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Discussions / Re: Drones or Cans?
« on: January 30, 2016, 03:41:22 pm »
And so does Protectorate. Don't forget that they are literally Nazis; Underrail is nothing but a big ant farm for them, and the populace is fodder to exploit. They have a good PR agency, and there are folks in their ranks who have genuinely good intentions, but those are only serving as unwitting pawns for the BioCorp remnants who are pulling the strings.
Also, the Drones are most certainly not flawless; while Trenton has a clear set of ideals, he's in way over his head when it comes to keeping the others in check (which of course is always a bit of an issue in a system that is supposed to have no stipulated authority
). And it's quite safe to assume that Alvin Bate, being a Protectorate spy, is deliberately recruiting gangbangers and other idiots into the ranks of the Drones to morally bankrupt them.
Also, the Drones are most certainly not flawless; while Trenton has a clear set of ideals, he's in way over his head when it comes to keeping the others in check (which of course is always a bit of an issue in a system that is supposed to have no stipulated authority
). And it's quite safe to assume that Alvin Bate, being a Protectorate spy, is deliberately recruiting gangbangers and other idiots into the ranks of the Drones to morally bankrupt them.
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Discussions / Re: Drones or Cans?
« on: January 30, 2016, 02:12:34 pm »
You definitely need to play both questlines, though. The bait-and-switch is glorious.
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General / Re: An Anarchists thank you
« on: January 30, 2016, 02:03:16 pm »
I love the biting irony behind the Free Drones/Protectorate questline. First time you meet the Drones, you are greeted by this guy quipping stereotypical Tumblr-anarcho purple prose, and so you very likely end up rolling your eyes and choosing Protectorate instead, only to be slapped in the face with the "Gas the Drones" quest. If you decide to swallow the troll bait and go for the Drones nonetheless, you end up meeting some of the coolest characters in the game.
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General / Re: (Spoilers) Extra Part of Oculus Quest
« on: January 29, 2016, 11:28:35 am »
The wiki is still incomplete, and some solutions/tips have been deliberately left out; it hasn't been updated much since the game went out of early access.
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General / Re: (Spoilers) Finishing the Game as a Mutant
« on: January 29, 2016, 03:12:50 am »
Interesting for sure. Never tried it myself. Guess that'll be going into my next playthrough. Does it change your stats in any way?
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Suggestions / Re: Deep Caves & Final Battle re-design suggestions.
« on: January 28, 2016, 12:15:33 am »
As I said over at the steam fora, Tchort does actually not pose much of a threat to Underrail at all. He's essentially just a large nuisance, both from a gameplay and story perspective, and destroying that ugly blob is really just a means to an end. That in itself could of course be communicated better, but from the decidedly matter-of-fact way the entire section is written, and the very much nihilistic implications of what is revealed, I think Styg didn't exactly aim for a feeling of satisfaction for the player.
I'd argue that the two possible endings (taking over the lead in SGS, or travelling after Six to North Underrail) are quite similar to the light and the dark ending in Dark Souls; you have a choice between either mercifully investing yourself into a collapsing society that isn't worth saving (although in this case it doesn't involve self-immolation), or saying "fuck those meatbags" to walk off and do your own shit.
I'd argue that the two possible endings (taking over the lead in SGS, or travelling after Six to North Underrail) are quite similar to the light and the dark ending in Dark Souls; you have a choice between either mercifully investing yourself into a collapsing society that isn't worth saving (although in this case it doesn't involve self-immolation), or saying "fuck those meatbags" to walk off and do your own shit.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 27, 2016, 07:18:53 pm »
Yeah, there are of course a lot of implications and no actual evidence. I do like that a lot, because it gives the game that "make of it what you will" feel that I love so much about Dark Souls, but it also does make the narrative feel a tiny bit inconsistent at times, when some trains of thought are fleshed out more than others.
Ah, speaking of which, I think what I love the most about the game's world building is its sense of scale. Usually in exploration-heavy RPGs you get a map that is supposed to cover an entire continent, dotted with tiny, unconnected settlements, and while the abstract presentation makes suspension of disbelief rather easy, it's still something that bugs me at times. The world of Underrail on the other hand is merely the size of a single real-life city, and as a result everything feels really bloody dense. Awesome.
Ah, speaking of which, I think what I love the most about the game's world building is its sense of scale. Usually in exploration-heavy RPGs you get a map that is supposed to cover an entire continent, dotted with tiny, unconnected settlements, and while the abstract presentation makes suspension of disbelief rather easy, it's still something that bugs me at times. The world of Underrail on the other hand is merely the size of a single real-life city, and as a result everything feels really bloody dense. Awesome.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 27, 2016, 09:50:07 am »
I was a bit disappointed that you can't confront him about it, so you never really learn about his motivations; I mean, he clearly is a sociopath (and a believable sociopath at that, not some sort of exaggerated stereotype), and he's just both involved and distant enough that you cannot discern if he's interested in the well-being of SGS or just wants to keep a keen eye on everything.
