評論

• 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

  Jul 28, 2020

  Update on this review posted below after playing through some of the content of the third massive update. Ok, I believe I've played enough to make a review on this game. I'll just list things down to make it easier. + The main story and game premise itself is pretty interesting, small side quests and characters are also well made and directly interact with your character's choices through out the game. + Character customization as well as being able to choose which "Wing" your character originates from. + Replayability is strong, since the world and it's NPCs react differently depending on which "Wing" you choose. Making different play styles and story choices available. + Remappable keys as well as a quick save and load system which makes the game way easier. - Is definitely combat, as it is the weakest part of the game. The "cover" system does not actually function as an actual cover system like in games like Xcom, instead it uses the characters left over AP to increase defense level which doesn't make a big difference. Accuracy is also questionable, since I can understand missing from 2 feet away at 83% chance to hit but I also miss sometimes at literal point blank distance at 100% chance to hit, I mean how can you miss at 100% chance to hit? That's just nonsense. Basically, I advise people to use food and drink items to increase your stats before any combat encounter and try to stack up on as many medkits and explosives as possible beforehand. - Lots of small bugs which are expected since the game is in early access but I hope they get stomped out before the full release. An example of this is, is the glossy/miscolored textures for certain character hair/facial hair options. Overall, it's a pretty good game and a great game narrative wise. I just hope they rework the cover system to actually function as a proper cover system before release, as combat is what you're going to be doing a lot in this game and it's just personally annoying. After 3rd Massive Content Patch + Devs are considering changing the cover system mechanics in a future update, so I look forward to that hopefully happening. + Miscolored hair options are now fixed but some of them still have a low poly texture look. - Stealth is broken, most of the time your character is stuck on "in sight" status even when there are no NPCs around or when none are in your line of sight. - Some NPCs speaking Russian instead of English, which I wouldn't have a problem with if I actually spoke Russian and didn't have my language option set to English. - Graphic options keep resetting on game exit. I have to go to graphic settings and switch them back to Ultra everytime I run the game. - As usual, lots of other small bugs which I'm too lazy to list down. Basically, the update did add a lot of content and certain bugs were fixed but it also broke a lot of other stuff. So I would advice waiting till the devs push out some more hotfixes, until they get a fairly stable version going.
• 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.
• gamedeal user

  May 2, 2023

  This game is full of buts. - This is a great Fallout clone... but it lacks the integrity. The game is a collection of different ideas not really playing well together. - The premise is rich... but not exactly strong. A lot of plot lines die off quickly, most of the main story quests end up in a dull way. - Dozens of skills and methods of combat... but there's not enough challenge, as well as motivation to explore them. Once you figure out your style of combat you can easily carry it throughout the whole game. You can pick 2-3 types of damage and weapons and it will be enough to win almost every battle. - Hundreds of inventory items... but many of them are useless. Especially contraptions. Inventory management is quite subpar too. - Character progression is lateral... but level up system is rudimentary. Closer to 3/4 of the game you will max out all of the most useful attributes. - Writing and dialogues are mostly fun and engaging... but there's a lot of empty talk eating time unnecessarily. Not all the NPC need to be talking, especially given their huge numbers. - Graphics and UI is rather beautiful, with great lighting, dynamic shadows and well designed locations... but some parts can look makeshift (such as - weapon shooting effects, skill effects, character design, etc.) - Level design is smart, with not too large or too small areas... but exploration can be overwhelming with so many 'containers' and interactive elements to deal with. Almost constant object highlighting is the only way to cut through the locations. - Music is amazing and voice overs are great... but audio editing can be disappointing, especially combat sounds. Overall, I enjoyed the game. If you like to munchkin - this is a great opportunity to do so in a very relaxed pace, nowhere to hurry. Sometimes the game does reward you with cool finds, and the random encounters are rather interesting or funny. In fact, the game is funny - a lot of satire every now and then. My biggest fun was actually discovering new places and upgrading unique weapons (but as I wrote above - this is not really needed). That's why I spent nearly 70 hrs. The biggest disappointment is that the whole this was kinda in vain. There's not much of a challenge after the mid-game, and I only continued because I got used to this comfortable chore. For the next part (if it comes) I'd recommend to seriously revise combat system and challenge, and make the whole world more engaging.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 20, 2021

