Review: Undungeon is an Experience

As a lover of RPGs with a world worth diving into and a gameplay loop worth experiencing over and over, I was drawn to the likes of Undungeon as it offered exactly what I was hungry for. Not only that, but it also offered an impressively executed pixelated art style, reminiscent of 90s RPGs, something that I was truly excited to witness.

Now having played the game myself for a few weeks, I’ve gotten a full taste of what Undungeon has to offer its players. It’s a plentiful experience to be sure, one offering players what feels like an endless amount of hours worth sinking into it, with an addictive, deep set of RPG elements at its disposal. There is a lot more to this game than meets the eye.

Undungeon Review Key Takeaways

• Undungeon has deep RPG roots in every sense.
• There is no shortage of ways to build your character.
• Undungeon offers a fully-realized world with lore to seep in.
• It boasts a beautiful color palette to keep your eyes interested.
• You’ll need to have the time to invest in this game to really enjoy it.

Final Score: 7

Deep Player Progression That Entices

Where to begin with what Undeungeon offers players? Its gameplay can be quite complex in most cases. With a lot of various components that make up the player progression at the forefront. There aren’t skills or trees to be unlocked in the typical sense. Instead, you have various ways to customize and improve your character overall, becoming a Frankenstein’s monster of epic proportions.

You have various amplifiers that make your attacks stronger or varied, as well as grenades and other throwable weapons at your disposal. as far as the attacks go, your characters are limited in the standard attack, though it doesn’t really ever get old thanks to what else you have at your own disposal.

There are various items such as breastplates, masks, and equipment that serve as different types of skins for your weapon. All of this gives your character better statistics as well as different damage effects to enemies or gives you resistants to specific attacks in turn.

If you thought that was the end of it, you’d be wrong. As there aren’t really skills on the table, you have some other things that take their place. There are body parts that can be swapped in and out for your character that offer similar improvements to your character as the equipment does.

Following in a similar path are the Cores that you store within your character. These fit more in line with what could be considered skills but are swappable in real-time, making it easier to finely tune your character to fit the moment. These can improve your attacks, defenses, luck, and even your influence from nature.

A World Chock-Full of Lore

I’ve got to admit, Undungeon is quite a world to behold. At first glance, you’d think that this game is a simple premise with a world to explore and learn things just by discovering lore through scrolls or such. Though Undungeon isn’t just that by any means, and you’ll have quite a bit of world-building to come accustomed to over your many, many hours with the game.

There are also very many areas that you’ll be able to explore, hostile or not, with even more characters to meet, both friendly and hostile. There is a ton of exposition in this game, and I mean a ton. You should expect to really get a full sense of the role-playing aspects of it all as you will get the chance to become the hero or villain you want to be.

In fact, there’s a reputation gauge that will increase or decrease depending on how the characters of this world perceive you depending on how you act towards them and the actions you make along the way. There are going to be quests to take from these characters as well, and you also have the chance of failing them and changing how that character interacts with you in the future.

Related: Review: No Place for Bravery is a Great Sekirolike for Newcomers of the Subgenre

In it For the Long Haul

There really is an amount of depth to this game that I wasn’t expecting to experience from it. For its low price of $19.99, you get quite the bang for your buck here. Though, those who maybe weren’t expecting such depth could find this game to be a bit overwhelming. Some of the dialogue can be a lot to read through, with not much going on at times, and the RPG elements too can be quite a daunting thing to learn.

I was hoping for this game to be beefy, but even I found there to be moments I was skipping through simply because there just wasn’t enough going on in the interim between it and actually playing the game. Though it’s a feast for those that love exposition and full world-building aspects. You will find yourself sinking hours at a time into this gorgeous game, and that’s a promise.

Who Should Play This?

I think that there is fun here to be had for a lot of different players, but to varying degrees. The gameplay loop and amount of RPG elements are a lot to love for sure, but if you want to feel invested in the game as a whole, you’re going to need to bake a lot of hours into what Undungeon really has to offer in order to get the full picture.

In fact, there are 2 different worlds here to play, so Undungeon is essentially 2 games in one that each warrant a full playthrough. So if you’re wanting to really envelope yourself into the world of Undungeon, expect to play this and nothing else. But that really isn’t a negative comment on the game, as the developers at Laughing Machines poured their heart and soul into it, and it shows.

Undungeon is a fantastic game that’s a worthwhile experience for those that want to get more out of a game than the bog-standard experiences that some of the recent AAA RPGs have delivered. This title is well worth the price of admission to play it.

Undungeon is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. You can play Undungeon as part of your Xbox Game Pass subscription as well.

For more on Undungeon and guides on how to play the game, be sure to check out what we have to offer at Gamer Journalist!