KickStarter Encased - isometric post-apocalyptic RPG under the dome

[DeepOcean]

Man, not only they have you doing a bunch of fetch missions, they repeat that all over again with even more fetch missions after the Emulator is turned on. You know, I made a silver wing psycher because I wanted to play as a smug bastard telling people what to do and not play mister fetch boy, talked with the Magellan Administrator, motherfucker didnt give a single shit despite my character being the only survivor on Nashville, yeah made total sense. So bored of this Emulator nonsense, they made the whole main plot being just a bunch of fetch quests to power this thing up and it gets tiresome already by the time the first phase is up.

This shit reminds me of the radio towers bullshit on Wasteland 2, "Hey guise, Fallout 1 had a fetch quest for the main quest, lets repeat that over and over again for the next 20 years? It will be so cool." You know, you may have a fetch quest as an excuse but you need to pivot hard from that as soon as possible and focus on other things, also, why most important NPCs are boring assholes that treat you like some orange low level worker? Nakamura is a boring bitch, the Magellan administrator is a boring asshole, that Carmine Heighs bitch deserve to be impaled and the list goes on and on. They seem not that much enthusiastic about me helping them. I dont feel enthusiastic either. It doesnt help that the factions smell like underdeveloped deja vu.

Also, psyche powers are shit, blowing peoples heads once their fatigue is high? Nigga, it takes 5 shotgun shots to get the fatigue that high while the same enemy would be obliterated with heavy weapon shots/melee weapons by that point. Also, wont bother gathering components for sleep granades when blasting trash mobs is cheaper. Another thing, why the ultimate power on the influence ability tree is basically an inferior version of the sweep attack thing melee characters get alot earlier? I made a smooth talker influencer that has to get into enemy faces anyway the same as pleb melee characters? What is the point?

Another thing, is an impression of mine or killing a single Hyena on a random encounter gives more experience than finishing a whole quest? I was avoiding random encounters all the way through but it seems most secondary quests, at least in terms of experience, are pointless? Boy they didnt play tested this game at all but dunno why I'm surprised, the City feels like a prop level demo from the Unity asset store, they didnt even finish the levels, imagine playtesting the gameplay.

 

[Alphons]

Another thing, is an impression of mine or killing a single Hyena on a random encounter gives more experience than finishing a whole quest?

Random merchants are the best way to level up. They give you experience for killing them and the guards and experience for looting their stuff. Someone on Steam forums mentioned leveling 15 times after killing weapons trader.

 

[jackofshadows]

Another thing, is an impression of mine or killing a single Hyena on a random encounter gives more experience than finishing a whole quest?

Random merchants are the best way to level up. They give you experience for killing them and the guards and experience for looting their stuff. Someone on Steam forums mentioned leveling 15 times after killing weapons trader.

Even barring that, legit mebious encounters could easily give several levels at once while some of the quests don't have ANY reward. No xp, no coin, no rep, nothing. It's such a mess...

 

[Nikanuur]

Another thing, is an impression of mine or killing a single Hyena on a random encounter gives more experience than finishing a whole quest?

Random merchants are the best way to level up. They give you experience for killing them and the guards and experience for looting their stuff. Someone on Steam forums mentioned leveling 15 times after killing weapons trader.

 

[DeepOcean]

So, accordingly to the logic of the game, those merchants are more dangerous than semi sentient murder robots? Yeah... and the people who tought the Early Access period was over and bought this game full price...

Hope you guys that backed the kickstarter are enjoying the Encased experience of killing braindead easy mode trashmobs with a shotgun to earn a slightly better version of your shotgun so you can kill more braindead trashmobs with adjusted stats to compensate for your new shotgun while travelling through some cool Unity asset store prop demo levels, it is amazing.

 

[The Wall]

Game found just enough success on Steam. Not too much, so that money, vodka and cocaine can get to their heads and neither too little, so they gotta close the shop

Maybe they will enhance & expand game post-launch and prove that besides ATOM team, Codex has one more good RPG studio in Russia: DarkCrystalGaming

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Damn I was looking forward to playing this but I guess it's another one to wait until the price is $1 in Humble Bundle

 

[Fenix]

with help from that Bolt game

Yeah, I think there should be limited number of games you could play - like 3, there are 3 players besides you, and their money should not be infinite.

 

[General Disarray]

Game found just enough success on Steam. Not too much, so that money, vodka and cocaine can get to their heads and neither too little, so they gotta close the shop

Maybe they will enhance & expand game post-launch and prove that besides ATOM team, Codex has one more good RPG studio in Russia: DarkCrystalGaming

But what about Mono Studio, the maker of the RPG hit Insomnia: The Ark?
Haha just kidding, but is nice now to see in retrospective how that game foretold what happened with this game.

 

[Fenix]

Yeah, games from Russia have one problem - Russia itself, which mean when devs will ran out of money they won't be able to get money as Russia is a piss poor country - so the result is underfunded games.

