समीक्षा

• gamedeal user

  Sep 29, 2021

  What an amazing first half. What a terrible slog of a second half. I have never played a product that screamed "We are out of time" as much as this one. I would even wager that this is even more half baked than Knights of the Old Republic two. The worst part is that the edges of this, that is to say the parts that got focus before release. The writing that was examined by an editor, the locations actually filled with content, the weapon and skill trees that got attention are all compelling. Yet that's only half of the experience with the other half feeling as if it was thrown through google translator, empty maps that waste time simply traversing it, random events that run out before repeating the same 3 events over and over, weapons and skills that clearly should have been cut or massively expanded upon and just...it's frustrating. It's frustrating because this world is very interesting. It's frustrating because at times this feels like the isometric crpg fallout sequel we never got. It's frustrating because there's so much potential in this system to craft interesting builds. It's frustrating because for every interesting thing you do you have to waste hours getting to it through a slog. 80 hours of playtime I can safely say that only about 30 hours of it felt finished. In the end Encased feels as barren and lifeless as the apocalyptic wastelands this game draws from.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2021

  Steam said that this game is like other games I played, namely Wasteland 3 and Disco Elysium. Forgive my incredulity, but "Bull!" I cried. Come on. Two very disparate games there. But.. somehow.. it is. This is an all-around entertaining and enjoyable RPG for any fan of the genre. You will find some new innovations in turn-based tactics here as well as some old favorites that make it a balanced blend of comfort and challenge. Exploration and discovery are rewarded. You have plenty tools, abilities, weapons and armors to keep it interesting throughout. The writing is sublime. I consider it on a par with the best in its class, and almost as good as Disco Elysium. Every single character has something to say, often important, and it's always worthwhile to chat up strangers, of which there are many. And you can trade with almost everyone. Cool factions, cool classes, cool innovations in the isometric RPG genre, all super fun choices to try out. Choices matter, often in unforeseen ways. Instead of difficulty modes, there are a few different game modes. I primarily played the tactical mode, which offers the most combat encounters. Other modes focus on exploration or story or role-play. But you can get the full game experience in any mode because random encounters can be skipped, optionally on an individual basis. You can pick and choose what encounters to play or skip. What initially looks like a pretty bare world map is full of hidden and randomized local game maps to discover and explore. Really amazing environments, lots of diversity all around. This game really keeps things interesting, and replay value is 10/10. Well worth the full asking price. Excited to see what Dark Crystal Games comes up with next.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 29, 2021

  The first act of the game is very compelling, and raises a lot of questions in the player's mind. It firmly established this incredible alternate history world where The Dome is discovered. Things go off the rails immediately in the most delightful of ways. If the rest of the game lived up to that level of polish, design, and engagement, the game would be incredible. Sadly, it doesn't. Act is disjointed, not following up well on Act 1's premise, but still showing signs of great things to come. Act 3 delivers on none of the promise, and indeed just falls even more flat than Act 2. The interesting characters? Left silent. The quest chains? Disjointed and annoying (and extremely easy to skip). Those questions you've had since the amazing Act 1? Unanswered. All in all, a disappointment all the more because of how much potential there clearly was.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 10, 2021

