Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Falksi]

Finding myself putting this game on for a quick go, and then looking at the clock and I've lost 2-3 hours. I'm taking my time with it and still quite early in the game, only just sorted the outposts out and off to trap some Hoppers, but the music and general "vibe" is wonderful, and just sucks you in. There's always something interesting to discover, and always something fresh being presented (a new item, a new path etc.)

I hear Ciox's criticism regards tactical variety, but I've only been fighting mostly rathounds so far, and even then found the amount of rathounds in the area + the area layout + the status of my character still lead to a lot of variety in battle. My general approach has been Psi-punch-stun (sorry, can't remember it's name), followed by a crossbow bolt or stab, then finishing them off with Neural Overload or the ice bolt thing. But even with that staple tactical base I find myself having to adjust it depending on the scenarion. "Bugger I'm out of psi-points, drop onto the knife"; "arggh, there's 4 of them, I best lure them down this narrow pathway & set a trap first"; "open plan area and several rats, will stun & freeze a few individually and make a retreat" etc.

There's a great balance all round in this game so far, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[ciox]

Yup, the start of the game is a lot of fun, especially since you can kill a lot of rathounds by keeping an eye out for explosive barrels and luring the rathounds to them, or closing gates on them since animals can't open them.

It's only later that you start having some trouble with crossbow+psi since you'll often get human enemies that can drop you immediately, so you feel pretty much obligated to stun them with shock bolts or else.

 

[Falksi]

Yup, the start of the game is a lot of fun, especially since you can kill a lot of rathounds by keeping an eye out for explosive barrels and luring the rathounds to them, or closing gates on them since animals can't open them.

It's only later that you start having some trouble with crossbow+psi since you'll often get human enemies that can drop you immediately, so you feel pretty much obligated to stun them with shock bolts or else.

Thanks for the heads up. I've got a bit of an underpowered psi build on normal (9 will), so will be interesting to see how it plays out.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Hoo hoo! The moment human enemies start showing up, you'll see just how much fun the combat system can get.

 

[Falksi]

Hoo hoo! The moment human enemies start showing up, you'll see just how much fun the combat system can get.

Just scrapped with the 3 dudes north of the cave in. Thrived on the various approaches I could take. Can't wait to get my teeth into more later this week.

 

[Falksi]

Man, the trouble with this game is once you start a sesh you can't pull yourself away lol.

Didn't see the missus tonight as planned coz I was to nackard from the day, so again had another good 3 solid hours immersed in it. Getting my arse handed to me by enemies now, but the game is great in how it usually allows me to overcome them if I experiement with different approaches.

Think that the world design is bang on. Spacious enough to feel big, but never vastly overwhelming (well not so far anyway). That tight-knit cohesion really helps prevent boredom kicking in.

Love how straight laced the game is in terms of objectives & characters too. Probably dealt with over 15 NPCs now in one way or another, and not one mention of sexuality or suchlike. It's just a bunch of folk trying to survive at the mo, and that's really refreshing & keeps it feeling even more about survival.

 

[Black Angel]

What does this symbol means? Styg Mac_Orion epeli I also found them in caves and other places.

 

[razvedchiki]

It has to do something with the expansion,I saw a similar thread in the underaill forum.

 

[epeli]

About time a codexer noticed! Now it's just the two-headed mutant... Anyways, I probably shouldn't tell you what you're looking at but I can tell you there are more of those symbols. See how many you can find, maybe you guys can discern their function from the bigger picture?

By the way, those aren't the only things that were silently added in the experimental patches early this year. If nothing else, members of a certain secret society should visit their HQ after the endgame events for a very interesting discussion.

 

[Black Angel]

If nothing else, members of a certain secret society should visit their HQ after the endgame events for a very interesting discussion.

Already did, but seems like I forgot to post that after the end of my 2nd playthrough. Oh, well... most people are waiting for the expansion to release before beginning their new playthrough or resuming the ongoing ones, so hurry up already!

 

[Falksi]

About 15 hours in now and this is fast becoming one of my fave games of the year so far.

That said a few minor gripes tonight. A very, very minor one was having my first venture into a vent system which held nothing of interest & served no purpose (or not one which I could find anyway). Really felt unnecessary and essentially - with combat - just added a 20-ish-min chunk of filler. No big deal though.

Also, the lack of character interaction & NPC depth left me a bit unsatisfied tonight. Playing the game itself is just great, but once I've returned from a mission or two it would be nice to relax a bit around the complex & have a few C&C conversations in that time.

But I can't get enough of the actual missions & game itself. The combat is evolving superbly with every battle, and it's been ages since every fight felt so different, even the same fight after you've died.

And the oddity system is just brilliant. It's the first time I've ever actually felt as if I've a real choice in how I approach things, without being punished or missing out on something. I usually hate pacifist runs, I'm the type of bloke who plays Deaus Ex:HR guns blazing, but this is a game one which makes me consider my options every time, and has me enjoy the pacifist ones too.

 

[Black Angel]

The vents are meant for stealthy characters and also those who like to take it slow when exploring dangerous areas like the GMS compound level 2. Thinking about it I guess you're right that they were kind of filler, and of course it has nothing to add to the combat gameplay, since it's a feature purely for exploration and subterfuge.

 

[ghostdog]

There are certain high danger areas and some where you'd want to go by completely undetected, where the vents are great help.

Though I would have liked the option to grab an enemy that's close to a vent and drag him inside...

