Base Game + Expedition DLC Review - August 2019.

Reviewer's Note: I have played this game both on Steam and GOG, for a total of 600+ hours, the playtime displayed here is only partial.

Underrail is an old-school, turn-based isometric RPG, similar to Fallout 2 as far as the base game structure is concerned, but without a party system. Set in the grim days following nuclear annihilation, this game takes place in the dark tunnels of UnderRail, a vast subterranean network of stations built in the decades after the apocalypse.

This title offers uncompromising Classic RPG gameplay, seemingly straight out from the golden days of old: for starters, character development possibilities are amazingly varied, allowing players to build significantly different characters every play-through, each offering a wholly different gameplay experience. A huge quantity of passive and active abilities are at players' disposal, unlocked with both level and attribute requirements mostly, Specialization points allow players to upgrade their favorite skills, to further focus a class' purpose, while from a certain level onward, Veteran perks come in to specialize characters even more.

Roaming the dark tunnels of Underrail will put players in many different situations, ranging from dealing with vicious bandit gangs, to exploring abandoned old world outposts, to discovering unexplainable events just not belonging to this world. How each character is built will change considerably what can or can't be done, that is why to really discover everything, many play-throughs are needed. The addition of crafting mechanics, divided into sub-categories such as Electronics, or Tailoring, adds a deeper dimension to commerce, looting and progression, if players choose to invest skill points into them.

Combat in Underrail is highly tactical and complex, varying a lot depending on the character type: each build will have to employ different strategies, and have an hard time in encounters another build otherwise would find easy. Stealth, loud, traps, or avoiding altogether are all viable approaches to enemies. The two XP gain choices, Classic where quests and enemies give XP, or Oddity, where only Artifacts give out XP instead, make interesting variations.

Overall, Underrail is an astonishingly deep, complex, varied and satisfying experience that I do not hesitate to put on the same tier of the best classics of old, such as Baldur's Gate, for how good it is. Anyone liking RPGs should get this game immediately, as it offers hundreds of hours of content, at least, for a bargain price tag even with DLC included.

Masterpiece

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🔵 Pros
+ Immense content: with Expedition, a single thorough run will take no less than 100 hours, multiple ones are needed to experience everything.
+ Extraordinary replay-ability: each class build delivers a completely different gameplay experience.
+ Deep mechanics: from combat, crafting, to dialogue branching, Underrail offers a very complex gameplay system that takes time and dedication to master.
+ Excellent story and lore-building: Underrail offers an original take on a post-apocalyptic world, that never gives out that "already seen" feeling we all don't like.
+ Tough as nails: Hard and DOMINATING! difficulties offer respectively a very challenging, and downright insane, experience that will make even hardcore veterans of the genre sweat a lot.

🔴 Cons
- Some class balance issues: while most builds are balanced well, some result evidently overpowered (Psionic!) or instead under-powered (Throwing!).
- A few skills are gimmicky or useless, such as Pickpocketing, to name one.
- [Expedition] The DLC's "camp management" is badly designed and can cause the main DLC quest to fail as well, without players knowing.



🎮 Gameplay Analysis
Underrail 's gameplay is divided into Exploration, Character Management, Roleplaying, and Combat.

Exploration in Underrail will occupy most of anyone's time, since the world is composed of hundreds of "tiles", with a transition between each, containing loot, enemies, NPCs, secrets and so on. The world is truly massive and with Expedition, even more so. There is no fast travel, only metro trains once unlocked, and with DLC, another secret means of transport as well, but mostly, players will have to walk to get anywhere - the speed-up feature helps a lot in making this less tiresome. A handy map shows player location, and notes can be added to each tile, in case something important is to be remembered. Generally, exploration is very rewarding and interesting, never knowing what the next place will contain, and the great amount of loot, containers, secrets to find never makes it boring.

