UnderRail is an isometric CRPG that throws us back to an era where RPGs had no spoken dialog and had very lengthy descriptions of the environment and the people and/or things that inhabit it. UnderRail may not have the graphics that one would expect from a games released at the same time, but this clearly intentional as to really provide a classic experience. This is easy to tell because the environments are incredibly detailed.
I have have poured hours upon hours in to this game with gusto as UnderRail truly is a gem among a miriade of mediocre titles. I am very glad the devs of this game reached out to DSOG otherwise it likely would have gone completely beneath my radar. Aright lets get in to the meat of things.
Sound Design
Sound is rarely ever my starting point in any review, but in this case I’m going to make an exception because UnderRail’s soundtrack is truly exceptional. Sound can make or break the immersion in a lot of games and movies and UnderRail’s soundtrack is on point. When roaming the damp dark tunnels that make up the metro the music is quiet almost hollow sounding, but when spotted by an enemy an electric guitar is added as well as a booming drum whose beats echo loudly as if the drum itself was being played in the tunnel behind you. I will admit that even I am a guilty of playing my own music over a game’s at times, but in UnderRail you are going to want to keep that Music slider at 100% (or at least not at 0).
Gameplay
UnderRail stands on its own as a truly detailed RPG with enough skills and feats (perks) to put even inXile’s Fallout to shame (especially the Bethesda Fallouts). Not only is there a very complex character build system but the combat in UnderRail is super tight and each encounter seems very fair. With many RPGs I often find myself whispering, or shouting in some cases, “How did I even miss?” or “How the hell does that even happen?”. Now I did grumble to myself on occasion while playing UnderRail, but simply because I had made a foolish decision and it had gotten me killed which of course let to some backtracking.
Writing/Story
With such a well polished title like UnderRail where the developers hit every point that I could have asked for in an RPG, unfortunately the writing fell rather short. The character dialog in UnderRail is pretty vanilla and honestly is even a bit cringy at times, and not in the Borderlands over the top kind of way, but in the Life is Strange kind of way (Oh God Why). Ok UnderRail isn’t THAT bad but the dialog can be pretty stale at times. The premise behind UnderRail is interesting enough although the story feels like it borrowed a few things from Metro’s book from time to time, but what game isn’t at least somewhat influenced by another successful title?
Visual
I may have been pretty harsh on Fallout 4 for having less than desirable graphics, but there is a distinct difference between crappy graphics and stylized graphics. UnderRail harkens back to a more nostalgic time ford RPGs where character models had a sharper edge and there was no sky. Much like the similarly named Undertale, UnderRail excells at creating a nostalgic look without making the game feel dated. The environments are fun to look at and it was only on occasion did I mutter to myself “Not another cave.” Unlike every single drauger crypt in Skyrim, ugh.
Verdict
While UnderRail may not be the Perfect RPG, but as a big fan of the classic Fallout games it definitely scratched the itch that Fallout 4 failed to. UnderRail, a title that would have otherwise gone completely under my radar has truly surprised me. At $15.00 USD UnderRail is worth every penny and is available on both Steam and GOG so you can get achievements and cards if that is your thing or if you prefer to get games DRM-Free like myself that option is also available.
Matt Followell is another contributing author here at DSOGaming. A long time fan of PC Gaming and a huge supporter of the open source and homebrew movement. You’ll see him interacting with the community from time to time going by the user-name of Radapples.
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Ok i dont get it does this have complex dialogue choices with consequences or not?
From what I’ve played the focus is not really the dialog, I haven’t tried playing with different characters but I suspect there’s not a lot of variation to the story. The thing with this game for me is that it just feels mechanically solid and it’s fun to explore, scavenge, fight enemies and craft things. The game has an optional alternate leveling up method that I would recommend picking, it makes it so that you only get XP from finding rare artifacts that are spread everywhere, this makes exploration much more rewarding and you don’t feel like you’re missing much if you try to be clever and sneak past or disable troublesome enemies without fighting them.
Thumbs up because its DRM-Free
hey, no torment tides of numenera coverage here? it was released on steam early access yesterday.
It’s on early access and still quite rough around the edges.
I’ve heard mixed things about it since it is pretty rough right now, but I am interested because the devs said they had a planned Linux release. When they get around to releasing a Linux version I’ll reach out to them about a review. 🙂
Not that I only review Linux games as you can clearly tell by my UnderRail review, but I have a lot on my plate right now especially with XCOM 2 on the horizon.
I haven’t finished this yet but so far I’m enjoying it a lot more than Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2, both of which I ended up dropping because they bored me.
Really? I loved both of those titles, but I am a bit of a sucker for isometric RPGs. They hold a special nostalgic place with me. UnderRail is stellar though so I hope you like it!
Syndicate 1/2 + remake rules! Probably some game that was made to capitalize on them.
RPG GOTY 2016. Ok, it was technically released on Dec 18th but still :p
The game is a wild mix between Deus Ex (first and foremost due to many gameplay elements), Fallout (leveling system very similar to SPECIAL), Arcanum (crafting), and probably a bit of D&D (multi-level dungeons, many perks give you active abilities instead of passive like it was in Fallout 1/2).
As for Metro, the game development started long before the first Metro game came out, around the same year with the book’s release. I don’t think he even knew about it.
What really amuses me though is that lone (not anymore) cerbian dude managed to outdo most of the Kickstarter titles: Simplerun by Harebrained, Pillars of Mediocrity by Obsidian, Fargo’s Waste by Inxile, etc.
There is no combat music in the game.
Well, it’s been 7 days, and no one bothered to fix the review, since my statement is still valid: there is no combat music in the game. If you don’t believe me, open UnderrailDataAudioMusic.
Also, Steam version of the game is also DRM-Free and can be launched via .exe without Steam.
It’s not like it really matters to me personally, but I see Matt is going to review even more games, and it would be highly appreciated if he could react to criticism and edit the reviews accordingly if any mistakes were found.
There’s an error in the text, Gameplay chapter. If you’re referring to the first Fallouts, they were published by Interplay, not InXile.