  Let me correct a lot of incorrect assumptions or misunderstandings. First off, I have seen entries about lack of info from the devs, but that is erroneous. They have a fun twist on their updates that appear to be in game like with the same style as the game, but they do provide info to the community quite frequently if you take the time to read it. Second - Some people are talking about the game mechanics and how they can't kill a single creature. You have to READ the info you are dealing with before trying to use an action/weapon in combat. For example the range on a weapon has a big impact to accuracy and damage, so you cant use a shotgun which is a close combat weapon to shoot someone 50 feet away...You just wont hit them. The same applies for using fully automatic weapons, they are not accurate on will auto at range, so you should default to the 3 round burst mode which is why in real life the US Army switch to the from the fully automatic to the 3 round burst fire, so the barrel doesn't keep going up and up and you just waste ammo. Third - The game does a great job recognizing your starting Wing (background class) and responds to you with different responses, which I thought was really cool and labor intensive for the devs to develop conversations based on each Wing, so kudos to the devs for this feature. Fourth - The game could use a bit more options for character appearance during creation or post creation. It is almost impossible to create a character that looks like the portraits associated with it. Finally, this game is very fun to play!!! The story is good. The combat is good if you understand it and read the tool tips. I truly encourage everyone to buy this game and enjoy it.
• 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

  Mar 27, 2021

  Disclaimer: this review has an EDIT at the end to reflect the current situation, but I'll keep the original text here below.

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  If you ended up here in the reviews, your current question probably is:

  What, why such a low score?

  The average overall approval of the game is at 80%, but the recent one is at 20%. (At least in March 2021, when I write this review.) This tells us that something happened, right? Obviously yes, this is another one of those many moments where several players show up en masse to criticize the game for some recent event - sometimes in a totally justified way, sometimes in an overreaction. And what is the case here? Well... A little of both. The first point you should keep in mind is that this was, and still is, an 'Early Access' game. And that is in the most literal sense possible - many things are still changing, quests are being added, much of the proposed content of the game does not yet exist, and so on. As with any EA game, you are essentially buying a 'promise' of something, and promises can often be ambiguous. The game raised a modest amount of money on its Kickstarter and was originally planned for release in 2020. I imagine that if you don't live in a cave, you must be aware of what happened in 2020, and is still happening in 2021 in most countries. To no surprise, the game has been delayed. More than that, the devs made it clear that their vision for the game required more time, and that if it was indeed released in 2020, it would not be the game they envisioned. They got a publisher to finance the game, it seems, and decided to delay the release even more. However, this postponement has no specific release date as of yet, and for some people the promised content patches leave a lot to be desired (not enough quests, locations or new features). Some say the devs have "abandoned" the game, but it's fairer to say that they have abandoned the Steam forum: the negativity grew a lot, and with that, came this flood of negative reviews. Then, they decided to focus on disseminating content on their discord and official twitter. Actually, even here on Steam: you can see that they also post news about the game quite often on this store page. So, they are alive, they just cut out the interaction with the public here on the platform. Is this good or bad news? Well, it is up to you to judge. But two facts are undeniable: the postponement of the game, and the lack of content in its current state. In concept, the game promises a lot! It is graphically pleasing, the setting is original and well thought out. Character creation is somewhat limited in appearances but quite varied in the builds and skills available. The game has several skill checks like any good RPG, allowing different characters to interact with the world and complete quests in different ways. If they can complete the project with this level of interactivity and responsiveness, the result will be amazing. But that's a big "if". And it's up to you to decide if it's worth the gamble.

