Don't miss Underrail (In progress review)

Folks, I've been playing Underrail for a week or so and you need to make sure this hits your play list. Even in early access, this game is a polished gem.

You have a ton of skills and limited points to invest. You can have a bunch of maxed skills for your level, but not nearly everything you'll want. What skills? Well you have guns, throwing, melee, and crossbow for weapons. You have several crafting skills. You have psi-powers. You have melee and ranged defensive skills.

Inventory is well handled. All of the merchants have only a small list of items that they're interested in. This list will fluctuate as you play the game. The armory may want a bunch of firearms one week, then several bows or leather armor the next. They always want ammo, but weapons flow with a perceived supply and demand.
As you advance your character and the main quest, the inventory matures. You open up new sources of revenue with your actions and this in turn allows the merchants to offer more advanced goods.

Combat stays challenging by introducing new types of foes every few levels. You'll go from facing rats and common thugs, to war dogs and mutants. Robots and heavily armored troops will also start showing. Different weapons are more or less effective depending on your target. That poison crossbow bolt is devastating to a war dog, but the automated turret isn't impressed. By the same token, an EMP grenade will be totally ignored by puppy and make the turret a slag pile.

There are greater and lesser factions all over the place. You have crime factions, political factions, and even a type of racial faction that all interact with one another. For instance, a crime faction may want more political alliances while the other crime faction wants the power of independence. There is a ton of that going on, mostly in the background, but your character gets involved in it at various points.

There is a lot of choice and consequence too. Early on you have 3 ways of responding to an old man who is a scavenger. Depending on your choices, he takes on a different role in the later game sessions. You'll be choosing which faction to support in some cases, which will cause the other to become an outright enemy or just an untrusting ally. Lying isn't always punished, but it can be sometimes. An area that was peaceful can become a killing field.

Styg has done a great job of keeping the Watch in the loop, so reward him by picking up a copy or two of his game. It is only $10, which is about 10¢/hour of fun. Replayability should be pretty high too.

I'll be honest I haven't really been following this. Mostly because the name and limited footage I seen from last year didnt inspire me at all. Will check it out this weekend after reading your post.

I've had this game on my wishlist since it was greenlit. I'm looking forward to the release.

The name is lame It makes a ton of sense once you play though. Think Fallout, but nobody lives above ground. Underrail is basically a system of caverns linked by a rail system and underground rivers. There are cave-ins, earthquakes, and other natural and man-made disasters that change the topography. The game is linear but with a lot of subquests that can be tackled in any order.

Something else I missed in the earlier review; factions. I'll add it.

Its been on my Wishlist forever but I only play finished games (of course "finished" has many meanings in the gaming world) so I'll wait even more. I'm sure I'll pick it up in time.

Last time I played it 8-9 months ago and than I decided I don't want to spoil it for when it's fully released.I agree with Nut, this is gem and mostly done by one man.

Also this game has probably the best stealth mechanic among turn based games.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Last time I played it 8-9 months ago and than I decided I don't want to spoil it for when it's fully released.I agree with Nut, this is gem and mostly done by one man.

Also this game has probably the best stealth mechanic among turn based games.

Agreed. I love it and it makes sense. You are invisible at first. As you overstay your welcome, people will start to feel uneasy and will eventually detect you. A good sneak must be fairly quick to stay undetected, yet move slow enough not to draw attention. The game does a great job of showing this increased awareness factor. Certain creatures have amazing range for detecting you. Cameras are automatic. You can't hide from a camera if you are within range. Dogs are very observant and they go to alert status very fast. Humans suck and so do most insects.

Thank you for the review, crpgnut! Underrail is a great game and you get many hours of entertainment for just $10.

How is it in terms of writing and stuff to find on terminals and such?

One of my favorite things in Fallout is hacking into computers and finding old logs and what not.

Is there such a thing in this game?

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
How is it in terms of writing and stuff to find on terminals and such?

One of my favorite things in Fallout is hacking into computers and finding old logs and what not.

Is there such a thing in this game?

There is but not as much as in Fallout games, at least not last time I played it.Writing unfortunately isn't as good as rest of the game.It's not stupid or cheesy but it's not particularly good either.So if you are in for the story I say skip it.

Story and logs are pretty important to me in this kind of game, as I tend to get bored with combat and events without interesting underpinning. I need a reason to go on killing and doing stuff, or I'd be playing nothing but Rogue-likes

But I've already got it on Steam, so I'll check it out upon release.

Not much, if any, story and data logs and such. Instead, you have survivors or someone who witnessed bits and pieces of events.

Let me give an example: At one point you will try to track down missing merchants. You go to the last places they were known to visit and talk to various merchants and townsfolk. Several will have knowledge of the couple, but you'll find the one guy who has the best information if you're patient. I haven't found the merchant couple yet, but I know what has happened to them and know where to search now. This information gets auto-updated in your notes as you learn it. Underrail is huge, so the automated notes is yet another nice feature.

If there's one big complaint about the game, it is that you really won't ever have enough spare points to invest in crafting, till late in the game. However, the early to mid-game is when you actually could use it. Crafting is broken down into 5 sub-classes, which is about 4 too many. Anything that is actually worth making will be in two or more of these. Since you'll need at least 2 weapon skills, the merchant skill, all of the sneak skills except traps, and probably at least one psi tree, there isn't a lot of leftover points for crafting. The problem is, of course, that about 90% of all treasure is crafting components. It'd be cool if I could actually use my 2,000 junk items…..

Love the game for the most part, the one thing that urked me is merchants will only take specific types of items. I tend to take everything that isn't nailed to the floor to sell and having to run around to find a merchant who has money and takes my item is painful.

Yeah, it makes sense for a little place like SGS, but Core City should have merchants that will buy all your stock. Especially common stock like weapons and armor. I can understand that specialized stock might not be needed so much, but guns? Even the hobos are carrying.

It will be a must have for any RPG fan.

Got this when it first showed up on Early Access. The game kicked my but mercilessly, but it was a ton of fun soaking in the environments and trying to figure out how to get past tough areas. It's been a while since I last played. This thread reminds me that I should fire it up again some time.

Looks like a good bit of old school fun. I'll get into it when it's finished.