Undungeon is a strange game. An action RPG which touches on complex themes about the nature of existence that would confuse even your average Philosophy graduate.
Reality is fraying at the edges, and the numerous dimensions that make up the multiverse are starting to merge and crumble. Although all seems lost, the Void, a herald of a nameless god, a twisted creature raised from the primordial soup, has appeared at the end of the universe to repair reality, one dimension at a time.
Undungeon’s presentation is superb, mixing a grungy pixel-art style and lo-fi sound design that makes it look like a long-lost isometric RPG from the early 90s in the best possible way.
The best way to describe it is as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi western. The barren wastes are populated by a menagerie of weird creatures from every corner of the multiverse, from a floating eyeball living in a thicket to a mummified wizard, cowboy thing, and every last one of them needs your help. You’ll be reuniting lost friends, figuring out what mystery meat consists of, and all manner of fetch quests.
As a monster constructed from the dregs of all creation, every part of the Void is upgradable and can be customised from his head to his intestines, providing permanent stat boosts. Runes can also be etched into your core to tune your (quite literal) build to your preferred playstyle.
Undungeon likes to give players options to an almost overwhelming degree. Within an hour of playing, you will find your pockets stuffed with dozens of different grenades, arrows and all manner of space-age lint you can craft into even more stuff you will probably never use.
Combat un Undungeon is of the Souls variety – difficult, with a focus on parrying and dodging.
But like every game that attempts to ape From Software’s venerated mechanics, Undungeon does not get it quite right. The stamina bar is piffling, and Void can run out of puff after a couple of swipes of his razor-sharp claws, which also have no sense of heft.
Likewise, almost every weapon you pick up feels like it is made of fibreglass and is just as robust. Considering the Void is supposed to be the agent of a reality-bending god, they never feel powerful.
On the flip side, every time you get hit by an enemy, they get stronger as the screen warps and cracks as you get closer to death, as your life bar shrinks while your organs are punctured. Undungeon doesn’t just kick you when you are down; it repeatedly hits you with a shovel until your retinas detach.
To top it all off, every time Void dies, and this will happen a lot, you get booted back to the last checkpoint – with all your progress gone. There is a good reason most RPGs ditched this kind of thing years ago. It is cheap, infuriating, and makes you want to jettison the game out of the nearest window.
Maybe modernity has made me weak, but being ground into dust and then scattered to the four winds every five minutes isn’t fun. Attrition is hard to get right. It only works if you can eventually break through and the scales tip in your favour. In Undungeon, it feels like they never do.
If you’re a masochist in the truest sense of the word, you might enjoy Undungeon. But for the rest of us, it feels like a waste of potential. A superb setting hamstrung by gameplay that is as infuriating as it is obstinate.