Similar to most titles in the Roguelike genre, Going Under is also a massive stress buster for me. The ability to smash and grab almost everything, catchy music, annoying enemies, satisfying game design, and much more eccentric features of the game packed as a Roguelike Dungeon Crawler makes it a must-play to any fan of the genre. Still not convinced? Let me make you.
Welcome to Fizzle
Going Under will be a very hard and frustrating experience if you just decide to go ahead and hack and slash through everything. Every character has its own characteristics and timings that you need to study throughout your runs if you want any chance of success. As far as the story goes, you’re an unpaid intern who applied at a marketing job at Fizzle. Fizzle is one of the startups acquired by cubicle, the most successful company in Neo-Cascadia. With the help of Cubicle, Fizzle now has the funding it needs to reach the next level. Now that you’re an employee of Fizzle, you are assigned new tasks, which you never thought you would have to deal with. Monsters are crawling under fizzle’s basement which seems to be the reason behind these failed startups. And as you might have guessed by now, your job is to clear these basements of monsters and unwanted creatures.
Yeet
From tables and chairs to swords and axes, you can throw everything at your enemy that you seem is breakable. While combat of this game may seem a bit tough in your first few hours of the game, it will get much crazier, faster, and action-packed along the way. You can throw anything and everything at your enemies or you can choose to pick a quick and short-sized melee weapon to finish your enemies before they can even make a move. You won’t be able to take on a large number of enemies at once and you’ll need to time your attacks mixed with perfect dodges. You can also bring in heavy weapons for those heavy hits and large AoE. While this game may seem like a fun dungeon crawler, the roguelike formula will challenge and punish you for not being careful.
You’ll have limited 3 hearts that you have to carefully manage throughout your runs. The only way of healing or even increasing your health is by purchasing health items in the café’s that can be found inside each level of dungeons. Along with café’s, you can also find perk rooms, where you can choose between 2 perks that will benefit you through your runs. You can also stack up on more perks that you can find throughout the dungeons. Another fun aspect of the dungeons will also involve a room where you can trade with the devil. You can get luxurious items, weapons, and healings but they come with a curse, which can be very detrimental to your current standing in a dungeon.
Simply magical
Going Under has a very simplistic but charming approach to the art style of the game. While the game may look very basic, the color scheme of every level and area is mind-blowing to look at. From weapons to smashing animations and even explosions, this game has impressed me completely in terms of its visual appeal. The Fizzle office in itself looks beautiful and very modern, while the dungeons have its own unique themes which make it more appealing and less repetitive. You can also have abilities in terms of phone apps, which are even more amazing and adds an amazing twist to the game. These phone apps have a variety of flashy functions including area reveal, airdrop, flashbang, and even huge emojis falling on your enemies.
Real talk
Going Under is a fresh take on the saturated Roguelike genre with its charming visuals and action-packed combat with a variety of weapons that just keeps on going – backed by the ability to grab and smash anything you see in your vicinity. The game may be a bit frustrating at first, but patience and the right understanding of the mechanics will make this a fun and satisfying experience players. For those who just want to enjoy the smashing aspect of the game, you turn on assist mode, which makes the gameplay easier. You can grab a copy of this game right now on Steam for a reasonable price, and is recommended to all roguelike players.