Impressed With Expedition Writing (Early Spoilers)

[Ransom]

Underrail has generally been a genuinely enjoyable experience for me and I'm impressed at the huge volume of content on offer considering the size of the team. One of the really cool things to see has been the (in my opinion) improvements in character writing in Expedition compared to the base game (the banter between Marcus and Tony in the camp humanizes the experience in ways the base game is generally lacking, for example). As an aside, I also quite like the style of the prose and its conciseness: it is very respectful of the player's time as well (no gynormous piles of needless Obsidian or BioWare style pointless backstory)

What has hands down impressed me the most, however, is the Ferryman. While it seems kind of on the nose that he's an author avatar (Charon being the Ferryman of Styx and the term Stygian deriving from the name of the river) I have a great fondness for allegorical characters like this when they're done well. His vivid tone really stands out from the other characters I've met in the base game and the expansion so far and I loved the story about him fighting that barbarian warrior. I also was quite impressed with philosophical stuff, which blended some really diverse influences (as far as I could tell Orthodoxy, Buddhist, and Heideggerian ideas among others, probably). It's also really good that the PC (with high enough intelligence) can make some cogent replies to the Ferryman instead of just saying "go on" and stuff like it over and over.

Like with Age of Decadence, my favorite part of games made with one writer or a small team of writers is how you get to see their interests and influences come through in the final product. From the base game, it's obvious Styg knows more than me about science, so it's cool to see some stuff I actually know a little about in there too. Looking forward to seeing more work from this studio!

[cypherusuh]

I agree with ferrymen's Philosophy dialogue cluster. Eventhough I dont have enough INT IRL to understand everything, I could see that it's pretty rare for a video game to have such deep-thought provoking dialogue. The only thing that has same deep of it, on top of my head, is Fallout New Vegas, on the "last boss" of base game, you could discuss philosophy with him if you have enough speech, making it one of the rare game where you could literally speak him to death, figuratively.

[destroyor]

Just want to chime in to praise the artwork. I especially like the gorgeous artwork of a certain underwater Station.

[tyrtix]

i liked a LOT the LemCo style, both in buildings and interior graphics, and the fact they are inspired to his leader by Jules Verne (iirc, i've read that he was fond in 20000 leagues under the sea), and the chance to explore those ruins to find loot is a satisfactory experience for my playstyle: to be honest, i've liked a lot more the DLC experience than the original one, not because the latter is worse, but because the DLC inspire me more, with his aura of mystery that gives the idea you can find a real treasure just behind the next corner, or death... and you will find both, many times XD
I loved the ski jet ideas, and even the fact that the sunless sea do not have too much human presence around, except where it's concentrated, the only drawback i've found so far are the fact that jets are not exactly that useful as i hoped for, it's way too hard to refit them with good components are they're too hard to find, and combat with them is a royal pain, as i got killed a pair of times because enemies hits my jet with a sniper attack, instantly sunking the jet with me on top.

Anyway,  the whole place is great, the quests are okay and sometimes a surprise (like having pickpocket this time proved to be very nice)

[mephisto]

in my years of gaming (almost 2 decades), i think it's safe to say that "light weighted" games (in term of graphics) tend to have very interesting and deep story compared to AAA games. this particular title (UnderRail) even has diverse kinds of stories, sad, happy, curious, i even lost count as to how many dialogues that made me laugh so hard (Dude, Norman, Rash, Georgis, Ladelman, Zoners, Wyatt intimidation option, and many more).
it's a fact that developers of this kind of games consider the graphics are easy to work with (plenty of recorded interviews with them), and so they can use their time and effort more to the story and contents.
another indie pixelated 2D game that captivated me with the story depth was "To The Moon" by Freebird.

[brobotics]

dialogues that made me laugh so hard (Dude, Norman, Rash, Georgis, Ladelman, Zoners, Wyatt intimidation option, and many more).

Dude's lines throughout the entire riftwalking sequence are my favorite. Before Expedition, I always wished there was more to Dude than the depressing HE laptops.

The small glimpse you get into sober Dude is sooo fkn cool, after the Juice runs our and his portrait goes from silly railrat drunkard to STOIC INTERDIMENSIONAL SCIENTIST, JOHN DYSON Ph.D.

[mephisto]

but still, he's a drunkard even when he was a scientist though. xD

[Picard]

but still, he's a drunkard even when he was a scientist though. xD

LOL   xD