We want Encased to be just the way you see the perfect CRPG: a huge game, rich in content, sort of “the Fallout of our dreams”, which all of us could be proud of.
We are developing the game for a while already. We have reached pre-alpha and we are confident that Encased could become a great game. But we are a small team, and there is a lot of things that we’d like to add. With your help, Encased could become a way more ambitious, better fleshed out and polished project!
The Story
As a new recruit, the player must choose one of five Wings:
- Black Wing - military and security forces;
- White Wing - scientists, medics and researchers;
- Blue Wing - engineers and technicians;
- Silver Wing - upper management;
- Orange Wing - ex-convicts who have exchanged their prison jumpsuits for the uniform of a CRONUS laborer.
Though your selected Wing grants certain starting bonuses and opens interesting options, your choice does not lock you into a “class”. You are free to develop your character, distribute skill points, and choose abilities as you wish.
Upon completing character creation, you are summoned to Crystal Sands, a city built directly outside the Dome as a staging point for personnel and equipment.
The transition station mounted at the apex of the Dome, above the only aperture, is called the Spire. After basic training, you will descend from the Spire into the Dome to land at Magellan HQ.
There is much to uncover during your first mission underground…. Relying on your stats and Wing training, you will find there are several ways to resolve each challenge. Replayability is one of our main goals for the game. After your briefing at HQ comes your first task: exploring a newly discovered Forefathers compound tagged Object O-12-Nashville.
After a few adventures inside the Nashville object (which we don’t want to spoil just yet), your group encounters an entirely new anomaly. You awaken something dreaming deep beneath the desert of the Dome. Your trespass has activated
Maelstrom, a telepathic entity created to serve the Forefathers.
All connection with the world outside the Dome is lost and Maelstrom rages across the desert, infecting the minds of everyone it encounters. You and your group fall into a technology-induced stasis for five long years. And when you come to, the entire world has changed.
Encased combat is inspired by classic, tactical turn-based systems, with a grid overlay, action points, cover system, special abilities, various ammo and damage types, many different resistances, and more!
The player has direct control over his character only. You will manage the behavior and tactics of their your henchmen but their specific actions will be guided by the game’s combat AI system, introducing funny and interesting situations into your battles.
There are dozens of weapons to be found, many of which can be stripped and upgraded.
The world of the Dome has from its discovery been a place full of weird creatures and dangerous traps. There’s no telling what lies around the next bend in the road, or inside the twilit cave, or beneath the murky waters of the swamp. But who knows? Perhaps humans are the biggest threat in this bizarre land.
Following the devastating events of Maelstrom’s release, CRONUS splintered into multiple other, often warring, factions. The world has changed while you were in stasis, but has the nature of Man? Trapped inside the Dome like spiders in a jar, these factions will show the worst and best of humankind. Will you join them, or strike out on your own?
Each faction has two unique endings. Likewise, there are two endings for those who choose to go it alone.
If the player chooses to commit crimes against society, he will incur penalties to his reputation, and earn titles ranging from ‘Petty Thief’ to ‘Enemy of the State’, or even ‘Threat to Humanity’. Crime begets punishment. The player may be fined, imprisoned, and even executed. Luckily, there are several ways to deal with your arrest: bribe judges, organize a jailbreak or return alive from the Labyrinth of Death (this last one may be particularly challenging).
Day and Night cycle.
Encased features a day and night cycle with accompanying lighting effects. It would be wise to study NPC routines while adventuring.
The Dome is huge and for the most part is an open sandbox (if you are able to resist the psychic presence of Maelstrom). The map consists of more than 170 sectors, each crafted by hand. There are abandoned bunkers, black caves, the complexes of the Forefathers, as well as wastes, swamps and other biomes.
Random encounters have been a standby of the old-school role playing game since the dawn of the genre. But Encased will bring them to a new level. Each encounter is a separate post-apocalyptic story, not just a bunch of critters attacking you. Want to participate in a game of Russian Roulette? Find a pathway through a deadly anomaly to find a rare relic? Defend an automated rail transport from raiders? Or end up a victim yourself. All this awaits you, in addition to more classic encounters like fighting bandit scum and haggling with caravan traders.