But at the same time it also perfectly hammers home how much of a literal vision of hell Underrail really is.
But at the same time it also perfectly hammers home how much of a literal vision of hell Underrail really is.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 26, 2016, 10:38:57 pm »
When you look at it, Tchort is really nothing but a bio-computer that upgrades its wetware through absorption of the DNA of other species, and very likely just so happens to express itself with the personality of a cenobite, because its conscious is a schizophrenic mess of all the individuals it has assimilated. It may well be possible that it does indeed contain a primordial lifeform, but at the end of the day it doesn't even matter, because Tchort is ultimately meaningless; it has no power over anything but its immediate surroundings, and its destruction has changed bugger all besides taking one small fraction out of the equation that is the internal power plays of one single instable corporation.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 26, 2016, 07:18:12 pm »
Tanner might have had some prior history with BioCorp, depending on how long he actually had been in Underrail before. He knew about the cube, after all, and had it ordered stolen.
Considering how filled the game is with red herrings and outright lies, I wouldn't even be surprised if part of the game's lore is just blatant misinformation.
Considering how filled the game is with red herrings and outright lies, I wouldn't even be surprised if part of the game's lore is just blatant misinformation.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 26, 2016, 06:24:59 pm »
I'd say the cube had already been in BioCorp's possession for a very long time. The Faceless probably nabbed it when they revolted against their creators and ran off to form their own civilisation.
Since the entirety of Underrail is essentially a massive ant farm run by BioCorp, with both their scattered remainders vying for control, and their countless victims doing their own thing, and Oculus being sort of the resident assassin's guild that operates outside of all affiliations and acts sort of like the Outsider from Dishonored, I'd say that it's not particularly hard for spies to find out whatever they want in Underrail, if they know where to look. Underrail's society in itself is a massive network of information that just needs to be tapped. And since time in Underrail pretty much means nothing anymore thanks to wildly varying life expectancies, it's easy to assume that Tanner had been around for quite a long time, too.
Since the entirety of Underrail is essentially a massive ant farm run by BioCorp, with both their scattered remainders vying for control, and their countless victims doing their own thing, and Oculus being sort of the resident assassin's guild that operates outside of all affiliations and acts sort of like the Outsider from Dishonored, I'd say that it's not particularly hard for spies to find out whatever they want in Underrail, if they know where to look. Underrail's society in itself is a massive network of information that just needs to be tapped. And since time in Underrail pretty much means nothing anymore thanks to wildly varying life expectancies, it's easy to assume that Tanner had been around for quite a long time, too.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 25, 2016, 11:59:03 pm »
I think the only "poor" ones were the almost childishly naive scientists and other youngsters that worked for the Tchortists. Seeing them mowed down alongside the degenerates that were their superiors when the Faceless came in was actually quite sad. But that's just how it goes. The game generally does a rather good job at mixing up morality without going down the stupid "everyone is blatantly morally ambiguous" route, apart from a few missteps.
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General / Re: Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 25, 2016, 11:08:23 pm »
I think what makes the exposition dump in the final third particularly awesome is the serious tonal shift it invokes onto the entire experience; from bleak, but not hopeless, to downright nihilistic.
Ironically, it's not even much of a twist, more like an anti-twist, complete demystification. Love it.
Ironically, it's not even much of a twist, more like an anti-twist, complete demystification. Love it.
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General / Unitary lore and story discussion thread (obvious spoilers)
« on: January 25, 2016, 06:50:50 pm »
I'm surprised we don't have an official, pinned thread for Underrail's plot and lore yet (or maybe there is one, and the search function just refuses to spit it out?). It's been officially out for a month now, with most of us having been familiar with the game for longer, and while I presume that a large number is playing the game for its mechanics more so than for its narrative content, I still think the latter is absolutely worth discussing.
I suppose the anticlimactic reveal of Underrail's origins and the decidedly unmysterious nature of Tchort, the Faceless et al. are not to everyone's taste, but I for one really love the way Underrail handles its buildup, remaining grounded and downright stoic from beginning to end, antithetical to the sweeping epic plots with their contrived twists and turns in many modern RPGs, and even pulling off a bit of a meta commentary on the genre itself, without going all self-aware and ostentatiously ironic unlike e.g. Larian's Divinity games tend to do.
I suppose the anticlimactic reveal of Underrail's origins and the decidedly unmysterious nature of Tchort, the Faceless et al. are not to everyone's taste, but I for one really love the way Underrail handles its buildup, remaining grounded and downright stoic from beginning to end, antithetical to the sweeping epic plots with their contrived twists and turns in many modern RPGs, and even pulling off a bit of a meta commentary on the genre itself, without going all self-aware and ostentatiously ironic unlike e.g. Larian's Divinity games tend to do.