Have you ever wondered what would happen if your typical student Dungeons and Dragons player got thrown into a castle straight out of one of the games he plays? Have you ever wanted to play a game as that typical student player? Well, you’re in luck. Such a game exists.
Unepic is the story of Daniel, your typical young male student who somehow during a bathroom break during a game session winds up in a castle occupied by a Dark Lord and his many monster minions. Not that your character realises that this is all for real, believing instead that his fellow players drugged his drink and therefore the adventure is all in his head.
The game itself is a 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania-type game, with an awful lot of castle to explore as you explore, smash, fight and in some cases trick your way through towards your ultimate goal. Inside the castle there are many items to be found and also equipped as well as upgradeable skills such as the various weapon types, magicks and constitution that can have some of the 5 skill points you gain on level up assigned to them, in the manner of how your typical tabletop RPG handles a character’s skill increases. Each type of weapon has strengths and weaknesses and certain monsters will take more damage from a certain type of weapon, but it will take trial, error and a few deaths before you can be sure of what works best as a weapon for each foe you encounter.
As with most games with a role-play element included, you have an inventory of items, which can hold a limited amount of items within it (and can be sorted with the k key, helpfully displayed in the Inventory screen). Fortunately throughout the levels you can find shops that will let you both sell and buy items. I recommend selling your extra items to the shopkeepers and vendors you encounter whenever you can, because even if the monsters you squish and barrels you smash drop coins or an item only about 50% of the time, it does eventually add up. Also, upgrade your armour as soon as you can, taking less damage helps a lot on those screens with multiple opponents if you’re a lot like me and prefer melee combat over ranged. Also special unique items and coins can be earned by taking on and completing quests for the odd non-hostile resident of the castle, and if you complete special quests you can gain access to certain branches of magic too.
Combat itself is fairly simple, with a key-bind system allowing you to switch quickly between weapons and heal up within seconds if need be. Melee involves hitting the space key to swing/swipe in front of you, which is enough to deal with most enemies. Sometimes it is better to use your bow though and Unepic has a targeting system that allows the nearest enemy within sight to be aimed at using the Tab button and Space again is the attack button although it does require you to be standing still so watch enemy projectiles while shooting!
Control-wise the game works beautifully, which is a relief during those moments when you need to turn tail and get to safety to heal up before finishing off a tricky group of opponents and that requires a dash across a room and a leap up onto a high ledge. The way that the controls are set up too is also well-done, fairly easy to figure out with a minute or two of experimentation (and the first bit of the game teaches you how to do things such as pick up loot and aim your bow’s arrows). The only minor niggle I have about it is that up is the jump key but as space is attack and enter is used to interact with items and pick up loot it does make sense. It just takes a little getting used to at first.
I would certainly recommend picking up this game if you enjoy RPGs, DnD or platformers, as this is a wonderful little game. It has a great sense of humour, an interesting story and is full of little nods to other games and shows, some that come out of nowhere. Currently in Early Access on Steam, the single-player is said to be fully complete and there is a multiplayer option too for when you want to play with a friend. And what’s more, it comes with ten different language options and will soon be available on the WiiU as well.
I give Unepic an 8/10 and look forward to getting past the second boss fight soon.
Unepic website is here.
Buy Unepic on Steam here.
