Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

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.

I never review games.
I played this game start to finish on release. 2 Years later I still think about it from time to time.
I sometimes just say Katarzyna's name like the narrator cause it rolls off the tongue so nice. I still hope to have a heart to heart with Crump's father one day.
The whole world is very unusual, but in a very satisfying way. The atmosphere is so good. I even really liked the technically very simple overworld map.
2 years later, even after recently completing Baldur's Gate 3 (which I think is safe to consider one of, if not THE greatest CRPG of all time) I find myself nostalgic for Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG.

Encased is a very interesting, although somewhat flawed, game. It is a bit like Fallout 1 was compared to Fallout 2. The premise is great, and there are some extremely cool ideas, but the quality varies throughout the experience. In some areas, the game feels more like a prototype. Still, the memorable locations and events were what kept me playing to the end. Overall it is a nice game in this genre!
To explain further. I loved that the main character is from one of the wings (Black, Blue, Orange, Silver, and White). I think this gives the game a lot of flavor and improves replayability too. The world responds to you differently depending on the character's affiliation. The worldbuilding is quite wonderful in that regard.
Then there are companions. Initially, I was thinking of skipping this game, as in their original Kickstarter, they said there would be no companions or party system. I am very glad they decided to add it! The tactical combat is fun, and I like to adventure with a party. The companions are a bit of a hit-and-miss, though. I loved Fox and Sparrow, but the others left me kinda cold. I saw they were well-written, but for some reason, I did not care about them as much.
The locations and encounters were what varied most in quality. Some of them were truly amazing, surprising, intriguing, and mysterious. I loved the crashed plane location and the mine that drove everyone so insane that they would willingly jump into a shaft. I also really liked the story about the Queen of the Fops and her past. So crazy. Unfortunately, all these were more-or-less side quests. The main narrative wasn't as intriguing for me as these wonderful side stories. I think the main questline was too broad, with too many factions. The narrative is also somewhat inconsistent, leaving loose ends, not following through, and sometimes contradicting itself.
The combat itself was also a bit of a mixed bag. In the beginning, it is stated that there is a force that is driving people insane. But they are still people and could recover. We even see recovered people later on. So, I decided only to use non-lethal force on those enemies. I am very glad this option exists, but it sometimes seemed a bit OP and boring. You shoot a tranquilizer dart at an enemy, sneak away, wait for the enemy to stop looking for you, and repeat it until they pass out. You don't even have to start the actual combat this way. I am all for different problem-solving approaches, but this mechanic should have been more interesting and balanced. At times, I was hoping that the next enemy group would be robotic or undead enemies to avoid having to do the tedious stealth and tranquilizing routine.
The skills and leveling up were cool. Finding different combos that you could do with them was very interesting. There is one perk that restores fatigue when you teleport. Then you can get a psychic skill with a certain weapon to teleport a character. So, if you get these, you no longer have to sleep. :)
In conclusion, this game could probably use some Final Cut version, where the pacing and narrative would be put together better, and the game would be more polished. I hope that they'll do Encased 2, where they can use everything that they have learned here to make a truly outstanding game.

Went into this game without knowing a lot about. I expected (or rather hoped) it would be at least a passable apocalyptic RPG, but it ended up actually really exceeding my initial expectations and I got really sucked into this game.
This game is unashamedly inspired by classic Fallout, Wasteland and Stalker games but it never feels like its lazily ripping those games off and the Dome is an interesting setting. And while the main factions arent probably the most original, I did think the different employee wings added a more interesting layer to the game.
I really liked the way this game also gives you a lot of freedom with the role playing aspect of your character. The different ways you build your character can open up different options in how you approach the game and it's quite good for giving you multiple ways to complete quests. Based on one of the achievements, its supposed to be possible to complete this game without killing anyone, though admittedly this would make it difficult to complete a couple of quests as I recall a couple where you needed to kill creatures. It also possible to talk your way out of some situations based on skill checks. If you enjoy the freedom to role play a character how you like than this is a pretty immersive game for that.
The combat is turn based tactical and I thought it was good enough without doing anything groundbreaking. I did like that not just the combat skills but all skills or sometimes combination of skills can offer different abilties to be used in combat. I did also like the fact that initiating an encounter doesnt automatically pull every enemy into combat, but instead only within a certain radius. So you can pick off enemies if you can kill them quick enough or else they will call for backup which will pull in nearby enemies who are not currently engaged in combat. It's a nice touch that makes a stealthy approach more viable.
As much as I enjoyed it, it is not a game for everyone. The pace is very slow and it is quite dialogue heavy. For example the prologue is a few hours long and while it is good for setting up the story, I can imagine that it may frustrate some people. It also isnt a game that doesn't hand hold the player and or provide a nice quest marker to tell you where to go. You actually need to take note of what NPCs tell you as well as read quest logs to figure out where you need to go or what to do. However I quite liked that.
So I'd definitely recommend this game if this kind of game is your jam, but if any of the above mentioned doesnt sound appealing then this game probably isn't for you.

This is a big diamond in the rough. It's a bit of a sleepy adventure, unfortunately, and I only enjoyed it because I was really looking for an experience that emulated the original Fallout adventures. It's very competent, but doesn't really excel at anything. There's lots of content, and you have a ton of options to do what you want. I encountered zero bugs or issues, which is very impressive. I enjoyed the game, but, as I said, I don't know if I'd have enjoyed it as much if I wasn't specifically looking for a Fallout CRPG experience.
If I had to give it a rating, I'd say 7/10. Very competent, but not really stand-out. Surprising amount of voice-acting (more than some AAA titles), so that's a definite plus.

Good game. Lots of content.
Broad range of different paths to take on replay with different skills/weapons/followers, at least if you have any imagination at all, and don't want a game that is completely linear and holds your hand every step.
Especially good if stealth is your thing.
Haters gonna hate.

I was really enjoying this game until I got fatigued. I overdid it in combat and became fatigued the moment the combat ended. I lay on the ground helpless for what felt like forever, got up, used a medikit and was immediately fatigued again. Googled how to remove fatigue, answer - sleep in a bed. Makes sense I suppose. I found a bed behind a locked door. I picked the lock and was immediately fatigued for a third time. I'm still recommending this game however, as the combat feels good and the story is great so far. I just don't see why fatigue needs to be a thing. Too much realism can be a bad thing.