The moment I started up Unepic, it  immediately hit me with this overwhelming feeling of “back to the old days”… Colorful but simple graphics, easy-to-jump-in-and-play and yet challenging due to the brutal damage of dark creatures. The game takes you back to the “dark ages of video gaming” where you learn from your mistakes, taking note of every location or creature you encounter and give that sense of ” I achieved something”. Unepic is a classic adventure/ RPG- game inspired by favorite 2D action games like Mystic Quest or even The Legend of Zelda that’s played on the first ever gaming handheld, the classic Gameboy.

Unepic, lets  you take on the role of Daniel and it starts off with an evening where Daniel and his friends are playing a classic Dungeon & Dragon role playing game.  As you suddenly feel the urge to release your inside fluids and tell your nerdy friends to pause the D & D experience, things are about to get real.  You hurry your way to the toilet when suddenly the room turns dark and it’s impossible to see in front and around you. You try to scan your environment with your hands, when toilet brushes don’t feel like toilet brushes anymore but heads on a stake and even toilet drapes feel like “skeletons hanging high above the ground”… Your character becomes visible as a 2D hero locked up in a medieval dungeon where your only friend is “a spirit” named Zeral … You try to escape while “Zeral” follows you every step of the way, trying to give you lethal directions, hoping you will die soon due to unforgiving traps or creatures, so his spirit may roam freely again to kill other Role playing geeks. I know what you’re thinking, those days right!

Without any story, a few tips and NPCs, it’s all up to you to explore every inch of this castle filled with butchering goblins, magical orcs, skeletons and giant bosses for you to defeat. Each enemy has an “easy way” to kill them, you just have to find those ways by experimenting with different weapons or even spells. This gives a certain edge to the game and makes the player a more “first think then do” kind of player. You can use each weapon to kill any type of enemy but it just takes you longer and some weapons are just less efficient but be warned, before you can adjust your strategy to kill an enemy, you’ll have to light torches to reveal your enemies since every “unexplorable” room is shrouded in darkness. In other words, there’s always something around the corner!

As you light up your way into the darkness, your in-game map will fill up with squares of “entered” rooms. These squares give you an overview of the castle’s structure: some merchant rooms and/or gateways will be labelled but other “important” rooms have to be explored. Even quest givers have to be found inside this dark castle. It may sound like a difficult task but it’s fun and fast. The only let down is the constant respawning of monsters. There’s a variety of monsters but some of them aren’t well balanced. For example: the poison of a snake can kill you in seconds…  and it gave me a lot of mental meltdowns!

I do like the fact that it’s totally up to you how to create your character. As you level up, you gain skill points. You can be a robust plated warrior, a powerful wizard harnessing the power of the elements  or a even a wielding dagger assassin that can critical hit enemies. The power is in your hands thanks to the skill points distributing system. Of course some “professions” seem unbalanced. It seems that glass canons such as a wizard can survive better than a fully equipped warrior. As a warrior, you had to hit and run hoping one strike would be enough otherwise it’s down the ladder and try again.

In other words, there’s always something around the corner!

A lot of the bosses’ mechanics were well designed but some bosses can easily be defeated with your fire spells which is a good thing but then again not all players choose to be a wizard. There are players who choose the melee class and they will have to have a strong heart to overcome a couple of unforgiving bosses. There are bosses that use one hit kills to blast you to smithereens and as a warrior, the odds  have to be in your favor, otherwise you’re just dead. Potions could help a bit since it can buff your stats or abilities but sometimes you just have to go for a spellslinger to get the upper hand. This was of course easily said then done, i mean you could redistribute all your skill points to become better in another “profession” but this option is a one time use only. So you really have to think where you should spend all of your skill points.

Unepic had some frustrating moments but in the end, there was a good vibe thanks to the comical writing, a lot of gamers will appreciate. The writing contains a lot of references to popular franchises like StarCraft, Star Wars, Futurama, Linux, X-men, … and a lot more for you to figure out. The constant debating between Daniel and Zeral leads up to funny moments that make up for some dull moments. Unepic really got me hooked because I really wanted to know how the story unfolds and eventually explain why and how… You really don’t get a lot of information and it really kept me going. Maybe sometimes LESS, is just MORE!

Unepic is a fantastic old school 8-bit adventure that takes you back to the good old days. The setting and nerdy references sets your mind to zero and makes up for some frustrating moments due to the unbalanced and challenging creatures/ bosses. This dungeon crawler gives you a lot of moments to choose your strategy in conquering the enemy with a lot of items, weapons, potions and spells to your disposal. A tough skill point distributing system gives you some interesting ways to play but be warned, the skill points system can’t be exploited since you have only one “second chance” to get the perfect build. Still, it’s a mindless fun dungeon crawler that rewards exploring players. The use of a gamepad is also a big plus!

Score 3.5 out of 5: