not a real crow

just reached credits for the main questline in underrail. definitely a fun romp, though i think it makes some of the same mistakes the fallout games had. like, i think i'd feel a lot more about the ending slides if they were actually about the people i interacted with over the course of the game. the game's factions just don't have the spice that the ones in new vegas did, and even then, i feel like what makes those factions interesting to the player is the personalities that shape them more than any role these groups might have for the game world. there's just not enough actual politics to the world to make the factions feel interesting enough; which, coupled with little choice over where you can really place your character in the world, left me wanting a spicier world with more interesting faction interplay. i slaughtered most of the guards in fort apogee, which apparently amounted to nothing with regards to the protectorate's presence in south underrail, which just seemed odd to me.

i'm definitely interested in doing another playthrough with a psi character. my first character refused to use psi and solely relied on her technology and guns to get through the game, which was fun! but there's a lot of stuff you can't really interface with without psionics, so i definitely missed out on some parts of the world. i also want someone with conversation skills this time, because i felt i was sorely missing them the first time around. there's good variety in enemy designs, but i hope the next game will have more diversity for the different kinds of encounters. it'd be nice to see more kinds of stealthy critters/gangs than crawlers/lurkers, and i hope the non-stealthy encounters can get more tools to prolong fights. the problem with the high lethality of the combat mechanics is that combat encounters start to feel very samey over time, especially against enemies that have very specific weaknesses you have to exploit.

i still need to do the other dlc area, but yeah, this was fun.

i'm starting to get a little into underrail, haha... i think it's also helping me kick the hoarding habits i've had with other rpgs and actually use my resources in fights. no point investing in traps if you never use them, right?

so i spent the last hour or two slowly whittling away the numbers in a burrower nest. i carefully laid traps and took out stray spawn where i could, then taking out the burrowers themselves one at a time without attracting too many at once. because the sound of mines and my .44 make a lot of sound, the monsters can hear you from a far ways away, so it's not an option to just go in guns blazing. at least, i for sure wasn't kitted out for that.

anyway, i eventually have the last of the burrowers and spawn in a hallway just north of the entrance. i maneuver to one end of that hallway, and set up the rest of my traps in such a way that i can sneak around them, but they won't be able to. i pick off the first larva, then all hell breaks loose as the burrowers begin laying their eggs and shooting their spines down the corridor at me. i duck away as my mines go off, throwing my last molotov at them to buy me some time. the bugs that didn't get incinerated make their way to me one at a time, and we exchange hits every time.

i take out the last burrower, and round a corner to see four spawn left. they charge me, and one sets off a trap that singes us all. i'm alive, my enemies aren't, and i bask in the terrible glory of winning out over this terrible hive of poisonous critters and their spawn. i wait for the cooldown on my healing items to bring me back to health, and breath a sigh of relief... until another spawn runs into the room, sees me, and bites me to death.

the comedic timing was palpable, lmao. i almost wish the game ended right then and there, that is perfect