  For those of you who only read the first sentence of reviews, Encased is great entertainment, rich in adventure, despite mechanical weaknesses. For those who only read the second sentence, all I can say is that you are very strange people indeed. For anyone else, here are some flaws you can expect: - It's a real time RPG with turn-based elements. It's as silly as it sounds. The player cannot initiate the turn-based combat, only the game can, when it feels like it. The most obvious result is that this system doesn't fit with the stealth mechanics. For example, crouch and snipe a critter from 500 metres away, then watch said critter run the entire distance and stand alerted next to you before you can aim again and snipe from 20 cm away. - From the example above, you can see that the AI is lacking as well. Enemies tend to do a lot of illogical things. - Many game mechanics are mostly fine independently, but show no cohesiveness. For example, non-lethal combat uses flat damages upon flat HPs, regardless of levels and skills and equipment quality. It's totally unlike lethal combat; it looks like it was added as an afterthought. As another example, unconscious people cannot be looted without pickpocket, possibly at a high difficulty threshold. Also, a K.O.ed body can block a doorway and prevent you from exiting a room; the only solution (short of a reload) is to kill the poor snoring sod. - A clear effect of this heterogeneity of rules is a severe lack of balancing. Extreme XP differences between methods leading to the same results, or between critters that are no more difficult to kill than others. Actions that cause fatigue while others don't. - The loot is the worst type of RNG-based, the one with last-second roll and with large discrepancy of worth. A box can contain anything from 0 to several thousands bucks of stuff. Every single flowerpot potentially hides a relic. Worse yet, merchant stocks are partly randomised, leading to encounters worth a reload until something you would buy becomes available. - The game contains the bane of RPGs, the worst feature to ever pollute the genre, even worse than junk collecting/crafting: the hunger/thirst gauge. Both of them here, for double micro-management nuisance. Thankfully toned down, with ways to neutreulaise them entirely. For the compulsive readers who are still reading, some things that Encased does better than the competition: - Great interface in some areas. For example, an extremely flexible save system functions in the middle of combat. Going beyond duty, it also saves the messages log; great for putting you immediately back into context after a hiatus. Good legibility. Numerous options. Besides, with devs active post-release, anything mentioned here could be improved by the time you play. - Good exploration. Colourful world, refreshing nowadays. Great visuals. The sound is great too, which rarely gets enough credit. I don't tire of the hisses of running exoskeletons. Of jumping to inaccessible spots, or to shortcuts. - Good storytelling, clear and well paced, with many interesting encounters and characters. A fair number of important ones are voiced. The dialogues feel natural. Companions I dislike, companions I enjoy having around, simple stuff that works well. Even a few belly laughs. A large effort was made to accommodate several play-styles that have become classics, like sneaky, peaceful, genocidal, chatty, and so on. Also, to make low traits entertaining. - Fights are easy and tactically limited, but at least they are short and brisk. Their feel is more of a hack n'slash, despite being turn-based. Fights are easily avoided; this optionality is a plus. Most are also fairly easy to run away and hide from. I find weapons that let you teleport yourself or your enemies quite amusing. Those of you who only read the last sentence of reviews are out of luck: the conclusion of this one is at the top.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 21, 2021

