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Undungeon review: problems with the basics get in the way of a bizarre and beautiful worldPixel imperfect
Pixel imperfect
UnDungeon - Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTube
UnDungeon - Gameplay Trailer
In terms of what you actually do? Well, you’re taking on your standard RPG quests for various locals, tracking down their lost friends, ferrying fertiliser around, and investigating mysterious meat. You know, typical demigod stuff. For the most part Undungeon is a top-down, loot-centric action game in which you’re armed with a set of claws for attacking, a rib cage for defensive moves, and a mask that empowers your dash ability. You’ve also got grenades, consumable items and arrows, all of which can be swapped out for improved versions, or for new weapon types that come with their own attributes and special effects.
As an undying creature constructed from divine bio-scrap, Void is also customisable on the inside, where it counts. You can upgrade your brain, skin, legs, heart and intestines for more advanced versions that come with permanent attribute boosts. Then there are a whole host of runes and nodes that can be slotted into your core to create a fine-tuned build that suits your preferred defensive or offensive style of play. Undungeon is eminently tweakable, overwhelming you with options and items and crafting mechanics from the outset. Within an hour you have at least 15 distinct arrow types to think about and twice as many grenades. But for all its flexibility, the game is built on some seriously shaky foundations.
Regardless of how you shape your personal Void, there’s something slightly off about the underlying sauce. Your character has 360 degrees of movement but only four sprites (as in, you only ever appear to be facing directly north, south, east or west) and a single frame of animation connecting them, so simply moving around feels rigid and detached. There’s no acceleration to the movement, so you feel frictionless and aloof. You have no heft. I’m not sure exactly how dimension-hopping arch-beings composed of primordial essence are supposed to move, but I’m fairly certain it’s not like the marble fromMarble Madness.
It’s difficult to pin down precisely why Undungeon doesn’t feel pleasant to control, but it’s got a lot to do with having too few transition frames between sprites and a confusing mess of chaotic visual feedback during combat. Most attacks feel weightless, and there are so many different kinds of colourful spells and exploding weapons in play from the outset that it’s impossible to interpret what’s happening during even the most straightforward of fights.
Then there are much harder mechanics to live with, such as how the screen dims and becomes cracked as you near death, making fighting more difficult the worse you’re doing. Enemies gain ranks and become stronger with each successful strike they land on you, which is plainly a back-to-front way of doing things. Your custom organs act as extra health bars, but if you take enough damage they become temporarily disabled until you return to the hub world or reach a save point, meaning the more hurt you are the less of your overall health you can heal using items.
Less would have been so much more here, and sadly Undungeon’s deep-running problems with the basics get in the way of its bizarre and beautiful world, its lovingly drawn characters and its wild sci-fi storyline.
