Going Under (2020)

A pleasant surprise, and a damn good time considering how much I normally despise this style of dungeon crawler.

Going Under has a lot of good stuff going for it. The art style is unique and colorful, the combat is very hectic and requires a lot of improvisation thanks to a BOTW style weapon system, and pretty much every skill results in a significant game play change. It's not as in-depth as something like Binding of Issac or Enter the Gungeon, but the 3 worlds and relatively low amount of items in comparison to those games didn't get boring at all during the game's relatively short campaign.

It's much more of a bite-sized rogue lite, which is perhaps one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. Progression in Going Under is rapid as hell, often resulting in multiple unlocks from each run. The game is very happy to dish out currency for unlockables as well, which makes each run actually feel worthwhile. The only area where Going Under hits some speedbumps is with the Mentor unlocks, which are essentially character abilities that get unlocked through specific mission objectives. The only problem is that these objectives rely on some pretty hefty RNG a lot of the time, and will have you confused as to how to proceed. You will be lucky if you have more than one mentor fully leveled up by the time the credits roll, which is a shame because a lot of the abilities seem like a lot of fun.

Going Under has all the workings of a great rogue-lite and then some. The combat is punchy and satisfying, (most) enemies are balanced, and the boss fights are a ton of fun to complete. The game avoids a lot of frustration that I feel from other rogue lites by having runs last usually a max of 15 minutes, and progression that would normally 10 hours in other games here takes 2. It does cheapen the thrill of the unlocks occasionally, but you also have a much more tightly packaged and designed game that feels rewarding to play and is addicting as all hell. I can't remember the last time I completed a game in 2 days, let alone one so far outside of my comfort zone.

As soon as I picked up this game, I knew I'd like it.

• Roguelike
• Colorful and imaginative art style
• Sharp funny writing
• Hipster Barista Goblin

All stuff I love! But I found myself getting into a rhythm with it. I'd have a session of maybe five runs, getting better with each run, then I'd put it down for a month or so while I focused on something else. Whenever I picked it up again, my skill had reset to how I was when I first started the game. I was making no real progress, and it had been almost a year.

I had finished some games recently and asked my kids what I should play next (working through my backlog like a diligent gamer, of course).

"Going Under" they shouted at me, rattling my ole' bones.

"Sure." I figured it would be another hour and a half session of dungeon crawling runs, but I am a daddy who aims to please when playing in front of my kids.

"And if you don't beat it by tomorrow," My son started with his challenge "we get a treat."

"Okay." My kids get a treat daily. This challenge meant nothing to me.

"And!" He continued. "I get to punch you one hundred times!"

I had already accepted this challenge. I couldn't back down. "Fine!" I begrudgingly accepted.

How would I do it? I had made marginal progress over the seven hours I'd put in over almost a year. When logging into my file, I noticed the "Assist" options. I had never even clicked them before. I viewed myself as above playing with help. But I got honest with myself about my rhythm. If I didn't change something, not only would I not beat the game before my son's punching deadline, I would never beat it! I adjusted my health and a couple other factors and started playing again. But my rhythm changed. I wasn't putting it down after a handful of runs. I was having a blast for hours!

I did beat Going Under before my son's deadline. I let them have treats anyway, but they weren't allowed any punches.

Maybe this is the most obvious epiphany ever, but if the difficulty of a game is preventing you from diving in, change the difficulty settings. Going Under is a competent Roguelike. Not as complex as Gungeon, Hades, or Dead Cells, but fun in its own right. I wasn't enjoying it quite enough to grind through the game on it's normal difficulty, but thoroughly enjoyed it on my assisted run. Great for Roguelike fans and those who like to see capitalism skewered.

Going Under is a sharply-written satire of Silicon Valley startups, leviathan mega-corporations, and the terrible things they do. What makes it more than that, though, is the cast of characters, all of whom are delightfully quirky. For all its charm, it is a difficult game, and while I found the challenge satisfying for most of my playthrough I admit I got a little too frustrated toward the end and turned on Assist Mode; real gamers will probably be fine with it though.