  extremely good game concept, first 20ish hours were some of the best RPG ive played so far this decade then after act 1 it just falls flat. pure lack of content from there on. never in my life have i played an RPG with so few quests. Of the 5 major factions they each get 1 settlement and a single chain of 3 main quests. sometimes side quests have you go to a different faction settlement to complete it, but thats about it. the worst aspect is the loot. from the lazy items themselves to the loot chances to horrible merchant mechanics it had me tearing my hair the whole time. here is the defining story of my one single run of this game. at the very end of the game (trying to be story spoiler free) you basically have to craft a certain set of items to unlock the final quest. one of the ingredients is a quest item, the others are just normal crafting junk you can find around. One of them is called a CPS, Charged (if youre reading this and havent got this far hang on to those!!). didnt realize it would ever be a quest item so I sold every one i came across early because theyre honestly good money. lo and behold im at the last phase of the game and ive done all 10 side quests the game has to offer and i have no more CPS, Charged. Every traditional dungeon in the game is a) in act 1 and b) a main quest, so there was nowhere to go to grind/loot. every merchant i came across only had the worst possible items you can buy, plus the traveling ones' inventories never reset so stuff you sell them in act 1 stays in their inventory the whole game. very frustrating having the only 4 gun vendors in the whole game show you stuff way below your level that you sold them earlier. Hilariously, this lead to me discovering 2 facts. the amount of xp you get from looting any given container is proportional to the total value of the loot in it (so lucky finds are worth more), and if you kill a vendor their entire sellable inventory is a) on their body and b) rerolled from what they were actually selling. This can lead to looting a dead gun vendor and gaining 2 whole levels at once. Great! murdering vendors in the desert leads to only positive outcomes. even the faction loss is not crippling, and there isnt a faction with more than one gun vendor anyway so you can't even stack it. I recommend killing one per act because eventually they do get higher level stuff eventually and even at the highest level looting a merchant will still probably level bomb you. you must cultivate them before you harvest. unfortunately this xp gain and free guns cannot materialize CPS, Charged. somehow tools vendors never had one for me, and they generally only carry worthless stuff so its not worth killing them like gun/armor vendors. there is another item in the game called CPS, Dead which as it sounds is an uncharged version of whatever it is. you would think this means you could somehow use one of the many science crafting tables and the honestly large and robust if kind of bland crafting system around the world to charge it up, but you'd be wrong. they are simply two distinct items. You need 3 total CPS, Charged to complete the crafting. all of these facts together lead to me sitting at my desk and simply traveling around the, discovering square by square in hopes i would stumble on some dungeon or event or something where id find a CPS, Charged. After probably 10-15 hours of game time (my game hrs are messed up bc i left it running) and dozens and dozens of the exact same random encounters ive been getting all game i managed to scrape up 3 CPS, Charged from literally random boxes and flower pots in the encounter rooms. The whole time i was going through my gun vendor murder spree i thought it was weird that the only change as the game went on is that the number on the weapons was going up. no unique items besides companion weapons, no rare weapons, no interesting progression or upgrades. by the end i was maxing heavy weapons and psi, and honestly finding high-level psi-gloves is nearly impossible. i had a lot of level 10 heavy weapons by the very end, but only a level 8 glove. after all this grind i had basically maxed my level and a lot of my combat stats and came across the most powerful level 10 weapons possible, then after the crafting quest was done you went to the next quest location and lo and behold its the end game initiation, completely out of nowhere. all the faction leaders are there and some of them want you to do stuff for you once you get to the end. after that you have a single dungeon, then a bunch of cut scenes and cool art and Martin Sheen's luscious voice, and it's over. Literally I never felt more deflated playing a single player game in my life. All that set up, all the stupidity trying to find some damned CPS, Charged, all the interesting story lore and potential faction interactions and the end game is over in 30 minutes. All of that grind wouldve been forgivable if there was another 20 hours of awesome game like the first act, but instead clearly the money ran short. That's life!
• gamedeal user

  Dec 7, 2021

  This is a great game, until suddenly it isn't. The first 25 or so hours are fantastic, and all I want from an RPG: original setting, choices that matter, quests with different outcomes, different ways to handle situations depending on your build, fights that are difficult but mostly avoidable, no 'filler' fights... I don't like how scarce ammunition/health/healing kits/money are, which often makes getting into fighting a bad choice, but that is a defendable design choice. And then, after powering the Emulator, all that changes: the new maps are still huge, but will have only one or two persons of actual interest on them, side quests all but disappear, leaving only the main quest, NPC don't have interesting backstories/dialog any more but just the lines needed for the quest, and your have to travel more which leads to random fights which you don't want (see above). Judging from the Steam achievements, less than 1 in 5 players get to this point, so I can't blame the developers too much for focusing on the beginning of the game. I still recommend the game based on that first 25 hours, but how I wish it could have maintained that level of content... As it is, I don't think I will finish the game.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 26, 2021

  The first half of the game is fantastic and perfect, the second half is a pathetic mess. This game would had been perfect if it discard the second half entirely and let the game end once you finish the first part. At this point the game is pretty much 'early access' as even if you can reach the ending the second half feels very incomplete.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 19, 2022

