Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG, currently in early access, is one of the best Fallout-inspired games I’ve ever played, and it received its first content patch of a promised three today. Among other things, this patch changes the beginning of the game to ease players into the mechanics and adds more quests and characters, including additional main story content. The change from the initial release to this one is immediately apparent; whereas the original early access release dumped you into a large hub area and left you to figure things out on your own (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), you now start in a smaller area and quickly find yourself encountering main plot developments. From what I understand, the large hub area is being repurposed and will show up later in the game, so it’s not being lost so much as moved around to benefit the pacing.

The video above has a large amount of stuttering and tearing that I initially chalked up to my outdated CPU showing its age—something I plan on remedying before Encased releases out of early access—but it turns out that I was getting 70+ frames per second and the stutter was mostly a Vsync issue. Other than some settings changing since I last played and my saves not showing up (which is likely the result of an update making older saves incompatible), it’s the same game that I fell in love with. Something worth noting, however, is that the new, more linear beginning sequence means that there are fewer opportunities to level up and obtain quality weapons and armor before you leave for Nashville.

This increases the difficulty dramatically. I made a silver-tongued character and died in two punches during my first real combat encounter. It’s possible that there are companions I could have recruited early on to lessen this sudden difficulty spike, but I forgot how to unlock those skills until it was too late to go back and talk to everyone. I would have had to break down a locked door to check, which would have taken forever. And there’s no guarantee that any of the early characters are recruitable anyway. All in all, Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG is starting to take form, and that’s exciting as a big fan of the original Fallout who feels underserved by Wasteland 2 and other pretenders. The early balancing could use a little work now that there are fewer opportunities to obtain lots of money, items, and experience in the starting area, but the pacing is great.

Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG‘s first content patch is out first appeared on Killa Penguin