My main complaint aside from the frustration (although this definitely contributed to the frustration) is that when your weapon breaks you don't automatically switch to the next weapon; this combined with automatically picking weapons up when rolling over them while not holding anything meant I often found myself fighting for my life with a stapler when I had a perfectly good sword in my inventory. It would be nice if you could automatically switch, or if you could at least have a button that always switches to a slot with a weapon in it (if possible) rather than just switching to the next slot which may or may not have a weapon in it.

Anyway, all in all Going Under is a fun game with good values, and Aggro Crab came out against NFTs so that's cool.

Steam Curator

Going Under is a satirical dungeon crawling roguelike that pokes fun at office life while simultaneously being a superb Jackie Chan game.

It's runs are fast paced and short in duration, focusing heavily on reaction times and improving your way through an encounter by using whatevers in arms reach as a weapon.

There's a frantic energy to it and it kept me entertained long enough to get to its ending, I just didn't have much desire to play much beyond there.

11 hours in a roguelike usually means you fell off of it but I can confidently say that 11 hours with Going Under felt like a complete experience, one that I'm glad is on my resume.

If you like this genre you will probably enjoy Going Under, just don't go in expecting your next full time job.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always loved when a game manages to take an unlikely genre and apply it to the boring ol' modern day world. Going Under does this perfectly, producing one of the smartest and most enjoyable bitter satires on modern employment I've seen to date.

You play as Jackie, the latest intern at Fizzle, a disgusting meal-replacement soda company. Your boss is an idiot, your coworkers disorganized, and your manager reeks of BBEG energy. Upon arrival, you quickly realize that whatever workplace experience you were hoping to acquire will have to wait - for the time being, they need you to go into the dungeon beneath the company and steal a dark relic from the goblins that dwell below. Got no combat training or weaponry? Not a problem; we're sure you can get by just smashing skulls with office furniture and decorative cacti. Concerned that this won't help you land your next job? No sweat! With some creative writing, all of your bloodshed can be written up as crucial skills to pad that resume. Worried about getting killed? Well, uh... don't be? They'll probably just kick you out at the end. We think. I dunno man, they're goblins.

Going Under tweaks the Binding of Isaac lite roguelike dungeon explorer formula, turning it into more of a panicked melee-focused affair and doing everything they can to keep individual dungeon runs down to a breezy half-hour or so. All weapons break with use, but replacements are all around you so it's hardly an issue. As you progress through the game, clearing dungeons and gathering eldritch might, you'll also do tasks for your delightful coworkers, allowing you to get to know them better as well as gaining their assistance on future runs. There are plenty of weird and silly weapons to find, critters to bash, and abilities to unlock and master, and while gameplay is not GU's strongest suit, it's still a fun time that manages to stay fresh much longer than expected.

The real draw, however, is in the polish on the game. The writing is hilarious and rock-solid, the artwork gorgeous-ugly (think Psychonauts). Every environment is chock full of tiny details and horrible motivational posters to really nail the world-building. You'll look forward to every conversation opportunity with your coworkers and wince in empathy at every corporate-fuckover turn of the story. You'll need to figure out what the eff Swomp's deal is. Trust me. That kid's got layers.

The fact that I know plenty of people will start this game up, cringe at the visuals, and turn it off forever is depressing. Going Under deserves better! It's a damn fine game, plain and simple. Even if I did feel a little called-out by the crypto mining dungeon.

Going Under is a run-based hack-and-slash dungeon crawler themed around tech startups. Gameplay-wise it is neat in that all weapons break, which can lead to some hectic moments where you need to scramble to pick up, say, that keyboard on the ground to continue fighting. Runs are fairly short (<30'), and there are generally enough weapons about that you can use your preferred ones (i.e. the weapon-breaking doesn't feel oppressive). The game plays well enough, but the more noteworthy part of the game is the theme: the hyper-online writing/references, the variety of 'weapons,' and the ... event that occurs midway through the game is delightfully weird.

[Bias Statement] I am friends with one of the developers.