  A short premise: since the release of Planescape Torment back in the day i've played mostly crpgs and rpgs in general, it is by far my favourite genre and i have played the vast majority of these games. So now that you know where i'm coming from, here are my general thoughts on the game. THE SETTING The setting as it is presented to you during the initial hours of the game is good. It is a different take on the post apocalyptic theme that tries (and succeedes) in doing something different. It is a much needed coat of fresh paint and fresh new ideas. Sci-fi post apocalyptic in the 70s with weird unexplainable tech sprinkled on top? Sign me up. During the character creation you're introduced to the concept of "wings", which are essentially branches of this corporation that is leading operations in "the Dome". Each wing is specialized in a specific aspect necessary for the whole operation to run smoothly: you have the managers and leaders (the silvers), you have your scientists and researchers (the whites), you have your general choiche of convicts "pardoned" and forced into manual labor (the oranges), mechanics, builders and engineers (the blues) and the police/security (the blacks). The wings are an interesting concept and they give a playthrough unique dialogue options and ways to solve things depending on the wing you choose: character identity and not limiting your skills based on what you pick (you get some bonuses to some skills depending what you choose) is great and adds a lot of replay value. STORY The story during the Act 1 is great. You get a general view of how things are, how the factions (the wings) work together, the political scenario at play, the different locations, and every area of the game is filled with npcs, some of which have a lot of dialogue, but even those who don't still have interesting inputs that are essential in giving the game a believable and immersive atmosphere. There's also an overarching mystery that is quite intriguing in the way it is presented. I will not spoil the story itself, but at the end of Act 1 there is a big climax of sorts and the some things change. I was very excited to see where the story would go and how the game would evolve under the new premises but alas, if Act 1 is a fantastic start with incredible potential, the rest of the game is, without any grey margin, largely bland and unfinished: the new locations and areas feel empty, most of the npcs outside of those directly linked to the main questline have northing or just one liners to offer. The story is unfortunately held back by the lack of atmosphere and the barren and personality deprived areas. If in the first Act exploring was an exciting experience, in the rest of the game after a while you just stop trying to interacting with random npcs, knowing full well that there's nothing for you, neither dialogues, nor quests, just a lot of one liners. It is sad because the ideas are there and the overall story is quite interesting, but it's just not finished. COMBAT Combat is nice, nothing stellar or ground breaking, it's your standard action point system tied to movement, attacks and other actions in combat (reloading, using items, etc). You have both melee and ranged combat, the first divided in bare hands and weapons, while the latter is divided in light, heavy and high tech weapons, each with their own pros and cons. There's also "psychic wizardry", which is quite nice from a lore prospective too: essentially gifted individuals can use psychic powers with the aid of special gloves (your weapon essentially) that allows you to use fire, lightning, ice or psionic crowd control/buffing/debuffing. The combat isn't exciting like Wasteland 3, or Divinity OS, but it has a certain depth and it's satisfying in its own right, especially considering that there are a lot of different possible character builds given the variety of skills you can acquire. There's also a decent amount of enemy variety and although you can only have two party members at any given time, there is quite a bit of strategy involved depending where you choose to fight: many different maps have different ways you can engage an enemy if you have the right skills; sometimes you can find a secret passage to ambush enemies from the back, avoiding turrets, other times you can lure enemies into a minefield you spotted, and so on. VOICE ACTING This is another very important part linked to a good story, immersion and general suspension of disbelief. The quality is good, the narrator in particular does a good job with the exposition, although sometimes it can be a bit verbose, but it is an overall enjoyable thing. In general, voiced characters have a fitting voice and good performances. COMPANIONS As mentioned above, you can only have two active party members at any given time, out of a total of six possible ones. Forcing you to choose only two isn't necessarely a bad thing, on the contrary it forces you to make a decision and choose who fits best your team comp and your character. The builds the companions come with are varied enough to allow you to have some wiggle room: you're not obligated to choose a character for his stats, you have options. The various characters are decently written with some highs and lows, but they generally feel like people, with maybe one a couple of exceptions in which the whole personality of a character revolves around one single aspect. The voice acting of the companions is generally well done, especially when it comes down to Katarzyna and Yoko, on the other hand although he did a good job, i really think that Crump's voice doesn't fit the character and its avatar at all. MUSIC AND SOUNDTRACK I would define the overall experience as "meh". Some of the music or sound effects in general are bland and repetitive to the point which sometimes i would just turn off the music completely. Also, hearing the same voice lines over and over in determinate areas is quite tiring after a while, especially since it's just two lines repeated constantly. CONCLUSION In conclusion the game clearly has potential. The creative setting, coupled with the strong start embodied by Act 1 really makes me want to see this game succeed and possibly have sequels, but as things stand right now it's an unfinished product that amazes in the first act just to fizzle in the two that follow. It's not an early access game and in good conscience i cannot recommend the game in its current state. I will still check the progress though and as i did for Pathfinder: Kingmaker, will update my review when the game will (hopefully) feel feature complete, or at least be as good as what is shown in Act 1 in its entirety.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2022

  Sum-Up

  In-depth analysis further down.

