Nelson Schneider's Game Review of UnEpic

The End is Really Cool…
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/21/14

“UnEpic” follows in the footsteps of “Cave Story,” the original Indie game, in that it is a Metroid-vania style action/adventure/platformer/RPG conglomeration created and assembled almost entirely by one person: Francisco Téllez de Meneses of Spain. Initially hitting PC via platforms such as Desura in 2011, “UnEpic” found itself on Steam via the Greenlight process in 2013, where it spent about a year as an Early Access title. I wanted to get the best experience out of the game possible, so, despite buying it when it was on sale last year, I waited actually play it after it lost its Early Access status in July 2014.

Presentation
“UnEpic” is kind of a rough-and-ready looking game. While the graphics are all 2D, they are a more modern take on 2D that resembles Flash animation more than the pixel-based sprites of yore. As a result, animations are somewhat stiff and nothing in the game has any kind of visual ‘wow’ factor. Each of “UnEpic’s” many connected dungeon rooms fills the whole screen horizontally with sizeable (and re-sizeable) letterboxes at the top and bottom filled with HUD articles and other bits of chrome. It is possible to zoom in on the actual gameplay portion of the screen slightly, but it doesn’t really help the visuals and simultaneously cuts off the view of the surrounding environment. The numerous cutscenes that reveal “UnEpic’s” story are still-scene affairs with character portraits.

The audio is significantly better than the graphics. The soundtrack is a pleasant mix memorable, non-irritating tunes, and the voiceacting – despite being clearly unprofessional – gets things done quite well, despite a few weird (and unintentional) accents here and there.

Story
We have all seen “UnEpic’s” story before, as it is a simple rehash of the tired old chestnut of an ordinary modern man finding himself magically transported into a realm of fantasy, such as Mark Twain wrote about back in 1889. More recently (and more closely related to “UnEpic”), the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon of the 1980s repaved this road by transporting a group of RPG players bodily into their own game.

“UnEpic” stars Daniel, a potty-mouthed, pot-smoking, drunken, horny pop-culture sponge who finds himself transported from his friends’ house into the mysterious Castle of Lord Harnakon when he leaves the gaming table to take a bathroom break. Immediately upon arriving at the castle, Daniel is assaulted by a wraith that tries to possess him and cause him to commit suicide, yet the wraith is foiled due to Daniel’s lack of faith, and thus finds itself stuck in his body for the duration of his stay in Castle Harnakon.

Daniel and the wraith (which Daniel dubs ‘Zera’ after one of his RPG characters) soon find themselves wandering the halls in search of Pure Spirits, which will supposedly grant Daniel the power to return home. Along the way, Daniel and Zera form something of an entertaining ‘frenemy’ relationship, all while Daniel partakes in a variety of sidequests ranging from the predictable to the disturbing (goblin mating season… that is all).

Ultimately, the ending of the story does provide a significant amount of twists and manages to tie-up all of the plot threads into a neat bow. Aside from the inter-dimensional transport conceit (which has a good explanation), the only real problem with “UnEpic’s” story is just how massive a douche Daniel is. He is every worst gamer stereotype combined into a Voltron of not-so-gentle mockery. Presumably gamers are going to be playing “UnEpic,” so insulting them isn’t exactly the best way to keep them engaged or to create a relatable character.

Gameplay
Inspired by the ancient “Maze of Galious,” a game released only in Japan and Europe on something called the MSX, “UnEpic” more closely resembles the modern Metroid-vania titles inspired by the likes of “Super Metroid” and “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.” The entire game takes place within the various rooms and hallways of Castle Harnakon, which feature a large number of unlockable shortcuts that lead to a central atrium right next to the game’s only save point. By venturing out from this central location, the player can lead Daniel through a variety of simple puzzles, accept side quests from a variety of NPCs, kill enemies with a large variety of weapons, and collect money and loot. Castle Harnakon is subdivided into a number of self-contained zones that only connect at the central atrium and must be unlocked in a specific order by collecting the key to the next zone from the previous zone’s guardian boss monster, which isn’t quite as interesting as the standard Metroid-vania style of new character abilities providing access to previously-inaccessible areas.

Unlike ‘Metroid’ or the ‘Metroid’ style ‘Castlevania’ games, “Unepic” doesn’t really offer a lot of interesting character progression. Daniel starts with the ability to jump, swing a weapon, use his joint lighter to light the numerous candles/torches/smudgepots/etc. that litter the castle, slide down ziplines, and climb ladders. Outside of learning a few spells, gaining the ability to brew potions in specific castle rooms, and acquiring a handful of AI-controlled pets, he doesn’t progress beyond that starting skillset. On top of this lack of new skills, Daniel’s jumping and weapon swipes are not exactly graceful, hearkening back to NES era platforming.

The way character advancement works in “UnEpic” is RPG-like, providing the player with 5 character points to spend each time Daniel gains a level (experience is provided solely by killing enemies and completing side-quests). These points can be spent to increase Daniels health or his skill in wielding a too-large number of items. There are proficiencies for swords, maces, axes, polearms, daggers, bows, wands, staffs, armor, robes, potions, and half a dozen different flavors of magic (new magic is added to the list throughout the game). While it is obviously intended that the small number of character points and large number of options allows for greater replay value due to the large number of specialized character builds that are possible, the result is that there are a lot of categories that are a complete waste of points (and there is only one re-spec item available over the course of the game).

More powerful weapons in each category require higher levels of proficiency to avoid a massive slowdown in attack speed (there are some Unique weapons – and all spells – that have minimum proficiency requirements to use them at all). Since certain categories of weapon deal more or less damage to certain categories of enemy (mostly based around an edged/blunt dichotomy) only having advance knowledge of what’s coming up in later zones of the castle would allow the player to make wise decisions in choosing specializations and spending character points wisely. There is a reason that D&D and most other RPGs of the tabletop and digital varieties have taken to consolidating weapon proficiencies into broad categories instead of numerous discreet ones.

Despite the overly-granular leveling options and clunky controls, “UnEpic” still manages to provide a fun experience. Simply lighting up the whole castle, figuring out how to proceed through the maze of rooms, coming up with boss strategies, and stumbling across hidden treasures is engaging enough. The cherry on top is that “UnEpic” is actually fairly long for an Indie game, clocking in at a little over 20 hours. More dedicated fans can get even more out of the game, with its endless “Diablo”-inspired (random loot) multi-player mode and additional difficulty levels.

Overall
“UnEpic’s” mediocre presentation and obnoxious main character won’t win it any awards, and the clunky controls are a relic of the past best forgotten. Yet, somehow, the handful of unique twists and overall solid design of the game itself manage to overcome these faults and create an engaging final product. While it doesn’t have the same level of polish as “Cave Story,” “UnEpic” should appeal to fans of that game (and the Metroid-vania style of Action/Adventure games in general) with its spacious castle of unexplored rooms.

Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5