What are ya playin' in 2025?

WingedKagouti on 14/5/2025 at 06:46

Quote Posted by Yakoob

So overall, feels a bit like Value Brand Fallout?

From what I played, that seems like a fair assessment. I found out the hard way that the game only auto-saves on entering a new area, not on leaving it for the overworld map. That was more than an hour of progression lost.

Quote Posted by Pyrian

A lot more uneven than Stalker? Yeah I'm out lol.

I think he meant Fallout.

Starker on 14/5/2025 at 08:02

Encased was one of the Kickstarter projects I backed and yeah, it's basically "we have Fallout at home". The writing is very bland, a by the numbers exposition dump more often than not. Also, the second half of the game really falls apart -- you can tell that they just ran out of resources to finish it.

Jason Moyer on 14/5/2025 at 15:59

Boring writing is the bane of every "we have Fallout at home" game I've tried to play, including the ones that people seem to like a lot.

Yakoob on 14/5/2025 at 20:22

The writing does bug me a little and one of those things that falls under the "uneven" label for me. Some of it is pretty decent, some of it makes me go "why would this person say this right now?" and other parts make me wonder if the writers were 14...

Also, I don't know if its the game writing or if I'm getting too old, but I'm kinda bothered by this "oh you're a stranger I never met before? Here let me tell you all my secrets / ask you to smuggle drugs for me / assign the most important mission in the world to / etc." It just feels soooo incredibly game-y. Heck the game starts off with you being sent of on a a super important/dangerous reconnaissance mission because they, uuuh "are short on staff" - but like, couldn't they send one of many trained soldiers walking around the whole base, instead of an unlikable (Charisma of 1, baby!) mechanic that JUST arrived today ???

Quote:

Also, the second half of the game really falls apart -- you can tell that they just ran out of resources to finish it.

Ah that's a bummer. I'm some 15hrs in so I don't know how far into it I am, but I'm just about to fix the emulator after running all the fetch quests and I'm level 11 so I feel like I might be around halfway point?

Quote:

Boring writing is the bane of every "we have Fallout at home" game I've tried to play, including the ones that people seem to like a lot.

Out of curiosity, which other ones are you thinking about?

I've been eyeing Atomfall, I always wanted "Fallout but in a different country/continent". From what I understand it's more of a looter shooter than an RPG, but I'm actually OK with that knowing upfront.

Starker on 14/5/2025 at 22:59

Quote Posted by Yakoob

Yup, that's about the exact point where it happens.

Pyrian on 15/5/2025 at 00:17

Quote Posted by Yakoob

Also, I don't know if its the game writing or if I'm getting too old, but I'm kinda bothered by this "oh you're a stranger I never met before? Here let me tell you all my secrets / ask you to smuggle drugs for me / assign the most important mission in the world to / etc."

..."MAH BEBIES!"

Thirith on 15/5/2025 at 07:11

Quote Posted by Jason Moyer

Boring writing is the bane of every "we have Fallout at home" game I've tried to play, including the ones that people seem to like a lot.

Which other games have you got in mind?

Jason Moyer on 16/5/2025 at 06:15

I'd have to think about it, but the first one that comes to mind is Underrail, which I found disappointing in a lot of areas besides the writing too.

And while I guess it's supposed to be a Planescape successor and not a Fallout successor, I thought Tides Of Numenera was pretty damn boring writing-wise, which is disappointing because the gameplay mechanics are actually pretty interesting.

Yakoob on 17/5/2025 at 06:20

As has been foretold by Starker, I have given up Encased after some 20hrs in. It was a fun ride until then, but the last three hours can be best described as.... walking. Sooo much walking. It feels like I spent 80% of time walking, I haven't even had a single combat encounter in this time.

The final act gives you like 5 MAJOR quests from big faction leaders, each one broken in 3 more quests, some broken into further quests. In practice what it means is that you go to a location and spend 2 minutes staring at your little dude walking (oh so slowly) thru a massive but mostly empty map to the faction leader, who then asks you to run to the other end of the whole world to get an item and bring it back. 20 minutes later you are back, and he asks you to now run to the other OTHER end of the whole world and press a button. 20 minutes later you are back, and the he asks you...

Yeeaaa, I lasted about 3 hours of that lol. I can see why so many negative reviews theorize the devs ran out of money/funds - they built those nice, BIG locations and filled them with.. empty buildings. NPCs that give you one-liners. Dialogues that sometimes don't make a lot of sense (as if something was "missing"). No significant combat or other gameplay challenges besides clicking on things.

Really sad to see that as a fellow dev myself. That being said, I had my fun while it lasted, and not the worst way to waste a weekful of evenings!

Thirith on 17/5/2025 at 11:20

Quote Posted by Jason Moyer

Tides of Numenera was indeed a disappointment. There was little there that was in any way memorable. It's like they wanted to do a Planescape successor and had the style down pat but no story to tell and no characters to tell it with.

The main game I think of as a Fallout-like is Arcanum, and that one I liked a fair bit at the time, but to be honest, there's little I remember about it other than the world itself.