An interesting game has landed for the Nintendo Wii U. With the effort of a small development team, a new title called Unepic has surfaced. And by small, I mean consisting of just one person! And hence comes a game that is meant to have retro written all over. With Unepic being an RPG homage to the classics, will it turn to be UNdeniably enjoyable?
Players take control of the main character named Daniel with the setting taking place in today’s world. Daniel was having a run at a role-playing game with his friends and later decides to use the washroom. That’s when all of a sudden, he gets teleported into a different world where he’ll need to explore the vast number of rooms within the castle of Harnakon. Using mainly his knowledge of video games and movies, Daniel will need to use his so-called wits to survive.
In Unepic, you control Daniel in a 2D platforming fashion as you journey from room to room within the darkness. Luckily, your view is aided with the torches and lamps available. You’ll need to find keys in order to open new areas, in which case you’ll be granted new quests and objectives to carry out. Plenty of secrets as well as traps can be discovered, thus making the game pretty uplifting and exciting. Additionally, there are a number of gates and spells that allow you to teleport to different areas with ease. Of course, you’ll come across certain boss battles that will prove to be of a challenge.
Considering that Unepic has been released for the Nintendo Wii U, one should expect the gamepad to be utilized. That is the case here with ability to have a second view of the game, specifically being able to access and utilize up to twelve items with a simple touch on this touch screen. In addition, you’ll be able to switch the gameplay view from the TV screen to the gamepad’s. In this case, you’ll be able to zoom in and change your perspective.
Moving about is easy enough while the character’s jump can be higher than one would expect. Daniel can actually jump up to the next floor with ease! That being said, it may feel at times that the controls are a bit floaty. But if you consider how effective the attacks and accessing items are, you won’t have any problems with the control overall.
Unepic has a large selection of weapons, equipment, and magic for players to run into and use. Specifically, there are seven different classes of weapons each with varying in their own way in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Certain weapons will land a more effective amount of damage of certain foes and creatures. As well, there are others that are more suited to certain aspects of the game, such as sneaking up on enemies can quietly silencing them from behind.
While the graphics in Unepic is not that “epicâ€, it does have a certain charm with its retro approach. In particular, you get a 16-bit flavor that makes good use of the plentiful colors on screen. You’re not going to get a lot of special effects with elaborate animations. But you are going to get enough visual detail to be satisfied without any skipping in frame rate. The music is pretty enjoyable and helps set the mood while the voice acting is done adequately, although there could be improvements in the expressions in certain situations that the character has been placed in.
Unepic is available as a downloadble title from the Nintendo eShop for $9.99. Its humor may be tongue-and-cheek, which can be a bit juvenile at times. But overall, Unepic’s retro approach and extensive RPG implementations is what makes this game UNbelievably “epicâ€.
