death sentence (like putting everything into outdoorsman and neglecting all other skills in Fallout would be).

Challenge accepted. Starting FRAPS.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Outdoorsman is quite needed in ironman, btw.

You can even use it to travel straight to new reno and dig up golgotha - makes for an interesting run.

 

[dbx]

From the preview it looks like stealth is really too much overpowered, if they fix it this is going to be awesome.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I haven't used stealth yet.
What makes it so powerful?

 

[Pope Amole II]

First, it gives you an easy financial start - with 15 skill, 10 agility and ninja looter perk you can loot all doctor Pasquale's shelves & stuff, one of the Tanner's shelves and one of the shelves in armoury (if you do things right). And that's a lot of stuff.

Second, with either burst shot or aimed shot it allows you to insta-kill pretty much everything, not even giving them one chance to strike at you. That's good.

 

[Stinger]

Hmm this seems interesting.

Just to make sure, when you're comparing the combat to Fallout this also means that the game is single character turn based rather than fully party control turn based?

That'd be a bit of a negative but the rest of the stuff in the preview sounds really interesting. I especially love the stealth system which sounds fantastic, finally a stealth mode in an RPG that is a more substantial gameplay mechanic than "engage stealth mode> beeline to your destination while dice rolls decide possible detection"

 

[Mother Russia]

What about diplomacy? Is it possible to play a brave diplomat, one who stands his ground and talks, rather than run away?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, there are those skills, but I doubt it.