Unepic is quite the misnomer for Francisco Téllez de Meneses' action RPG . It's actually a massive game featuring hundreds of different rooms to explore across a sprawling castle; Perhaps the title refers more to the game's hero, Daniel.
Daniel is your typical 20-something adult. He's big into geek culture and we're first introduced to him playing some tabletop RPG games with a few buddies. While taking a bathroom break he inexplicably winds up in an old, dark castle where he's soon possessed by a shadow called Zera. Daniel's reasons for arriving in the decrepit manor are slowly explained throughout the game.
The conversations between Daniel and Zera are witty but sometimes go on a bit too long. There are, however, plenty of pop culture and gaming references packed in that will give players a quick smirk. The game is also fully voice acted, and quite ably at that, an impressive feature for a independent game from a small developer.
Unepic is an action-RPG that places a heavy emphasis on exploration. Every new room you enter will initially be quite dark, fortunately you've got your trusty lighter to illuminate things a bit. You'll use it to light candles, torches, and lamps in the room. By doing so you'll reveal the room's layout as well as treasure chest, ladders, and enemies.
There are over two hundred rooms to explore and light up in Unepic as well as a variety of different environments. The castle has several different wings to explore, including the gardens, the laboratory, the mines, and the sewers.
Each wing of the castle features increasingly more difficult enemies, a unique layout, and several quests given by NPCs. While most quests are optional, you'll generally want to complete as many as you can because you'll be granted some extremely useful rewards like magic spells and powerful weapons.
The one quest that isn't optional is to beat the boss of each wing. Boss battles are creative and varied, and many will be made easier if you acquire that wing's magical spell. After vanquishing an impossing boss creature you'll be given a key to a new section of the castle. Progress proceeds like this as you slowly unlock the nine different sections of the castle.
Combat is a bit simplistic, you'll mostly just whale on enemies blocking your path. There aren't block or dodge mechanics, but you will want to try to approach enemies from behind and beat on them before they notice you. You'll want to make sure you're well equipped to take on enemies because there will be a lot of basic fights where you take turns exchanging blows with an enemy.
To make sure you'll come out on top of those exchanges, you'll want to make sure you're well equipped. There are several different weapon types that vary in power and ability. Axes and maces are strong but slower to attack, polearms (aka spears) provide additional range when attacking but are weaker, wands attacking using magical elements like fire and ice, and bows can be used for attacking enemies from a distance.
You can create your own playstyle by powering up whichever weapons you're most comfortable with. For example, I went with a three tiered attack plan that featured the powerful axes, extended range polearms, and ranged bows. As I leveled up I would spend the majority of my character skill points on those three weapon skills and would mostly ignore the other weapons and magic skills, using them only when enemies had a specific weakness to a certain magical ability.
The amount of variety that Unepic affords the player is impressive. It's entirely possible to take a completely different direction than I did and focus on leveling your magic powers or other weapons. There's also dozens of potions and spell scrolls you can collect and craft to make the game feel even more varied and open for experimentation.
Traversing the Unepic castle is made significantly more accessible by a well planned and robust fast travel system. There are more than twenty fast travel locations, so you'll never be too far from where you need to be. Of course you have to unlock each and every one before you can use it, but it saves hours of retracing your steps over and over once you've unlocked it. You're also granted a magical halo item that will return you to the saving and healing hub at any time. It's located right next to a fast travel point so smartly combining both of them results in rapid and satisfying traversal of the enourmous keep.
The game's heads-up display arguably takes up too much of the screen, but it's also extremely useful. There are three boxes on the bottom of the screen used for fast equipping weapons, items, and potions, allowing you to quick-equip twelve different things at one time. By using the shoulder and face buttons you can quickly swap between weapons, drink a health potion, and cast a fireball spell at the blink of an eye.
You'll also find a mission tracking box and an resource box on screen that keeps you up to date on your mission requirements and your collected essences (which are used for casting spells and brewing potions.) You'll find your HP and XP bars at the top of the screen as well as your pet's HP and enegy if you have one active.
All this HUD information makes the actual playing screen a bit smaller than you'll find in traditional 2D action games. The castle's inherent darkness and a zoomed out camera also make the game a bit hard to see at times and take some getting used to. The camera can be zoomed in closer to the character, but that inhibits your ability to explore and see enemies more than a few steps in front of you.
Unepic feels more designed for play up close on a computer monitor and you'll run into a few menus that don't feel at all optimized for console play. It's easy to get accustomed to the nontraditional presentation, but it can be a bit jarring in the beginning.
Unepic has a couple flaws. The art style is a little drab and on-screen HUD is a touch intrusive. But these flaws are massively outshone by its spectacular exploration, expansive map, diverse enemies, accessible controls, satisfying progression, fun quests, and deep leveling, weapon, and magic systems. I found myself unable to put down Unepic at times, promising myself that I'd just explore one more room, unlock one more fast travel gate, complete one more quest, only to end up playing for hours more. Pay no attention to the name; with more than ____ hours spent on my first playthrough, Unepic is an epic and addictive adventure.