 

[Falksi]

It was the vent at the GMS compoud. Like I say, it wasn't anything major, I just couldn't do anything other than scout the area, and it had no alternate exit (not one I could find anyway) so it felt a bit pointless. Felt like it needed an option to do something such as grab said enemy, or an exit to a console you could hack, or even an exit to an area where you could get the jump on a few enemies etc.

I guess I've been conditioned a bit by Deus Ex to expect such things, so probably shouldn't grumble. Either way it didn't bother me as such, it was just noticeable as the rest of the compound felt SUPERBLY designed, with various things constantly engage you in one way or another.

In fact, as far as level & area design go, I think this is one of the best games I've played in ages. It's not been a chore at all so far, and I never know quite what to expect either.

The missus is meant to be round tonight and she's just sent me a few naughty msgs this morning trying to tease me for later. All I'm doing is think of excuses to get out of seeing her so I can keep playing tonight lol.

 

[Haplo]

Recently started playing. Love the game so far. So many tactical options and so much character build variety. Love it when a game gives me headaches when choosing how to build my character. Yesterday I've met some Looney goons with dogs, while looking for the GMS station and they simply murdered me. I'm so happy there are still challenging games out there.

 

[Lithium Flower]

Has the writing improved since release? I actually thought that the story was pretty intriguing, especially the weird/cosmic elements, but it was let down by the writing. It was a bit too dry when Styg was the only writer but after the Core City update I felt that it became pretty uneven and inconsistent, and certain situations like the dialogue between the lovers at Camp Hathor were pretty much cringe-worthy (not to mention spelling errors, run-on sentences, etc.)

Regardless, I look forward to replaying the game when the expansion comes out.

 

[Falksi]

Has the writing improved since release? I actually thought that the story was pretty intriguing, especially the weird/cosmic elements, but it was let down by the writing. It was a bit too dry when Styg was the only writer but after the Core City update I felt that it became pretty uneven and inconsistent, and certain situations like the dialogue between the lovers at Camp Hathor were pretty much cringe-worthy (not to mention spelling errors, run-on sentences, etc.)

Regardless, I look forward to replaying the game when the expansion comes out.

I'm not exactly the most critical when it comes to writing, but I've not had a problem with it so far other than I'd like a bit more of it.

The version I'm playing I downloaded about a month ago.

 

[Black Angel]

Has the writing improved since release? I actually thought that the story was pretty intriguing, especially the weird/cosmic elements, but it was let down by the writing. It was a bit too dry when Styg was the only writer but after the Core City update I felt that it became pretty uneven and inconsistent, and certain situations like the dialogue between the lovers at Camp Hathor were pretty much cringe-worthy (not to mention spelling errors, run-on sentences, etc.)

Regardless, I look forward to replaying the game when the expansion comes out.

As far as I know, most of the spelling errors and the likes has been fixed. There's still some here and there, though.

Also, I thought Core City is where the writing kinda becomes more interesting? Alhough I only have done the JKK questline, so I wouldn't know how the 2 other factions fared in that regards. After Core City, though, the Institute was good for me, writing-wise.

 

[epeli]

Has the writing improved since release? I actually thought that the story was pretty intriguing, especially the weird/cosmic elements, but it was let down by the writing. It was a bit too dry when Styg was the only writer but after the Core City update I felt that it became pretty uneven and inconsistent, and certain situations like the dialogue between the lovers at Camp Hathor were pretty much cringe-worthy (not to mention spelling errors, run-on sentences, etc.)

Ha, I feel you on that one. Camp Hathor was more or less the first thing by the new writer and it shows. Right after getting used to Styg's dry style the place felt like a circus. It still feels more lively than the other communities, but not in a bad way. But what's that about after Core City update, got any examples? That update came much later and the overall consistency (in both writing and visuals) of the new devs' work was already somewhat better by then. Nowadays there aren't many of Styg's dialogs/sprites left.

As for the quality of writing, nowadays it's on a comfortable level. Before the release I used to report thousands of typos, literally thousands. Now I don't spot any when playing. Any grammar threads have been quite silent for a long time, so it seems others also aren't terribly bothered by the writing quality anymore. The devs still improve the entire game iteratively, but as far as writing goes I suspect it's already pretty much as good as it gets without hiring a second writer/editor/QA to share the workload.

 

[Jack Dandy]

I would love it if NPC dialogue refreshed more as you progress thru the game. I've really grown to like a lot of these weirdos, and would love to see how they react to various changes in the game world, or thru their own mini "story arcs", if possible.

 

[Doktor Best]

Played the game last year and i had zero complaints about the writing. Simple but effective. Good pacing, interesting characters, evokes a sense of mystery and curiosity. You always "get" the gameworld with its inherent balance of power between and among human factions, the hazardous enviroment and foreign powers.

Kinda reminded me on the first two Gothic games.

 

[Vorark]

Yeah, there's enough flavor to the NPCs without drowning the player in endless blabber, so common in the new batch of RPGs. Who can forget Al Fabet? DC, for as much (deservingly) flak as it got for the spawning/debuffing pre-patch, had a subtle, yet well done way to tell you what happened down there. Place was fucking eerie.

 

[Old One]

Don't forget everyone's favorite Underrail NPC: Gubbins.

A masterpiece of understatement.

 

[ciox]

Don't forget everyone's favorite Underrail NPC: Gubbins.

A masterpiece of understatement.

Could you spoiler me on what's up with him? I just dropped him and took his unique reference hammer without noticing anything.

 

[a bear named spigot]

I don't even like eels.