Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

Encased is a brilliant isometric game that didn't get enough love when it landed on STEAM. I played over 100 hours on my first play-through as a mentally challenged Silver (the elite, administrator class).
If you want a unique roleplaying experience, on your FIRST play-through be sure to run an intellectually challenged Silver and enjoy the ensuing hijinks. The dialogue with the NPCs is GENIUS as confused questgivers try to figure out how to explain complex situations to your mentally limited character while gently trying to redirect you from eating Christmas lights and stealing erasers from their desks.
If you choose a different background--such as melee-oriented, paroled convict (Orange), weapon-based security guard (Black), proficient mechanic (Blue), or educated scientist (White)--you will get a more complete picture of what is happening in the Encased world, significantly changing your overall experience. ALL THE DIALOGUE with NPCs adjusts to reflect how your character--theoretically at least--can UNDERSTAND what is going on in the Encased world. The game then becomes a fairly decent apocalyptic RPG, similar to Wasteland or the original Fallout.
I can't emphasize enough how impressed I am with the writers who crafted the interactive conversations in this game. I wish this game had a sequel -

"Encased" is a game with huge potential — albeit not fully realized.
It lacks overall cohesion and polish, especially in terms of combat balance and system depth. Yet, it offers so many strong and memorable elements that my overall experience remained positive.

I have not looked into the developers background, but according to Steam, this is their only project. If this is indeed their debut, they have my respect. "Encased" feels like an attempt to combine the best aspects of classic RPGs: the interface and turn-based combat mechanics are clearly inspired by "Divinity: Original Sin II", while the character progression and world exploration resemble "Fallout". Sure, Unity doesn't provide the same physics fidelity as "Divinity", but these borrowed ideas are implemented with care and thoughtfulness.

The setting appears heavily influenced by Soviet science fiction — particularly "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky brothers. The Dome is a mysterious, isolated zone where the laws of physics are distorted and people develop paranormal abilities. Elements like the colored "Wing" hierarchy, the rehabilitation program for prisoners, and the one-way nature of entry into the zone all contribute to a dystopian world layered with social commentary.

There's plenty of humor, Easter eggs, and tongue-in-cheek references scattered throughout the game.

Crafting is present, though relatively shallow. Still, it's fun to watch weapon visuals and descriptions evolve as you apply upgrades.

Combat, unfortunately, is the weakest link. Some weapon types feel outright obsolete. For instance, I found psionic gloves far more effective than most firearms — no need for ammo, no reloading, just instant and reliable attacks. Sure, certain enemies have immunities, but there's always a workaround.

The world map encourages exploration: in addition to story locations, you'll encounter random events reminiscent of "Fallout".

And beyond isometric travel and world navigation, there's a third layer: text-driven quests with multiple-choice outcomes, akin to what you'd see in "Space Rangers".

The story? It's... average. It does't fail, but it also doesn't quite reach the narrative ambition it seems to aim for. The opening hours are rich with mystery and discovery, while the pacing noticeably drops toward the end.

Still, despite its flaws, Encased left a good impression. It's not groundbreaking or flawless — but it has heart. And that alone makes it worth playing. The developers have earned my trust, and I'll be watching closely for whatever they create next.

The game starts very strong. The latter half does fall off, but if you're a fan of the genre, I'd say that spending $30 for 50+ hours of 'starts strong, ends poorly' is probably a winning bargain.
I know that's not the most crazy over the top review, but come on. It's an isometric CRPG released in 2020, if you're this deep in the reviews, just put it on your wishlist and get it on sale.

A very fascinating look at an alternate universe set in the mid-1970's at a mysterious location which contains unique properties and strange relics. Well-done retro-futurism, great use of atmosphere. It's a little on the difficult side and there are a lot of different strategies you can use depending on how you generated your character.

As others have posted here, it's a good enough game if you enjoy sandbox RPGs. After the first few hours of the game, a large event occurs. After that event, the game proper begins and you are pointed towards...nothing. Other than the fact that some kind of big storm has swept through the dome, there's no real motivation to do much of anything. Sure, there's a lot to explore and you could make an argument that you can unfold your own story. However, for me personally, I don't have a lot of gaming time and I appreciate being told a compelling story with fun gameplay. This game has fun-ish gameplay but hits negatively for the other two. Therefore, I decided to set it aside for now. I'll give it a thumbs-up simply because it's probably fun for some people and it seems like the developers worked hard on it.

I'm conflicted on Encased, but would ultimately recommend it (on a deep discount) and here's why:
+The Good+
+ Premise of the game is great and the first half of the game uses it masterfully.
+ Lore.
+ RPG mechanics lifted from the classics of the genre, in both good and the bad.
+ Combat is good (Which is good since there is so much of it!). Best way to describe it is Wasteland 2 combat but without any of the faults W2 has.
+ The first half of the game is very good and made me invested enough to finish the game, easily one of the best CRPG experiences
+ Bugs I encountered (aside from foes) were very minor and went away with a restart, most commonly relating to inventory management and moving items with mouse.
+ Very good translation
-The Bad-
- Inventory management designed by the Devil himself >:(. A "great" mix of Resident Evil, Wasteland 2 and Fallout
- Companions are just damage soaks & DPS multipliers and lack almost any character, playing without companions is hard mode but won't impact the game much
- Companions get in the way in tight spaces, often blocking objects you want to use/interact with
- Weapon upgrade system doesn't feel good after the first few levels.
- Latter half of the game is mainly fetch or courier tasks that require you to memorize where people are, made worse when those people move about on the map wasting time in load screens and wandering about map searching where exactly those people are. Worst one required 10+ loading screen transitions
- Tying to previous one: slow movement speed wasting huge amount of time. Doubling or tripling character movement speed with console is recommended.
- Skill checks in conversations happen only once requiring savescumming if you failed by small margin and for example smoking a cigarette or reading skill mag would let you pass
- Sudden deaths on par with Sierra adventure games. Save often like the loading screen tips say
- The ending is disappointing, not bad just disappointment
Hopefully the Bad didn't scare you away from this game, even with all that it's worth a play as the genre has so few good entries. Just as a sidenote 99% completion took about 65 hours

This game was such a lot of fun to play, until the end of act two, where it dove head-first straight into a very brief epilogue that - like Outer Worlds - left me feeling as though I had been cheated out of a really good chunk of story.

Still, as already mentioned above, it WAS a lot of fun to play, but I will leave it a year or so before I dive in with a new character-type to explore other play styles (and maybe get some of those achievements I missed).