 

[Shadenuat]

I'm nowhere near Maelstrom but whatever.

Wanted to have some fun in dangerous parts of the Wasteland, go where noone went, die to some Enclave patrols, I mean, check on funny raider queen?
Sorry, finish this linear fetch quest chain first; to unlock next chapter, and get another fetch quest chain.

 

[Parabalus]

This isn't a game, but a looting simulator.

Looting gives the majority of the XP, and you go from room to room to click on more containers to loot.

Just skip it.

 

[Fenix]

Yeah, skip looting.

 

[jackofshadows]

Such a contrast between release time and now, after all highly impressionable people and fanboys left the thread (well, except one). And I thought back then for a second I've lost my faith in the Codex.

But you guys all mistaken, it's a beatiful RPG! If you don't beleive, read this: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197975760250/recommended/921800/

Well, at least now I know whose opinion not to listen, I clearly have different priorities in RPGs. I mean, I wouldn't mind if Encased was something like DE because I agree pretty much with all the positives except "gameplay" part while basically every mechanic suck and therefore it makes a bad RPG as a overall result.

 

[Alphons]

But you guys all mistaken, it's a beatiful RPG! If you don't beleive, read this: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197975760250/recommended/921800/

Comments for this review are disabled

 

[fantadomat]

Such a contrast between release time and now, after all highly impressionable people and fanboys left the thread (well, except one). And I thought back then for a second I've lost my faith in the Codex.

But you guys all mistaken, it's a beatiful RPG! If you don't beleive, read this: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197975760250/recommended/921800/

Well, at least now I know whose opinion not to listen, I clearly have different priorities in RPGs. I mean, I wouldn't mind if Encased was something like DE because I agree pretty much with all the positives except "gameplay" part while basically every mechanic suck and therefore it makes a bad RPG as a overall result.

LoL you are one butthurt faggit .

 

[Daedalos]

imma wait to fire this shit up until a least 1-3 bigger patches/mods hits the streets

catch u neggas on the flip side

 

[DeepOcean]

Man, I had so many questions, like how the Spire exactly worked? Why they couldnt replicate the technology? If non organics can get out, why outside communications stopped? If Cronus had the resources to build the Spire, why other factions outside the Dome couldnt try to replicate it even if on a smaller scale to evacuate most people inside and get relic production going again? It seems that Magellan and the New Commite are fine, that means the outside world is even more fine, so why no communication? Even assuming an economic collapse because of the interruption of relic supply, wouldnt that be more of an incentive to re connect with the Dome at any cost? What Maelstrom want?

All those questions but the game goes: "You are the chosen one and sheit, there are those factions that are just lame B team fallout style factions ripoffs, now go cleaning their toilets chosen one, have a good day."

 

[jackofshadows]

Such a contrast between release time and now, after all highly impressionable people and fanboys left the thread (well, except one). And I thought back then for a second I've lost my faith in the Codex.

But you guys all mistaken, it's a beatiful RPG! If you don't beleive, read this: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197975760250/recommended/921800/

Well, at least now I know whose opinion not to listen, I clearly have different priorities in RPGs. I mean, I wouldn't mind if Encased was something like DE because I agree pretty much with all the positives except "gameplay" part while basically every mechanic suck and therefore it makes a bad RPG as a overall result.

LoL you are one butthurt faggit .

Nigga, did you at least finish it? If you did, tell me with a straight face that was not a disappointing experience. Even with 0 expectations beforehand due to many things, I won't list them again. But I had, in fact, some expectations. Partially because I've played the EA relatively extensive. I thought they'd fixed at least some of the game issues but no, they were too busy adding the last half-assed... No, 1/10-assed locations and quests in order to finish the damned thing and dump it.

Man, I had so many questions, like how the Spire exactly worked? Why they couldnt replicate the technology? If non organics can get out, why outside communications stopped? If Cronus had the resources to build the Spire, why other factions outside the Dome couldnt try to replicate it even if on a smaller scale to evacuate most people inside and get relic production going again? It seems that Magellan and the New Commite are fine, that means the outside world is even more fine, so why no communication? Even assuming an economic collapse because of the interruption of relic supply, wouldnt that be more of an incentive to re connect with the Dome at any cost? What Maelstrom wants?

I've had just one question: why all the countries were so happy to work together on this instead of waging a world-scaled war over controlling the Dome? Never get the answer, have any of you?

 

[DeepOcean]

I've had just one question: why all the countries were so happy to work together on this instead of waging a world-scaled war over controlling the Dome istead? Never get the answer, have any of you?

Yes, this is an important point, while it is hard to show a world war for the dome in game, they could have gone with the UN making a multinational task force going into the Dome to "help" Cronus after the Maelstrom crisis while it is obvious that under that UN task force, the Soviet Union and the US were trying to push things into their favor and creating conflict that would only get worse as the game progressed with both sides wanting to control Maelstrom and understand the technology behind it.