  ---

  EDIT: As everyone can see, the game's rating has bounced back considerably. It didn't get back to just above 80% as it was before, but given the volume of negative reviews, that was expected. Apparently, many people are enjoying the recent updates the game has received and also the news about a possible release of the final version soon. I only played a few hours of the game at the very beginning of EA to get a general idea and haven't played it again since, so I can't comment on the current situation. I'm going to play it again only when the final version comes out, because I don't want "spoilers" of the full experience. But I'll keep my review as positive because the impression I had at the time was, in fact, positive (as you can infer from the review above). But I do recommend that, in doubt, you should research more about it and see comments from other people.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 10, 2021

  I wish there was a "maybe" option, because by absolutely no stretch of the imagination do I think this is a BAD game. The fanboys are going to tear me to shreds in the comments, I'm sure, but... Everything about this game is just mediocre. The combat, the story, the quests... It's all kind of just slapped together - after the first section, that is, which is mind-blowingly good and very, very obviously what they worked on for the EA content. I'm really not a fan of what they did to separate the EA and v1.0 content, and I think that's a major, glaring problem with a lot of the story that comes afterwards. The maps are huge... And enormously empty. The NPCs are vast and varied... With nothing really much to say. The skill system is dense... And you'll be using 2 of them at any given time. The combat is serviceable... But so slow with such horrible payoffs that you'll want to avoid it constantly. The story is bog-standard, with very, very obvious homages being paid to other games/genres and very little payoff - routinely you'll talk to someone you think is very cool or important, only to never speak with them again. Props to the devs for allowing for players to have such a freedom of choice and the like, but this is absolutely a case as "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle." Hopefully I'm wrong - hopefully the game sorts itself out after the Maelstrom content - but seeing as how (at writing this review) only 4.5% of people have even completed the first act, I don't think I'm being unfair in suggesting that the game has serious potential, but is often overwhelmed by it's mediocrity.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 8, 2022

  I struggled to decide whether to recommend this or not... As you can see, I'm playing it and certainly getting my money's worth from it but the reason I've decided to mark it as "not recommended" is because it just feels unfinished. This game is a skeleton of a good RPG. The basics are there. It's got an interesting story, a good vibe to the characters, the voice overs are honestly amazing and the basic combat is fun and fluid. However, it's just a skeleton. The game has a lot of systems that seem to promise complexity and growth, but they're just not really there. In combat, for example, you can use various abilities that you get by levelling up the relevant combat skills. Almost all of them are worse than the basic attack. Some of the highest level Psi abilities simply give 10% of an enemies health per turn for 3 turns, when you can just deal that amount of damage in a single attack without having the fatigue penalty and often while using less Action Points. Another example is the crafting system. It's entirely unnecessary and often just not worth using. The items you get from it aren't particularly useful and the components will cost almost as much as the product itself, which you can often just buy anyway. Or better yet, steal. Which takes me onto stealth. Stealth is the single most powerful thing in this game. Enemies have a detection range so small you don't even have to think about it when telling your character to walk past them. The only time they're a threat is after you commit a crime, at which time their detection radius grows to a much bigger size. Pickpocketing is extremely powerful in this game too. If a merchant has things you want, you can just take them. All in all, the systems are there but they're very basic. As you progress it often feels like you're playing an OK game with a lot of potential. As much as I would like to see that potential realised, I just don't think it will. The Devs haven't released an update in about half a year, after having a consistent update schedule of once every two months before that, and I didn't get a response when I asked if the game was still being supported in their official discord channel. My comment also remained the latest comment for about 3 days at the time of writing this... So the discord is dead. While this game is 'fine' it's hampered by the disappointment of knowing it was almost a great game. You can spend time on it and enjoy yourself, just be prepared for that feeling of disappointment once things start feeling hollow.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 3, 2022

