I started playing this game recently and have really enjoyed the experience. I thought that I would try to share my thoughts so that other folks considering buying the game will have some information to go on, and to give kudos to the developers.
I started playing this game because I love RPG's and I love to play them on portable devices (Tangent: When will they come out with a decent RPG for the PSP?). From the screenshots, I thought "Just another Legacy clone". I could not have been more wrong. I enjoy this game more than I did Legacy in almost every conceivable way. This is no slam on Legacy - I enjoyed that game thoroughly, as well - it is just that Undercroft has greatly improved on Legacy's design.
Undercroft has occupied my free time for the past couple of weeks for the following reasons: 1) It's intuitiveness 2) It's diversity 3) It's balance and 4) It's "specialness" (I know it isn't a word - I will explain what I mean below).
1) Intuitiveness
In complex games like RPG's, the interface is incredibly important to keeping the action moving. I find the interface in Undercroft to be incredibly intuitive in that if I want to do something, I can click on the button, picture, etc. that I think might do it, and I am right most of the time
That is intuitive. Things just make sense in how I interact with Undercroft. This makes the learning curve more gentle and once I get to know the game well, it makes for a much more streamlined gaming experience. Fewer clicks to perform any task is always a good thing and this game seems to have that aspect of design figured out. The controls, the layout of the buttons, the inventory/character stat/quest screens are all extremely easy to use. Well done, Rake in Grass.
2) Diversity
Undercroft does a great job with offering a huge number of options to play. This is evident in the excellent skill system, the playable characters, and the game environments. There are 5 playable classes of character, but the huge variety of skills available to each character class make the choices numerous, to say the least. Not only are there lots of options, but all of the ones that I have tried are fun to play, as well. For instance, the summoner character can be played a shape-shifter with huge melee power or as a spellcaster with excellent ranged attack. I could create an entire party of summoners with hardly any overlap between their skill sets. This sort of diversity led to over 30 hours of game play for me before ever finishing the game because I kept starting over with different parties
Along with class and skill diversity are the diversity of environments in the game. Some places may feel similar, but I loved going from dark forests to snowy, rocky regions, to subterranean dungeons. Sure, the graphics repeat some, but I found that the designers have done a good job of not letting the graphical elements get too repititious.
3) Balance
Undercroft does a great job of balancing the game between too hard and too easy. First, there are options for the difficulty level to play on (Easy, Normal, and Hard). I have only played on Normal so far, but I look forward to trying Hard level. Within the game, though, the progression of the player's characters relative to the strength of the enemies feels just right. Throughout the game, I have not had the feeling that the game was too hard or too easy, but it has hit that "just right" zone for me the whole time. I have never played a game before where I have been forced to play with my characters at less than full health and mana for the majority of the time. There is a definite cost to keeping your characters alive and healthy and that is as it should be. As another example of balance, when is the last time gold actually mattered in an RPG? It does in Undercroft. I play a pretty aggressive style (pump only the offensive attributes, etc.) in this game and I have to pour my gold into potions to keep my characters healthy. If I took a more conservative approach, giving my characters more hit points or mana, I might not have to buy as many potions, but I would also not kill as quickly. It is all about the balance.
4) "Specialness"
Perhaps my favorite part of Undercroft is how it keeps the game feeling "special". In this game, I really feel like every place that I go has a purpose and that is what is wrong with the vast majority of RPG's that I have played, especially in recent years. Because everybody has a big hard drive or advanced console system, there seems to be a real tendency to substitute quantity for quality in this type of game. A perfect example of this was the first Untold Legends game for the PSP. That game had lots and lots of content, but it all felt drab and boring. Randomness can be a great thing - I love it in Diablo II, but it can also lead to extreme boredom. In Undercroft, I get the feeling that every enemy I kill, every gold piece I spend, and every item I find have a special meaning. I almost feel sorry for every poor, dead adventurer that I loot on the way through the dungeon. They won't be needing their five gold, piece of cheese, and rusty dirk anymore, though, will they? The game environment seems very close and personal to me. The story follows a group of adventurers and feels very intimate. You are not battling the hundreds of monsters at a time that you do in most RPG's. It feels much more like you are intruding on a small area and have angered the residents of this area. Once they are dead, you won't be bothered by them again. They were part of a specific challenge for that area and now they are gone - move on. Very different things happen in different areas, too. While there are several store fronts in Undercroft where you can buy and sell items, you are just as likely to meet a huntsman in the forest or an assassin in town that you can engage to trade. This type of detail in the game made every area seem "special" to me, rather than being a barely-different knock off of the area before. Specialness is what made the Ultima series (especially the early ones) great and where games like Untold Legends (I) fail miserably. Undercroft has this "specialness" and I loved every minute of it. The designers made a choice to make their environments detailed and intimate rather than huge and sprawling and the game is definitely better for it.
In conclusion, I hope everybody that likes RPG's and has a Pocket PC (or a PC!) will give this game a try. At first glance, it may appear derivative, but I found it to be refreshing, new and worth every bit of the $20 it cost me. Congratulations, Rake in Grass, I think you have created something really exceptional here. Thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work.
TB
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