  🟩 Pros

  🟥 Cons

  - Excellent variety of possible builds, playstyles, meaningful choices. - Passable combat system with a fair variety of abilities and variables to consider. - Rewarding, compelling exploration with a great amount of secrets and interesting places to discover. - Interesting setting with copious optional lore, dialogues and documents to know more about it.

  - The entire second half of the game (Act 2) feels rushed, unfinished and not up-to-par in nearly all fields. - Stealth / Pickpocket mechanics are completely balance-breaking. - Disappointing, half-baked, bland companions. They can't be manually leveled-up and have some locked equipment. - Above-average amount of bugs, annoyances and general lack of polishing for a full 1.0 release. - Survival and crafting mechanics aren't much impactful, and feel like being implemented "just because".

  🟨 Bugs & Issues	🔧 Specs
  - Some side quests may permanently break. - Terrible companion pathfinding / navigation when following the main character. - Some passive talents or skill requirements do not work as intended. - Occasional camera / selection issues in combat.	- 3900X - 2080Ti - 32GB RAM - SSD - 1440p

  Content & Replay Value:	It took me about 50 hours to complete Encased on Classic (Hard) difficulty, after exploring the whole world thoroughly, and completing all secondary quests I could find. The replay value is very good, considering the ample variety of builds and choices available.
  Is it worth buying?	No. As much as the good points it has going are interesting, it's an RPG that slides through a downward spiral of mediocrity and disappointment the farther you get into it. It'll leave only a bitter aftertaste and little else, once finished. There are many other, much better CRPGs worth your time out there.
  Verdict: Mediocre Rating Chart Here	Encased could've been a gem among CRPGs, however it's plagued by too many issues in critical aspects to ultimately be considered a good title. It's a case-study of "rushing stuff out of the oven before it's fully cooked". What a shame.

  Follow our Curator page, Summit Reviews, to see more high-quality reviews regularly. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2740522231

  In-Depth

  The Greatest Discovery

  1976. In an alternate timeline, the Cold War comes to an end prematurely after The Dome is discovered; a monumental, indestructible structure in the middle of the desert. The world joins efforts to explore this area, where anomalous events and otherworldly artifacts are plentiful - the CRONUS corporation is born. As one of their employees, you'll start a new life in the Dome, ready to undertake assignments related to your specialization. Encased does a good job in offering a variety of interactions where your career and skill choices truly make the difference, with both characters and the environment, other than text-based roleplay panels. The writing is of high quality in most cases, with voiced narration and important characters creating a solid immersion feeling, effects / music are used wisely in most instances. This all proves true in the first parts of the game, however it progressively diminishes and falters as the story evolves. Later on, it feels like most NPCs are just standing there saying their piece, companions don't evolve or progress their agendas; terminals, documents and similar items become scarce or underwhelming compared to earlier on... it just becomes an unfinished, hasty mess story and lore wise.

  The Zone?

  Venturing around the Dome is no joke: bandits, mutants, anomalies and more dangers await all explorers: moving through the desert will take a toll on body and mind, requiring sustenance and rest at regular intervals, otherwise heavy penalties and even death may incur. Random encounters - positive and negative alike - will also be a regular occurrence; later on vehicles also become available, considerably speeding up the exploration process with less effort. The world is divided into locations scattered through the Dome, some small, some sprawling multi-floor bases with dozens of NPCs and quests. Exploring each place thoroughly will reveal many secrets, and allow you to rack up a ton of loot to sell or use, but watch the weight limit. You can have your own way of exploring: stealthily lockpick doors and steal everything, pickpocket merchants, brute force your way through, or use diplomacy to become a friend of everyone. On a side note the stealth component is too good, allowing to pickpocket monstrous amounts of stolen loot from early on very easily, thus breaking game balance big time. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2737160756

