Messages

1

General / Re: Preparing for Deep Caverns

« on: January 26, 2016, 02:57:50 pm »

I agree with pretty much all of the advice in this thread, except for the note on TNT - keep a few bricks handy for the end boss. About four should do it. And if you're a stealth build, utilize that for all it's worth during the final fight - it can save you a heap of frustration.

Very important if you're stealthy: make sure you're IN stealth BEFORE you trigger the end boss, by going down a certain hatch. If you're not in stealth, you cannot trigger it during the fight. So make sure you're already stealthed up beforehand

Your impression is basically spot on, by the way. The Deep Caverns are perhaps appropriately named, being the nadir of this game - some very interesting story bits will get revealed during your time there, though, if you care about that sort of thing.

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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)

« on: January 25, 2016, 11:17:21 pm »

Yeah, the story stuff at the end (Caerus logs aside, bloated and largely irrelevant as they are,) was undoubtedly the high point of the Deep Caverns for me. Poor Tchortists seriously had the wool pulled over their eyes - I always liked their agenda, even if it did serve a potential eldritch abomination / horrific experiment gone wrong.

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Suggestions / Finished the game, some humble suggestions... (spoilers)

« on: January 25, 2016, 11:03:09 pm »

I thought Underrail was fucking excellent - it's a nice return to form for games following the old Fallout / Arcanum school of RPGs. You guys did a great job.

Two suggestions, though:

1. Raise the level cap. I played on classic XP, and I've heard that the progression is a bit more streamlined for Oddity, but the fact remains that I reached level 25 a little after starting the Institute quest lines. It kinda sucked some of the fun out for me, cause I like feeling as though I'm always progressing both mechanically and story-wise as I play through a game.

What's more, I actually think a few more levels would have helped during the Deep Caverns... speaking of which...

2. Do something about the fucking Deep Caverns. It is a tedious, difficult slog and it's a radical departure in consistency from the rest of the game. I can't recall playing anything else in recent memory where I had to go back and forth between locations so often (re-routing power from the Arke station was a goddamn nightmare. Why can't we just power on the whole network and call it a day? There's a certain point where player enjoyment has to win out over grim realism, guys.) The difficulty curve also went from a gentle rise to more like a sheer cliffside - it can definitely frustrate or even bring to a screeching halt any player who hasn't built their character the right way. Enemies aside, several incredibly obscure puzzles are thrown into the mix which I had to fruitlessly bash my head against for several hours before caving and consulting the wiki.

I found the Tchort fight relatively easy once I realized a stealthy approach could win the day, but a less subtle character who hasn't done the incredibly obtuse mutagen puzzle (which I didn't bother to try, since my stealthy approach proved viable enough) will probably tear their hair out in frustration.

Though I enjoy reading logs, there's a mountain of them in the residential area and while I found some of these intriguing I think you could have trimmed the fat a bit. It's a lot to digest about characters we don't really know nor care about.

Finally, there's the simple fact that Underrail actually starts to get a little long in the tooth once you hit the Institute of Tchort - adding in several more hours of tedious, frustrating play almost threatened to undo all the confidence I had built for this game up to that point. A more succinct finale might have been a better approach.


-

Those two quibbles aside, this is an excellent game you guys should feel very, very proud of. Definitely hoping for a sequel

4

General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)

« on: January 25, 2016, 10:31:58 pm »

I was actually never terribly clear on the origins of the Underrail (though I think it's safe to assume Biocorp is somehow involved) - but then I missed the Oculus stuff, anyhow, so maybe it's explained there (for some reason Quicksilver never got back in touch, though I'm fairly sure I performed all his quests to his satisfaction.)

I thought the reveal of Tchort's (implied) origins was cool, as it sheds a suspicious light on Eidein's supposed discovery of a millennia old being. I'd be surprised if Tchort was any older than two hundred years.