Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

"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.

Encased – A Great RPG Held Together by Duct Tape (But Still Worth Playing)
I just finished Encased on Steam, and overall I had a great time with it. The game offers amazing character customization, fun gameplay mechanics, and an interesting story centered around an anomalous zone. It strongly reminded me of games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., though Encased feels much lighter in tone, gameplay, and even overall optimism.
The world is still dangerous throughout, with a solid faction system, reputation mechanics, plenty of levels, and a wide variety of perks, skills, and stats. That said, the game does a very poor job of explaining many of its systems—especially crafting. I had to figure most of it out on my own. My biggest piece of advice: save often. The game lacks proper tutorials and contains several game-breaking bugs.
For example, if you steal items on Level 3 of Magellan (the underground city), the entire floor can turn permanently hostile—even if you were never caught. I tried everything to fix this, and the only solution that worked was stealthing before entering the level, right-clicking the NPC needed for the quest, completing the required interaction, immediately running away, re-stealthing, and then exiting the level. Extremely frustrating, and absolutely immersion-breaking.
Quest bugs are another major issue. It’s very easy to break quests with little to no way to fix them. If you’re a loot goblin like me and steal everything that isn’t nailed down, you might accidentally obtain a quest item before starting the quest—then lose it—and permanently lock yourself out of completing that quest. The dog tags quest was also bugged for me; I collected all of them, yet the game still insisted I was missing one. Several quests behaved this way.
Equipment stats were another problem. Many items did not actually provide the bonuses they claimed, either due to bugs or misleading descriptions. I also experienced an issue where interactable objects could not be highlighted for a period of time, with no clear reason why.
Despite all of these issues, the game is still very fun. The mechanics are enjoyable, faction interactions are interesting, and many quests have personality. I really liked how completing quests for one faction could increase your reputation with them while simultaneously lowering it with another—choices actually matter. Not everything relies on combat either; stealth and clever play can solve many problems.
That said, stealth is massively overpowered and probably needs a serious nerf. I had a ridiculous amount of fun sneaking around in broad daylight, robbing NPCs blind right in front of them, then coming back a few days later to do it again. While entertaining, it made the game far too easy. Still, as a fellow loot goblin, I can’t deny how much fun I had abusing it.
I reached around level 49 and completed almost everything available. I do wish there were more side quests for allied NPCs and something more impressive for reaching 100 reputation with a faction—currently, the rewards are usually just trinkets that may not even fit your build or playstyle. I was also bothered by how strongly the game seemed to push the player toward a specific ending. The way certain factions are handled near the conclusion didn’t feel natural at all. Some of these groups would not realistically have simply dissolved or vanished over time—especially when we have real-world historical examples of similar factions not only surviving, but thriving, particularly within the cultural and political zeitgeist of the real 1970s.
This aspect felt poorly researched and added to the immersion-breaking elements of the game. It came across as the developers trying to force a particular narrative outcome rather than allowing events to flow organically from the player’s choices and playstyle. Even though I wasn’t personally aiming for that ending, I still found it frustrating. With more thought and nuance, this part of the story could have felt far more believable and satisfying.
One small but memorable detail: there’s a weapons station where you can buy extremely powerful (and expensive) gear—or steal it. A song plays in the background there that drove me crazy because I couldn’t find it listed anywhere. After a long search, I finally discovered it on SoundCloud: “Wintertime Sumba” by The Muddy Rabbits. It’s oddly difficult to find online, isn’t listed on the official soundtrack, and almost no one seems to know it exists. The track has some random Russian guy as the image on SoundCloud, and you can’t even buy the song anywhere. Absolute pain to track down—but now you know.
Lastly, it’s clear that some modern political themes were inserted into the game. They weren’t enough to completely deter me, but they felt unnecessary and occasionally immersion-breaking—especially considering the game is set in an alternate 1970s timeline. I would have expected politics appropriate to that era instead.
Final Verdict:
Encased is a buggy, often frustrating game with serious technical and design flaws—but it’s also genuinely fun, mechanically interesting, and built on a great story concept with solid atmosphere and soundtrack. If you can tolerate (or work around) the bugs, it’s absolutely worth playing. I highly recommend trying it sooner rather than later—before future patches potentially “fix” some of the fun. Another disappointment for me was the lack of companion quests. While this has unfortunately become more common in modern RPGs, I still found it underwhelming. Companions are present, but they feel largely static, and the absence of personal questlines made them far less memorable than they could have been.

Fallout 3 "as it should be". You actually need to read dialogues, remember npcs, observe environment, think about solutions, no quest markers, only notes.

First half of game being really challenging, many fights almost impossible - sneak is often only solution, then maybe come back later with bigger gun to gain XP from enemies (and remember when you did not clear it yet :D ). In second half difficulty kinda broke, character got too strong, enemies not scaling properly - sneak changed to "go in guns blazing", even after bumping difficulty setting to max. Also quests become somehow "spread too thin" (especially compared to first half being packed really dense). Encountered game breaking bug in endgame location (unable to exit location after entering it - played on Linux Steam version). Also had some loading problems before, but solvable.

For any Fallout 1 / 2 fan mandatory, also good for turn based combat enthusiasts in general - watch out for bugs though.

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

I personally don't care for the game but it's a pretty good RPG. The main issue I have is I'm more of XCOM, WarTales, Battle Brothers TBS player. This is heavy RPG and light tactical combat. I do way, way for running around and chatting then I do room clearing.
The game is well made, just not for me. If you are more into the RPG side of things, grab it. It's pretty cheap on sale.