To make things more interesting, Maelstrom on this fight could be more than a passive prize. It has an alien mind of its own, you know, after the Nashville incident, it would make sense for the UN to interveene with Kessler being able to nominate a portion of the team that is going to study Maelstrom and as you were the only one that talked with Maelstrom and didnt go crazy, you were sent to do that job as that linguist did on the movie Arrival and see if there was a way to talk with Maelstrom.

Strangely enough, Maelstrom talked with you but you arent sure what it is trying to say so it passes to your mind a way to build an Emulator relic that would be a relic capable of translating its toughts directly to you. So, Maelstrom guides you through visions while the whole political intrigue happens on the background. You need to go relic hunting on dangerous areas of the Dome that gone wild with the Maelstrom awakening with your team as companions, as things move on, Kessler start doubting this talking with Maelstrom and wishes to nuke it with another device, you start doubting your own team as they have their own interest with their own countries that sent them and you start questioning if Maelstrom is actually manipulating everybody and you dont know if it is for good or for ill.

 

[Alphons]

the outside world is even more fine, so why no communication

If you choose to help Carmine Heights at the end with their isosuits they finally send out a team of scouts to Crystal Sands (CRONUS town near the Dome). Everyone is dead and soon enough something also kills scouts.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

There's really heavy hinting of some time shenanigans happening outside the dome after Maelstrom hit. Another factor is that the dome doesn't let stuff out just anywhere, the only opening is at the top, and that still kills organics. No idea why it wouldn't be good enough to setup a radio to the outside. In one of the endings it gets closed off completely.

 

[DeepOcean]

I will just suspend my playthrough and go play Trudograd instead, maybe by 2023 this game becomes a real game and finally leave Early Access for reals, right now, this game is one of those broken Early Access games that cosplay as real games to get more sales, no point wasting my time.

They are talking of adding a harder difficulty mode on the future, it is a step on the right direction but they will still need to fix ALOT of shit, the game is basically okayish and unfinished as an adventure game and borderline unplayable when it involves combat, not unplayable that the combat is buggy or the game is unfinishable, just it is not fun as a video game because it is completely broken and disfunctional.

I will retract what I said and make an apology for Fargo, Wasteland 2 feels like a real game in comparison with this.

 

[Xunwael]

Got bored after finishing the first step of the emulator and then they invite you to their super special leader meeting and have you attend as an important guest of honour and demand that you help all of them because you're super important and special and anyone who didn't get your super important special help is going to be woefully underpowered compared to all the other factions.

Then you go help them with their super important super special quest and it's bullshit like "hang up these posters around town", "survey people in the town on who they'd vote for", "fetch this random piece of gear from the next place over", bitch are you fucking joking me? Then it's dumb shit like, oh, make sure to place these three gadgets at these three specific locations. And it's super important that you place them properly spread out so that we get complete coverage or whatever. A good place for the third beacon would be the first settlement or whatever it is. Oh and by the way, we have no idea where that is so you need to go find this super skilled pathfinder guy. WHAT!? Dude? Just fucking... why do I need a map to tell me where the spot on the map that I need to go to is as defined by where the beacons need to be positioned when I already fucking KNOW where the beacons need to be positioned? Then I go into the retards' camp and I just fucking murder everyone there after the queen tells me to go find their retard-pathfinder. I just gun the entire settlement down one person at a time by standing like 29 meters away and shooting them with my sniper rifle, clicking them really fast so that I empty my mag into them before they come close enough to trigger combat. Killed the entire place like this. Eventually they were sending power armored retards at me but they couldn't find me to engage in combat since I just shot one guy at a time then moved position. After that, they hated me so much that I kept getting ambushed by retards looking for revenge but every time I zoned in it was just necroids for some reason. Was like lvl 49 just from killing necroids in random encounters since they gave like a third of a level each.

So I went into the maze prison thing and killed my way to the bathtub where the sherlock guy was sitting for some reason (why the FUCK was he there?), but all he would say to me was "I hate you cuz u got -100 rep from killing people of my faction" (how does he know this?), so I gave him all my money to get him to talk to me but even at 100 rep he refused to so I murdered him to get my money back and he had none of it on him, it had literally disappeared into the ether. Luckily, the toilet paper roll he had in his pocket told me the direction to the camp that I already logically would have to have known the location of. Then for some reason I was overwhelmed by a powerful sensation of "fuck this", logged out, and never felt the need to play the game again.

The stuff that was in the early access segments was all pretty good. The stuff after that felt so half-baked it may as well have been a joke. The "city" in particular was just sad. Huge empty open spaces that do nothing but waste your time as you run from empty location to empty location, it doesn't even have any merchants. I snuck into the cult place and killed everyone there and nobody seemed to care. I went into the sewers and found their creepy brainwashing thing or whatever it was and nobody seemed to care. Whatever.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I've had just one question: why all the countries were so happy to work together on this instead of waging a world-scaled war over controlling the Dome istead? Never get the answer, have any of you?

It reminds me CERN.