Developed by Francisco Téllez de Meneses, Unepic is a 2D metrovania role-playing game that places you in the role of Daniel, an eccentric young man who enjoys playing video games and spending time with his friends. One evening, while participating in a game of pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons with some friends, Daniel decides to leave the group to use the bathroom.
To his dismay, the bathroom ends up being a portal to a castle located in an unknown realm. It’s not long after Daniel’s arrival that he happens to stumble across an evil wraith that possesses him. Since Daniel lacks ‘faith’, this evil being becomes trapped inside his body and cannot leave until our hero perishes. Despite the odds being stacked against him, Daniel ventures off into the inky, black corridors of the castle in search of answers.
As your adventure begins, you are treated to a brief, but comprehensive tutorial that explains the controls and how to equip items. The tutorial also explains how to light the various torches and lanterns along the way to make traveling inside the castle easier. The Wii U’s Gamepad is utilized extensively as it keeps track of any items that are assigned for quick consumption and quests that are acquired along the way. Due to the enormous amount of potions and weapons that can be collected, Unepic includes an extensive ‘hot’ button system that allows the player to quickly access up to twelve items at a time (more on this in a moment).
The gameplay is a combination of action and role-playing as you climb ladders, attack creatures and level up Daniel’s various attributes. As you explore each room, you will encounter numerous traps and monsters that can be dealt with in a variety of ways.
Most rooms contain floor traps that are difficult to see (especially if you haven’t lit the torches for that room), and if you’re not careful, Daniel can easily be skewered by a group of spikes or burned by a flurry of fireballs. Some traps, like Fireballs, can continue to harm the player long after their initial impact (i.e. DOTs – Damage Over Time). If you happen to be low on health when this occurs, and don’t have any health potions in your inventory, Daniel will die.
The creatures that inhabit the castle can be difficult to kill, especially if you don’t use the right weapon. While weapons such as axes and swords are more effective against bats and orcs, they tend to inflict less damage on some of the more eccentric creatures. Snakes are another hazard that should be approached with great caution. Since snakes can poison Daniel with one bite, they shouldn’t be approached head on during combat, but rather from a distance with either a bow or spear.
Like the games that inspired it (i.e. Castlevania, etc), Unepic contains a large variety of quests that involve searching the castle for NPCs to further the storyline and finding keys to unlock different areas to explore. Depending on the quest, the player may have to pay the NPC with gold or search for special items hidden somewhere inside the castle. The quests are varied enough to prevent the gameplay from growing stale.
As you complete quests and kill creatures, Daniel will gain experience and earn skill points when he levels. These skill points can be spent in the ‘Character Sheet’, which can be accessed by pressing the plus (+) button on the Wii U Gamepad. Daniel can specialize in eight different weapons, ranging from daggers to wands, among others. You can also spend skill points to increase Daniel’s Constitution (Health), Potions (Potion Crafting) and Armor, to name just a few.
A comprehensive crafting system allows the player to brew their own potions. Known as ‘The Kitchen’, you can purchase recipes (i.e. health potions, etc) from the NPC, scribe them into a book, and then kill creatures for the required ingredients. The main ingredient needed for most potions is called ‘magic essence’, a powdery substance that can be collected from slain enemies.
Once you have the right ingredients, you can return to ‘The Kitchen’ and use the brewing pot to create your potion(s). A simple drop-down menu appears with a list of all previously inscribed recipes. Once a potion is selected from the menu, Daniel will begin the ‘brewing’ process and drop any finished potions to the floor. This process can be repeated until you run out of crafting materials.
Unepic uses the Wii U Gamepad’s touchscreen for a variety of functions. For starters, any ingredients and quests that you collect along the way are displayed neatly to the left side of the screen. At the top of the screen are three panels containing four inventory ‘hot’ slots that are assigned to a face button (i.e. X, Y, A and B) and a trigger button.
To use items that are assigned to the first panel, you must hold down the Left Trigger button and press the face button the item is assigned to. A similar method is used for using the middle ‘hot’ slot’ panel (i.e. press and hold Left and Right Trigger) and the third (i.e. press and hold Right trigger). It sounds complicated, but the system works relatively well, especially when you need to use a health potion or switch weapons on the fly.
Graphically, Unepic is a 2D feast for the eyes with its highly detailed dungeon environments and original monster designs. When you enter a dark room with Daniel’s lighter, only a small fraction of the environment can be seen, creating a feeling of suspense as you search for torches and lanterns to light. The Wii U version of Unepic includes top-notch voice acting for both the intro sequence and in-game dialog; this feature was not present in the PC version.
Unepic is a fantastic game that blends action, platforming and role-playing into a single, cohesive package. It’s one game that every Wii U gamer should experience.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: Wii U
Developer: Francisco Téllez de Meneses
Publisher: Enjoyup!
ESRB: T (Teen)
Price: $9.99
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Beautiful 2D graphics that contain a high level of detail. | |
| Sound | |
| The Wii U version of Unepic contains top-notch voice acting throughout the game. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Unepic's in-depth gameplay is complimented by a diverse crafting system. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Unepic is one game that every Wii U gamer should have in their library. | |