Character Management is a complex affair. First of all, base attributes determine how proficient someone is in their derived skills, for example Strength or Dexterity govern the Melee skill, resulting in a higher effective skill level the higher the attribute is. Attributes also govern resistances to certain attacks, carry weight, action points, and many other aspects - choosing them wisely when starting a character is fundamental, based on what type of build you have in mind. Equipment heavily influences characters as well, with Armor Penalty reducing Movement the heavier the armor is, while heavier weapons will cost more AP to use. Several equip pieces grant attribute or skill bonuses (or maluses), to further build a character as playuers want, provided they can find or craft exactly the equip that best suits their class. Leveling up gives a fixed number of points to assign to skills, a Perk point every couple levels, and an Attribute point rarely.

Roleplaying is deep and articulated in Underrail, consisting not only in dialogue skill/attribute checks with various NPCs, but also in many environmental interactions, such as scaling a steep rock wall, lifting a locked gate, or hacking a defense terminal. These can be very important and can even bar entire areas, quests, or other content behind them: what you can't access with one build, is waiting for you the next playthrough.

Combat is as well extremely tactical and complex, in a turn-based fashion. The sheer variety of possible equipment, abilities, feats for both players and enemies make every encounter different in some way, and players need to consider many factors in a fight. Such factors can be armor resistances, damage thresholds, damage types, unique enemy resistances or vulnerabilities (such as robots being vulnerable to electricity, but immune to mind-affecting skills for example), while also knowing what is the best approach for the class they are playing (direct, hacking, stealth, traps, or something else?). For sure, reckless players will be blown away swiftly by overwhelming numbers and strength of foes, you really need to think a strategy and make it work.

🔩 Performance Analysis
Given the 2D nature of this game, it should run well even on low-end systems without issues. No crashes or other issues to report.


Underrail is truly a masterpiece of turn-based RPGs, perhaps the best post-apocalyptic RPG since Fallout 2, and i can fully recommend it to any RPG fan, no matter how hardcore or new to the genre: it's just too good to pass up.