  Encased came highly recommended. A classic RPG in the style of OG Fallout, or so I was told. After checking the concept a bit myself I was intrigued and decided to give it a shot. The game takes place in an alternative 70s. A strange dome has appeared that anyone can enter but nobody can leave. Inside strange anomalies and great technological advancements await. The governments of the world agree to explore the dome together and soon a city of permanent settlers in the dome is formed. People of various strata and for various reasons choose to abandon their lives outside and become members of this expeditionary force. It should come as no surprise there is more to this dome than meets the eye. The game starts in a fairly unexpected manner. It's tagged a post-apocalyptic game, but there is no apocalypse in sight. Rather, the setting appears to be fairly pre-apocalyptic. The plodding first area, which doubles as the prologue, is effectively a long tutorial. The act that follows partly remains an introduction too. Only halfway through this first act does the game truly begin. This extended introduction proved to be quite tiresome. I nearly dropped the game right there and then. But once the first major twist happened and the game finally started showing its true colours my commitment to the game was renewed. Nevertheless, I had discovered the game's first major flaw. Encased does not have a particularly compelling start. It wouldn't be the only one. The game reaches its peak shortly after that major twist. The world rapidly opens up and at this point there is various towns and factions to interact with. Several side-quests and mini-areas to explore. Here the game shows off its more "hardcore" credentials. No quest markers, no fast travel, little guidance and a system that's not averse to punishing the player for not playing optimally. Here comes the second great flaw, perhaps the most important. The game confuses a lack of facilitation with challenge. The great classics weren't great because they lacked the tools that simplify and streamline modern games, they were great because they were designed to work without them. You can't design a modern game, then simply remove those tools and expect it to work like one of the classics. All you'll manage is to annoy. That's the case here. There are so many examples. Take the aforementioned lack of quest markers for instance. There is a quest in the game that requires you to go to 3 different towns and deliver some letters. In a modern game those random recipients would be marked on your map, you'd go deliver the letter, get your reward and that would be it. In a classic game, those people wouldn't be randomly roaming the map, they'd have an address, there would be a housing system, they would have distinctive characteristics, there would be other characters that know them and you can ask them to direct you their way and so on. In this game, it's the modern scenario, only without a marker. Enjoy scouring the map for 30 minutes hovering over every random NPC strolling the map, hoping you'll stumble upon the right one. The character development system is another interesting example. First of all kudos to the developers for implementing a variant of the Fallout SPECIAL system that looks both familiar and new. That's where the positives end. The way the character development system works is entirely inorganic. There are some unreasonably bad options and there are gimmicky good builds that have no reason to work, yet work. How can you know? Simple, either you know how the game plays, have studied all perks and planned your character accordingly, or you metagame. That's far from ideal. The game should not be pushing players towards a guide. In my first run, my character build ended up being so unexpectedly suboptimal, I was forced to abandon it 3/4 of the way. I don't think I was at fault. I simply picked an archetype that the game didn't care to account for. Having said all that, it is only fair to add that there is a number of things to appreciate in this game too. The world is interesting. The concept of the dome may not be very original but it works. It cuts off and separates the inside world from the outside and naturally magnifies the stakes. Only this tiny fragment of the world now matters. There is a lot of interesting mechanics to play with. A fancy power armour system, vehicles to be acquired, a fairly ok stealth system, crafting and upgrading systems etc. The game offers a wide breadth of options and tools, some haphazardly stitched together, some perhaps redundant, but interesting nonetheless. The game also takes into account most of the skills present in a character build and the various abilities associated with raising those skills feel rewarding. In the end, the game's obtuseness and fixation on being akin to a classic, in all the wrong ways, severely undermine the experience on offer. The irony is that even underneath all that the game is still uneven. The weak prologue was an early tell. Indeed, after the fairly interesting middle part, the game completely collapses on the final act. Effectively abandoning any pretenses of going the classic route and devolving into a choose your own ending disappointment. Yes, there is a superficial likeness to far greater games and yes there are some elements that are likeable enough. I did finish the game after all, I did not drop it even when I had to abandon my first run, but for the most part I was going through the motions. Even now, I'm not sure if I stuck with the game because it somehow struck a chord with me, or out of sheer stubbornness. Unfortunately, as things stand, I can't recommend this game to anyone but the most hardcore cRPG fans that have played everything else and desperately need a fix. No matter how flawed.