Going Under developed by Aggro Crab and published by Team 17 is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Going Under is a rogue-lite satirical dungeon crawler that takes place in a greedy corporate future where the company that Jackie the woman that you take control of works for. This greedy company wants to replace all food with fizzy drinks and they don’t care how they go about achieving this goal. Jackie a marketing intern is given the job to go down to the basement and defeat joblins, joblins are worker goblins. Between each mission, you can talk to workers up in the main floor who seem to hate the job as much as you but this is a game that reflects what it can be like, though I’m sure in real life in tech start-up companies people don’t have to go to a basement to kill Joblins… Or do they?
In Going Under you are tasked in getting as far as you can and using whatever is available in the procedurally generated dungeons. You’ll be using weapons such as electric guitars that Joblins love playing Guitar Hero on, pencils, staplers, mini cars and as mentioned above, whatever you can find. The combat is fluid and smooth, I had a blast fighting the many creatures that remain in the basement. Like other rouge-lites, there are plenty of items to choose from to either enhance your experience so things like making weapons bigger, health bonuses, little fun power-ups and cursed power-ups which usually offer big rewards if you can make it through the curses. The adventure this game offers is very fun but sadly if you die you lose all progress, honestly, in some games, I do dislike that but in this, it just makes sense, while yes at first you’ll need to keep repeating the level once you master it it’s still a really fun challenge. Each level also offers new side objectives for the people in the office and I found it quite nice, I also enjoyed levelling up each item so next time I went back down I could do so with an advantage. Making it to the end boss can be difficult at times but the challenge is well worth the reward, with many different variations in rooms as you go though you’ll find a lot of pretty good stuff to aid you on your journey from shops to buy new power-ups or health, broom cupboards with special items, a random vampire like guy who offers a curse for rewards and little tiny challenges to earn all sorts of things to aid you in your journey below.
In Going Under there is plenty to explore, each level looks great and quirky and fits in with the theme. The art style has a very unique cartoony feel and I like it, it felt so nice and colourful to look at, it has real character. When the chaos starts it usually runs well with the odd slow down here and there on a PlayStation 4 Pro, but overall the game looks and feels good. The music is also fun and hectic and matches everything you’re doing, I liked how the characters sounded like they were all from Animal Crossing, it just adds to the quirkiness of the title, I believe Going Under is a title not to be taken to seriously, it’s just a good old laugh and everything in the design shows that.
Verdict
Going Under is a fun little game that delivers on what it sets out to do, it’s a satirical dungeon crawler with rogue-lite elements and I had a blast with it. I think some will love the challenge some won’t and with very few bugs present and being offered at such a low price, I can’t recommend this enough for someone who just wants a game that is bursting at the steams with silliness and fun.
9/10
Nerdy Bird Games 