[b]Base Game + Expedition DLC Review - August 2019.[/b] [h1] Overview [/h1] [b]Reviewer's Note:[/b] I have played this game both on Steam and GOG, for a total of 600+ hours, the playtime displayed here is only partial. [b]Underrail[/b] is an old-school, turn-based isometric RPG, similar to [i]Fallout 2[/i] as far as the base game structure is concerned, but [b]without a party system[/b]. Set in the grim days following nuclear annihilation, this game takes place in the dark tunnels of UnderRail, a vast [b]subterranean network of stations[/b] built in the decades after the apocalypse. This title offers [b]uncompromising Classic RPG gameplay[/b], seemingly straight out from the golden days of old: for starters, character development possibilities are amazingly varied, allowing players to [b]build significantly different characters every play-through, each offering a wholly different gameplay experience[/b]. A huge quantity of passive and active abilities are at players' disposal, unlocked with both level and attribute requirements mostly, Specialization points allow players to upgrade their favorite skills, to further focus a class' purpose, while from a certain level onward, Veteran perks come in to [b]specialize characters[/b] even more. Roaming the dark tunnels of Underrail will put players in [b]many different situations[/b], ranging from dealing with vicious bandit gangs, to exploring abandoned old world outposts, to discovering unexplainable events just not belonging to this world. How each character is built [b]will change considerably what can or can't be done, that is why to really discover everything, many play-throughs are needed[/b]. The addition of crafting mechanics, divided into sub-categories such as Electronics, or Tailoring, adds a [b]deeper dimension to commerce, looting and progression[/b], if players choose to invest skill points into them. Combat in Underrail is [b]highly tactical and complex[/b], varying a lot depending on the character type: each build will have to employ different strategies, and have an hard time in encounters another build otherwise would find easy. Stealth, loud, traps, or avoiding altogether are [b]all viable approaches to enemies[/b]. The [b]two XP gain choices[/b], Classic where quests and enemies give XP, or Oddity, where only Artifacts give out XP instead, make [b]interesting variations.[/b] Overall, [b]Underrail is an astonishingly deep, complex, varied and satisfying experience[/b] that I do not hesitate to put on the same tier of the best classics of old, such as [i]Baldur's Gate[/i], for how good it is. [b]Anyone liking RPGs should get this game immediately, as it offers hundreds of hours of content, at least, for a bargain price tag even with DLC included.[/b] [h1]Rating:[/h1] [b]Masterpiece[/b] [quote]Liked this review, and want to see more of the same quality? Check out [url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/39323490]Tamaster's Review Archive[/url] to see all my Reviews in a single, convenient location.[/quote] [h1] Pros & Cons [/h1] 🔵 [b] Pros [/b] + Immense content: with Expedition, a single thorough run will take no less than 100 hours, multiple ones are needed to experience everything. + Extraordinary replay-ability: each class build delivers a completely different gameplay experience. + Deep mechanics: from combat, crafting, to dialogue branching, Underrail offers a very complex gameplay system that takes time and dedication to master. + Excellent story and lore-building: Underrail offers an original take on a post-apocalyptic world, that never gives out that "already seen" feeling we all don't like. + Tough as nails: Hard and DOMINATING! difficulties offer respectively a very challenging, and downright insane, experience that will make even hardcore veterans of the genre sweat a lot. 🔴 [b] Cons [/b] - Some class balance issues: while most builds are balanced well, some result evidently overpowered (Psionic!) or instead under-powered (Throwing!). - A few skills are gimmicky or useless, such as Pickpocketing, to name one. - [Expedition] The DLC's "camp management" is badly designed and can cause the main DLC quest to fail as well, without players knowing. [h1] In-Depth Breakdown [/h1] 🎮 [b]Gameplay Analysis [/b] [b]Underrail[/b] 's gameplay is divided into Exploration, Character Management, Roleplaying, and Combat. [b]Exploration[/b] in Underrail will occupy most of anyone's time, since the world is composed of hundreds of "tiles", with a transition between each, containing loot, enemies, NPCs, secrets and so on. The world is truly massive and with Expedition, even more so. There is no fast travel, only metro trains once unlocked, and with DLC, another secret means of transport as well, but mostly, players will have to walk to get anywhere - the speed-up feature helps a lot in making this less tiresome. A handy map shows player location, and notes can be added to each tile, in case something important is to be remembered. Generally, exploration is very rewarding and interesting, never knowing what the next place will contain, and the great amount of loot, containers, secrets to find never makes it boring. [b]Character Management[/b] is a complex affair. First of all, base attributes determine how proficient someone is in their derived skills, for example Strength or Dexterity govern the Melee skill, resulting in a higher effective skill level the higher the attribute is. Attributes also govern resistances to certain attacks, carry weight, action points, and many other aspects - choosing them wisely when starting a character is fundamental, based on what type of build you have in mind. Equipment heavily influences characters as well, with Armor Penalty reducing Movement the heavier the armor is, while heavier weapons will cost more AP to use. Several equip pieces grant attribute or skill bonuses (or maluses), to further build a character as playuers want, provided they can find or craft exactly the equip that best suits their class. Leveling up gives a fixed number of points to assign to skills, a Perk point every couple levels, and an Attribute point rarely. [b]Roleplaying[/b] is deep and articulated in Underrail, consisting not only in dialogue skill/attribute checks with various NPCs, but also in many environmental interactions, such as scaling a steep rock wall, lifting a locked gate, or hacking a defense terminal. These can be very important and can even bar entire areas, quests, or other content behind them: what you can't access with one build, is waiting for you the next playthrough. [b]Combat[/b] is as well extremely tactical and complex, in a turn-based fashion. The sheer variety of possible equipment, abilities, feats for both players and enemies make every encounter different in some way, and players need to consider many factors in a fight. Such factors can be armor resistances, damage thresholds, damage types, unique enemy resistances or vulnerabilities (such as robots being vulnerable to electricity, but immune to mind-affecting skills for example), while also knowing what is the best approach for the class they are playing (direct, hacking, stealth, traps, or something else?). For sure, reckless players will be blown away swiftly by overwhelming numbers and strength of foes, you really need to think a strategy and make it work. 🔩 [b] Performance Analysis [/b] Given the 2D nature of this game, it should run well even on low-end systems without issues. No crashes or other issues to report. [h1] Final Thoughts [/h1] [b]Underrail[/b] is truly a masterpiece of turn-based RPGs, perhaps the best post-apocalyptic RPG since Fallout 2, and i can fully recommend it to any RPG fan, no matter how hardcore or new to the genre: it's just too good to pass up.