It just so happened that the first two parts Fallout and the novel of the Brothers Strugatsky "Picnic on the side of the road" – One of my most beloved works in their genres. Therefore, I am extremely wary of projects that publicly call themselves the successors or spiritual heirs of these masterpieces; A given quality bar from such comparisons takes off into heaven. Authors ENCASED Literally from the threshold they say that their game is no less, “tribute” at the same time both the original Fallout and the Roman of the Strugatsky. Well, no one pulled them by the tongue.
Fallout with bolts and memes
In the seventies of the last century, humanity finds a dome – a mysterious, full of anomalies and artifacts multi -kilometer, where traces of the presence of extraterrestrial civilization remained. The discovery of the dome will forever change humanity for the better: wars and conflicts between countries are fading, scientists from around the world are united in influential conglomerates. However, the mysterious zone does not share its secrets for the dead – those who at least once got inside can no longer leave its limits. Therefore, at the time of the start of the Enced, the dome has already been well mastered and populated. Under his arches, settlements and research bases are scattered everywhere, and everyone who wants to look at the miracle of light with their own eyes pass special selection and training. The player get the role of one of these volunteers, but peacefully exploring artifacts and shooting giant insects will not work. The arrival of the protagonist coincides with the advent of an abnormalities unprecedented, the consequences of which will forever change not only the dome, but the whole world.
It is quite useful to engage in craft in Enced – with the proper level of skill, the character will be able to both cook powerful stimulants and create useful gadgets
Enced's desire to be the same “Russian Fallout” is noticeable at first sight. A step -by -step combat system, interface, mood of ironic retro -active – at first such associations are only beneficial to the game. The window of creating a character who meets the player also causes a completely positive emotions. Features, skills, perks, features, choice of background through the research “wing” that the hero works for – the development of the character here is really perfectly executed. In addition, in the role system there are enough other successful finds. So, for example, all skills are divided into combat and applied, while the latter have a fairly wide range of application. A doctor who knows an anatomy well can not only dwell wounds, but also it’s good to make new ones into enemy with the help of something sharp, and it will be easier to break the doors and locks-he knows the mechanism of their work.
However, my favorite role -playing mechanics in Enced are “reverse” perks that open as a reward not for high characteristics, but, on the contrary, for extremely low https://heyspin-casino.co.uk/. Created a character with zero charisma? Then you will have access to the ugly perk, which gives a pleasant discount for all merchants in the game – because they want you to quickly get out of sight. The hero is almost blind due to minimal attentiveness? Get a bonus to automatic shooting for suppression, since enemies still do not see.
The game around the low characteristics greatly diversifies the wager, only the quests in Enced came out, frankly, uneven. There is easily two or three “go-speaking-pronounces” for each interesting task, without any special attempts to originality. On the other hand, even the most trivial situations, as a rule, offer some kind of scope for wagging and at least a slight non-linearity. It is especially pleasant how much attention is paid to non -eva skills-applied knowledge really reveals many alternative ways, so that there is a continuous pleasure to play any scientist here.
At least until it comes to battles. The problem is that the Enced combat system does not reach even the standards of the first Fallout. The first time everything looks promising: a huge arsenal of weapons and tricks, traps, gadgets, many discovered abilities and other attacks. Enemies also do not lag behind and actively use almost the same wide set of opportunities that they are available to the player, but all this works with grief in half. In most cases, opponents, including arrows and doctors who do not need this, are trying to approach the player close; Those who did not have time to run away will remain under the full -length bullets – there seems to be a system of shelters in the game, but there are animations of their use, as in the same Xcom, No. And in general, AI acts so slowly that the battles are felt much longer than they actually are.
It is tangible to play without partners, but single players are waiting for a unique storyline
ENCASED also suffers from problems with balance. The explosion of a grenade and a fist can be done here the same damage, and the enemies either give out several fatal crites in a row, they just stand still, missing their move without any reason. However, the biggest problem is the fighting is debuff. The developers are very fond of (read, abuse) to throw negative effects on the player – they will easily be typed under a few dozen. Fatigue, bleeding, poisoning, biological infection, psi radiation, poor mood, a feeling of doom, fragility, shakiness, rollerity and devil know what else. Almost every enemy attack imposes some fine on the character, and the player almost never knows in advance what can be expected from an already familiar enemy, because remembering his entire arsenal is not so simple. Debuffs themselves are more likely annoying than pose a real threat, but there is simply no reliable way to defend from them in the game. Therefore, in battles, you often have to manage a little “stranger” character-with noticeably weakened characteristics and five to six allergies.