  Fight for Survival

  The AP-based turn combat system is not the most complex, but works fairly well and is fun to play around with. Up to three people can compose a party, pitted against enemies that have diverse skill sets, resistances, weaknesses and unique proprieties depending on their type. Environmental elements like barrels, mines or other hazards can play an important part in fights, as they can be used to lure enemies into danger to your advantage - this mechanic is rather limited though, and never a main feat of gameplay. Weapon types, from pistols to clubs and heavy weapons, have specific skills related to your character's proficiency with them: the better your skill, the more abilities will be available to use - the same goes for utility skills like Science or Technology, Medicine and so on. Weapons use a 1-10 tier system, can be upgraded to improve damage, but lack any unique variants in their respective classes, with some being just better without downsides. While the challenge is solid in early and mid game phases (on hard, anyway), the party will feel overpowered in late game, especially if one does everything and acquires some serious gear. Hell, there isn't even a proper final boss or anything, just a spam of high-level mobs you fought many times before, in the endgame phases. Stealth once again screws combat, as with some good positioning you'll be able to pick off single enemies before they call for help, effectively reducing any fight to an easy 1v3, I didn't even have a stealth focused character, and this was really easy to pull off if I wanted to. Companions are useful, however they have one locked weapon you can never change (and a free slot), only upgrade via crafting using the materials found with looting. Also, they can't be leveled to your liking, as they follow a pre-determined progression... this really sucks. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2738318517

  Bitter Aftertaste

  I cannot understate how bad Act 2 (second half of the game) is. Most quests, even main ones, will boil down to boring fetch tasks or boring dialogues with NPCs you'll have to travel the dome back and forth, like a ping-pong ball, to get a hold of. Quests start to become same-y, and sometimes with dubious descriptions of what to actually do, if any hint is given at all. Many logical interactions, like "what is that in your basement I just saw" simply do not exist, as they apparently never were accounted for. The roleplaying and interaction components become streamlined, only a shadow of what seen in the brilliant Act 1. The ending is a mess, in my case not even accounting for my actions in multiple cases and not elaborating on the destiny of many NPCs or companions.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 2, 2022

  Oh man... I REALLY wanted to like this game, it does so many things right for me, but also so many things soo... soo wrong. It starts out insanely strong! - A interesting skill system which lets you build into nearly anything you want. - Takes inspiration from quite a few sources (Roadside Picnic, Classic Fallout, etc) but with it's own spin on things and does it well. - Several interesting companions. (which is always a big thing with me) - First Act was a really interesting story with shows a good chunk of the factions. - Most locations and NPCs in the First Act are quite interesting. - Great use of references and easter eggs. - Some great bits of voice acting (I adore Fox's Voicework) - Seriously enjoyed the Narrator, I wish he could have voiced all of it! - Servoshells are a nice take on Power Armor. But where it starts off so well... Act 2 really lets it down apart from like 1 thing. The big bus tank you can get that you can cruise around the dome in. My gripes with Act 2 is that takes all the good things that act one builds with story and characters and just... ruins it. - Story quickly falls apart after the meeting. - Game devolves into just a majority of fetch quests, and not even interesting ones. (Act 2) - Exploring feels like a chore. - Massive imbalance in combat and XP, Where XP and damage felt pretty normal in Act 1... Act 2 just dumps you like 4000+ XP semi randomly on random enemies. One could drop like 800, another 3000, even if they are both the same enemy type. - NPC Dialogue is so dull following into Act 2, almost rushed. - Very little challenge if you're just playing normally. - Quite a alarming amount of typos. - Seemed to crash a bit more in Act 2 for whatever reason. It's such a shame, If you do get this game however I'd highly recommend the first act and stop, or steel yourself for a boring slog. If there is ever another Encased and I hope there is... the idea is excellent. Please cook it more, I think it could have been amazing but really let down so early on.