UnderMine Review This Roguelike Nearly Strikes Gold

UnderMine Review: This Roguelike Nearly Strikes Gold

Thorium’s UnderMine is a gorgeous, fast-paced roguelike that nearly adds enough of its own spin on the genre to be a memorable experience.

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UnderMine Review This Roguelike Nearly Strikes Gold

Developer Thorium’s UnderMine is one the latest examples of roguelike dungeon crawlers that try to provide fun twists on the well-worn genre. Unlike a lot of its peers, however, UnderMine finds little ways to succeed and set itself apart. From implementing RPG-like components like permanent upgrades and a unique resurrection system that changes dialogue and story progression options somewhat, there’s a lot here to love. There are still almost too many similarities to every other roguelike game in existence, however, and a sense of repetitiveness that often plagues these titles. Still, UnderMine has so many great qualities that it nearly strikes gold in spite of its larger issues.

The first sign of UnderMine’s uniqueness comes right in the beginning stages with its revolving door protagonist system. When one character dies, instead of players resurrecting as that character again, a new one takes their place. While there’s an easy argument to be made that this could easily lead to a lack of emotional investment, UnderMine is played more for laughs than anything else. Connecting with a protagonist isn’t an issue here because the game is a lot more focused on being fast-paced and silly storytelling. These two elements combine well and it makes the protagonist shifting work all the better.

UnderMine’s story is almost a parody of the typical roguelike dungeon crawler game. Players are tasked by a wizard with investigating a mine where endless tremors and quakes have been taking place. Naturally, monsters and various boss battles will plague players and their various random characters along the way, becoming progressively harder the deeper they go down the mine. But every time a character dies, other NPCs will point out how the protagonist looks different and the wizard often treats the characters as if they’re dispensable. It’s almost satirical of the entire roguelike’s “live, die, repeat” mission statement in general, and UnderMine is all the funnier because of it.

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UnderMine Review This Roguelike Nearly Strikes Gold

Another big area where UnderMine branches away from its predecessors is in its upgrades system. While players are able to find temporary upgrades throughout their adventure in the mine, after every death, they can use the gold they acquired from their last life to purchase permanent upgrades to stats like health, armor and weapon damage. These do not disappear upon death, and it’s an experience where death after a while is almost encouraged. While this is a fun little twist that makes UnderMine more akin to RPGs, it also gets to a point where repeatedly being forced to die to get permanent upgrades becomes annoying.

Boss battles in UnderMine are also mostly uninspired, featuring the same kinds of bosses players will find in dozens of other roguelike or RPG titles. Rock monsters that use predictable roll attacks, beast creatures that implement unblockable charging damage, and everything else a player can imagine are all present here. There are obviously only so many ways that a game like this can use combat effectively, but that doesn’t make it any less uninspired. In fact, combat in general is often not all that fulfilling. Attacks range from a basic axe swing to a throw attack that can be too easily spammed. There is some variety offered later in the game after upgrading, but it’s not enough to offset early repetitiveness.

UnderMine still mostly works, though. Its fast-paced campaign, which can be completed in anywhere from 10 hours to 20 depending on playstyle and talent, works to counterbalance its more monotonous elements. The game is also just beautiful to look at, with highly detailed and varied character models and map layouts. Its satirical, light-hearted story is a breath of fresh air in a genre that mostly puts out overly serious and grimdark titles. The small twists on the overcrowded roguelike genre are almost enough to set the game apart and, even though it’s not a perfect game, UnderMine is anything but forgettable, making it worth a look for fans of the genre or those looking for a welcoming introduction to it.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/undermine-game-review/

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