As a result, the battles simply look funny, but they feel even worse. Opponents behave inappropriately, complexity often depends on the will of the case, and the entire tactical potential is divided into the only true strategy “constantly retreat and do not let yourself kill yourself”. Fortunately, violence can be avoided, but only if the developers have thought out in advance the bypass for a particular situation, – stealth in Enced works purely nominally. Enemies cannot be manipulated in any way, but sometimes they do not notice the character literally point blank, especially if they do not impudent and do not get up right under their nose.
Crisis of identity
Similar claims can be addressed to many other Enced elements. For example, in the game there is something like power armor from the same Fallout, but for some reason the costume does not give some noticeable advantages. Or survival elements: the character must be fed and steal, and the use of skills accumulates fatigue, an excess of which can easily lead to death. There is only a real threat of exhaustion in the game, since the supplies are lying at every step, but still the player will have to regularly dive into the wilds of a firm interface to verify the needs of the character.
Enced, it seems, often confuses hardcore with banal hostility towards the player. The lion's share of the objects used will forever remain with the dead load in the inventory simply because the game does not explain how they work. Searching for passwords and key cards alternate with quests, where, in principle, it is not clear what needs to be done. There is no need to hope for the help of the diary: the main character may literally not write down the current goal in it, but from the heart will pile up the useless artistic text. This approach is hardly adding real complexity to the game, but it successfully succeeds in longing.
Surrounded by many interactive objects, the interaction with which gives short -term bonuses or restores the needs of the character. It is a pity that they do not help in battle in any way – except that some can be laid a trap
Of course, Fallout also had a breakthrough of technical and gameplay problems. Similar games often have to forgive a lot of mistakes for the sake of an interesting story and a curious world, but Enced also shows itself extremely contradictory. The main plot intrigue works well: to understand what is happening and find out what the dome actually is, and really exciting. But in order to reveal these secrets, you will have to digest a lot of boring terms, the lessons of intra -game history and plot stupids like the hollows (as without them in Russian science fiction), hallucinations, thought forms and other nonsense. As befits a plot role -playing game, there are many texts in Enced, and some of them turned out to be really excellent – caustic satire on loading screens, funny descriptions of objects, in some places touching, memorable dialogs. Unfortunately, the rest of the texts seemed to write another, much less talented person who made a sea of stylistic mistakes. The speech of the characters is replete with phraseological units, templates, sudden souls and inappropriate obscenity, and the script is full of excessive descriptions of facial expressions and gestures. Because of this, some dialogs were sometimes unbearable, and in contrast to truly successful, this is especially disappointing.
A similar moment is associated with humor and references. Enced has really funny jokes and thin references, but the scriptwriters are too relying on the quantity, and not on quality, at least among the last. In literally the first ten minutes, the game manages to present a dozen of the transparent references to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., " Night Dose"And anime Evangelion, Mount of Internet memes and even candy "Rachki". And this is only what I could notice. If for the first time such jokes cause laughter, and on the second – a smile, then for the tenth time you even get tired of rolling your eyes. After all, behind all references and borrowings, the fatal drawback of Enced is hidden – the lack of one's own face and charisma. The game is acutely lacking individuality and distinguishing features. Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. You can find out by one look at, say, Volt-Boy or some bloodsuckers, and Enced does not have its own style, identity. Humor and Ommage Eternal Classics is great, but you can’t go far from them alone.
There is no doubt that the developers really want to make the “same” ideal RPG dreams – at least the one that imagine. All aspects of Enced clearly worked with great diligence: this is visible both by the number of content and the variety of mechanics. But only efforts, as you know, is not enough. Is it worthy of ENCASED to compare yourself with Fallout and the creativity of the Strugatsky? Perhaps this is not so important. Among the domestic audience, there is obviously there is a request for games of this kind – to survive, about artifacts, about you and me. There are always few such games, and they are ready to forgive them a lot, as Fallout and S were forgiven at one time.T.A.L.K.E.R. Will the folk love defects the ENCASED defeat? We will find out very soon – the release of the game is planned for September this year.
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