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Encased

Encased

We've taken a trip back into The Dome to check out Dark Crystal Games sci-fi RPG.

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A few months ago, I took a look at Dark Crystal Games science-fiction RPG Encased, an opportunity where I delved into a bunch of the game, putting the RPG aspect through the ringer. Or so I thought. It turns out my approach, and pretty much everyone else who previewed the game, didn't do anything unusual, and in fact played the game in the most regular manner, creating characters that reflect our own personalities, and treating the Dome and the world of Encased in the most run-of-the-mill ways. So, now that the game has officially launched, I've returned to Encased with the intent of breaking from conformity and truly putting its RPG systems to the test.

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But, before I dive into the intricacies and my thoughts on that, let's start with a synopsis of what Encased actually is. The game takes place in an alternative 1970's, where a mysterious artefact known as The Dome has been discovered in a remote desert. To understand what this artefact is, a company known as the CRONUS Corporation has set up shop in the Dome, with various wings of the company assigned to complete different jobs (for example the White Wing members are scientists, and Blue Wing members are mechanics and technicians). You start the game, journeying into the Dome as part of one of these wings, and soon after getting boots on the ground, you find yourself wrapped up in a bizarre story where it is your duty to unravel the mysteries found in the sandy, desert landscape.

The storyline and narrative is a major driving force for Encased, and will take you all around the Dome, meeting all manners of different characters, and facing a deep range of enemy types. To ensure that the story feels engaging and exciting to follow, Dark Crystal has created an incredibly descriptive tale that does well highlighting and providing depth to this mysterious world. Whether the dialogue and narrative is conveyed to you via speech or through simple text, you get a very vivid picture of your motivations and the world around you, and it is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best parts of Encased.

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But the real cream of the crop is the RPG system at Encased's core. You can create such a wide array of different characters that all play significantly different. My first character was a Grey Wing executive who had high charisma and intelligence, making them an ideal leader and perfect for the Grey Wing role, but then my next character was an Orange Wing member who had an incredibly low intelligence value, but excelled in melee combat (her name was Bonnie and she was an absolute psychopath, essentially the Krieg of Encased). The point is, you can really look to push the limits of the system, and what you make directly impacts the version of Encased you get.

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Take my characters for example. Bonnie's dialogue was borderline incoherent, with the majority of conversation options being pure insanity (I once dissipated a combat encounter by performing the Dance of Negotiation, and low and behold, it worked!), whereas my Grey Wing character was the complete opposite, giving me dialogue that revolved around smart, logical decisions. This then stretched into combat, as Bonnie loved to get into the nitty-gritty, bashing skulls in with a wrench, whereas my Grey Wing character preferred firearms and keeping combat at a distance. Encased is designed at its core to promote freedom of options, you can even just sack off the main storyline and kill vital characters wheely-neely. The world really is your oyster.

I will say that I found a lot of the dialogue options do very little. You might have the chance to jump on a table in the middle of conversation, beating your chest like a gorilla, because why not? But, it'll probably just spark a small conversation that'll lead back to a core set of dialogue, which itself will funnel you into a specific outcome. This can be a little disappointing when this happens, which is actually rather frequently.

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On the contrary, the excess dialogue that you can get is often very funny. There's been more than one occasion where my escapades with Bonnie have caused me to laugh out loud, out of sheer surprise with the narrative that is being thrown my way, so for that matter Dark Crystal has excelled.

While Encased is an RPG at its core, the combat plays a little differently, in the aspect that it uses a turn-based strategy system. You'll have a specific amount of ability points to use each turn per character, ability points that are responsible for moving, attacking, using items, reloading guns, pretty much anything, and when you run out of ability points that's your turn over, and enemies get to try their hand at attacking and eliminating you. It's a capable system that also provides plenty of options, but when compared to the storyline and RPG systems, it feels a little mediocre.

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Dark Crystal has done a great job of making the world visually impressive. It feels very Fallout-y, and immersive, but there are times where the exploration can be a little lacking. Traveling between locations you can get random events, which are quite often irrelevant. They might include finding a body in the desert, or having a venomous snake landing on your shoulder, but neither make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. And then there's the locations on top of that. Some feel pointless to visit and explore. There are core locations that are packed with lore and quests to pick up, but there's just as many, if not more, locations that fail to provide any reason to visit them in any sense. It's a very polarising difference.

But, all things considered, Dark Crystal has built a capable and entertaining RPG with Encased. This is a game that can provide tens of hours of fun, even more if you start playing around with its character creation and RPG systems. It's not perfect in any sense, but in a competitive genre, Encased also has plenty of unique positives that will make you want to keep playing. If you're looking for a new RPG to play, one where you can really push the boundaries of how you experience games, you won't go too wrong with Encased.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
RPG systems are fantastic. Visuals and aesthetic of the world are impressive. Some of the dialogue can be outright hilarious.
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Dialogue options can often lead nowhere. Exploration can be disappointing.
overall score
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REVIEW. Written by Ben Lyons

We've taken a trip back into The Dome to check out Dark Crystal Games sci-fi RPG.



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