As Roguelike games have gained popularity year over year, the variety of genres melded with the randomness of it all has given us quite a few hits. Deck builders and card battlers are for sure some of my personal favorites. And I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the pure simplicity of something like Vampire Survivors. But if we’re going back to the original game that got me hooked on the genre, it has to be the lite RPG elements and action battles of Rogue Legacy back in 2016. Hacking and slashing lends itself so well to repeated playthroughs. Randomly generated dungeons and big bosses adorning each give that “one more try” mentality a lot of credence. So when things started to really light up and dazzle with UnderMine I was immediately brought back to my roots of Roguelikes and why I just love this genre.
For starters, UnderMine isn’t exactly like Rogue Legacy. Similar, sure, but the presentation has more in common with the SNES’ Legend of Zelda or even fellow Roguelike star The Binding of Isaac. The top down presentation, moving from room to room, even the visual style share a lot with those two titles. If I’m thinking on it though, had Rogue Legacy been a top down style game, legitimately it very likely would have just been UnderMine, as they games share nearly everything else in common. Relics making each run unique, shared permanent progress between runs, a randomly named PC at the start of each run, some tongue-in-cheek humor, bosses that have a specialized attack patter and style, an end game that truly tests your skills if you even want to do it at all, and the list goes on. Best of all, none of these are bad things: what Rogue Legacy did well UnderMine does well too.
It’s the little things that separate the games and makes UnderMine stand out. First of, there are a lot of relics to collect in a run. Like, A LOT of relics. Of the game’s 20 floors per run, assuming you find everything and even get a little lucky, you can collect between 2-4 relics per floor. It isn’t surprising to end a run with 30+ game mechanic altering treasures, which really makes you feel incredibly powerful! Small augments to weapon damage, ranged weapon speed, bomb size, health consumption, and more go a long way to make your build to your liking. Then there are more run-altering relics, including some that completely change how bombs work for you, some that allow you to straight up walk over pits, and others that increase the size of your thrown weapon to monstrous proportions. It’s far from endless, thanks to just how many relics you can collect per run. Despite this I still found my favorite part of each run to be just how many fun relics I can get and how far I can make it in each game. And that isn’t even mentioning the curses and blessings, which add even more boons and banes to a run!
Because I’m an awful video game player, I tend to like the lite side of Roguelikes and enjoy when a game gives some permanent progression between runs. This likely goes without saying but UnderMine has this feature as well, but also has a neat little progression unlock system too. As you explore the mine, you’ll uncover blueprints of other relics, potions, and abilities to later unlock between runs to then find in subsequent runs. A special currency is usually required for these, and unlocking the blueprint not only grants you that ability for your next run, but allows said addition to be in future runs to randomly find. Again, this just makes the “one more run” mentality of all the best Roguelike games come to the forefront again, and helps solidify UnderMine as one of the better games I’ve played in the genre.
In a world full of live service games, and video games that get constant updates and new features to continually entice players to keep playing, it’s a bit refreshing to see a true ending with UnderMine. Credits do roll, and while there are some additional modes to keep playing and new bosses to battle, the game is largely over once you’ve purchased, beaten, and unlocked everything. I have to remind myself these days that this isn’t a bad thing: in fact quite the opposite. It’s noteworthy that UnderMine doesn’t overstay its welcome. The game offers dozens of hours of gameplay, has dozens more for those seeking it, but also soundly wraps up just when you master most things and feel like you’ve had a great time with it. Am I looking forward to the sequel? Yes, absolutely. But if we never get that sequel and are left with UnderMine as is, I’m happy to have another excellent addition to the growing Roguelite genre of games.
Getting critical for a minute too, there are some missed opportunities I’d like to call out. First and foremost, there is not enough to spend your gold on. A post-game tribute event to unlock an in-run side chapter is awesome, but if you’re done with that or just don’t want that challenge, there isn’t much else to spend it on. Second, there are some cool bomb upgrade, but there aren’t any matching pickaxe upgrades. It’s largely the exact same from the beginning of the game to the end. It never morphs into like a hammer or shovel or anything fun, to really change up gameplay. Not an oversight or anything, just some low hanging fruit in my opinion to change things up. If you get a certain combination of two relics, sometimes they fuse into a more powerful single relic. This idea is so cool, and I wish there were more than just a handful of them. It’s be so cool to get some additional combat combinations like this, but sadly there are only a few of them in-game. All of these are hopeful additions for the planned sequel. Please!
UnderMine surprised me. I expected it to be good at the very least: I had only heard good things from the outlets I’d read that played it back in 2020 when it released. What I did not expect was the game to be as addictive as it was. The combat was simple and fun. The relics added so much variety I just had to keep going. The bosses required a thoughtful approach in order to achieve victory. And the endgame content adds a whole new layer of strategy to a basic formula that can extend playtime for days and weeks on end. To summarize, this game is solid. Very solid. If you fancy yourself a fan of roguelites you absolutely owe it to yourself to play this one.
Laters,
Jsick
