Encased (2021)

Encased is an uncompromising homage to old RPGs. To patient players, it offers complex game systems and an original world which will consume them for a long time. However, grind and fetch quests may be a good reason to skip Encased.

Encased is a love letter to the late 90s RPG and, despite some jagged edges, it's quite an exquisite post-apocalyptic irradiated meal for players, looking for a huge amount of freedom in building their own characters and stories.

Very complete and very well written, Encased is a good old-fashioned RPG that knows how to take into account your decisions and in which aficionados of the genre (in need of Fallout first of the name, but also in more recent Wasteland or Divitiny Original Sins) will be delighted to immerse themselves.

"A very decent clone of Fallout." That's at the same time the biggest compliment, as well as the strongest criticism for Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG. It is a labour of love that is almost as fun as the one it passionately pays homage to, and is thus easy to forgive its lack of fine-tuning. Unfortunately, it also lacks what made Interplay's gem the legend it is, which is, of course, the writing. You see, the key word in the phrase "a very decent clone of Fallout," is the word 'decent.' This otherwise entertaining piece of software is definitely that, but decent just won't do for most people.

We have mixed feeling about Encased. No doubt for some players it’s a great game reaching the upper echelons of the review scale. For us, less so due to our own preferences or perhaps expectations. A lack of direction, vagueness and tendency to draw on some frustrating quest design over-and-over have us at odds with the neat combat, excellent writing and fantastic audio alongside its neat premise. However, with our grievances aside, we still recommend this for those looking for strategy turn-based role playing. It’s certainly got character and that’s something most people can probably agree on.