Undungeon Switch Review – Walk Without Rhythm

Undungeon is an action role-playing indie game from Laughing Machines that was successful on Kickstarter and claims to bring back the spirit of old school action RPGs wrapped in modern design. You are tasked with restoring the order in all dimensions, influencing and determining the fate of the worlds, and creating and deciding what will happen in the new Multiverse.

So is saving the world in this complicated journey worth your time and money? Or does Undungeon need to be placed in a dungeon to prevent any suffering? Let’s find out!

Undungeon is a relatively complicated story, and its rich sci-fi nature is apparent right from the get-go. What is mentioned right off the bat is that the ever-expanding universe is chock full of undiscovered planets, but that is not the whole truth. We are teased about the possibility of a multiverse where worlds are barely separated, and the membrane barrier keeping these universes apart is not as strong as some believe.

Well, seven variations of Earth are instantly merged and ultimately became known as this cataclysm called The Shift. Your character is born out of random parts, and you are tasked with following a path that will ultimately lead you to the root of Creation, otherwise known as the City of All Dimensions… a little place called Arkhaban. You are to collect the seals of the 6 Heralds and bring them back to the place where you birthed, and that is basically what you are left with.

The story in Undungeon definitely unfolds more as you play, but no amount of mental preparation will get you ready for the amount of details and dialog that will ultimately rain down on you. This is an incredibly complicated and some times convoluted story that will most likely turn off casual players. For big fans of action RPGs and rich sci-fi storytelling, this will probably be a hit, but I worry that this one might go over many people’s heads.

When it comes to gameplay, Undungeon is kind of all over the place. At its core, it is an action RPG of sorts, but because of its strong attachment to lore building and storytelling, some times the gameplay feels more like a chore than it is actually fun. That’s because there are a lot of side missions that ask you to do rather boring activities, particularly escort missions, where most of the time the person being escorted dies along the way. Other times, you are just traveling frequently, some times even in a back-and-forth manner.

Combat is rather interesting, though, as there are two modes of play that feel quite similar to that of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Essentially, there is an overworld map where you must direct your character to certain locations, and there can be enemies on this map, and if they touch you, it will initiate a combat sequence. These moments and normal areas can have enemies that you can slash with your melee attacks or throw bombs and other fun goods at to keep them at bay or destroy them. It is thoroughly satisfying, but I do find that running away and exiting maps is much more practical than wasting valuable equipment and goods.

Enemies can, at times, feel rather unfair. That is because the balancing in Undungeon, like other points, feels like it lacks any rhythm, so when facing enemies in one area, it can feel like a breeze and enemies in the very next area will destroy you in seconds. Dying also sucks, because it throws you back to the main hub area, which requires you to re-travel to the location you died again in hopes that you will not perish once more. For being such a large game in so many ways, a mechanic like this can really drain the excitement from the experience.

You will ultimately travel across multiple dimensions that will bring their own little stories and challenges, as well as enemies, missions, and more. You can also recruit random NPCs to your party, which is quite cool, and they can help you tremendously along your journey. Bosses and higher level enemies (Signified by star-ratings) pack a huge punch, so you absolutely need to be better prepared for such circumstances. High level enemies can be found very early in the game, and they will mess you up. Best to stay away from them then and allow yourself to strengthen and become better equipped.

Graphically, Undungeon looks amazing! It has a unique pixel look about it, and the areas are all incredibly detailed, albeit small in scale. What I mean there is that no one area you enter is a large map, but small sections of the over-arching map that have borders which will take you back to the larger map where you can travel elsewhere. The enemies are varied and well designed, and the overall aesthetic caters wonderfully to the sci-fi and RPG spectrums.

Considering the game’s massive download size, I was expecting some voice acting, but to my surprise, that is absent and we are left with a lot of text. I think this is where the story kind of suffers, because it is too easy to skip blocks and blocks of texts and unfortunately miss out on some important details. Voice work would have helped here wonderfully, but the sound department still does a great job of making you feel like you are in a sci-fi world filled with wonder and intrigue.

Undungeon feels like a huge love letter to sci-fi and action RPG fans. It has a massive and complicated story that offers bits of lore throughout, and the application of the multiverse and your mission to fix things is an interesting plot point that serves to entertain throughout. It definitely caters to a niche crowd, which is completely fine, but it also limits the outreach.

The random difficulty spikes are a pain, and the sheer amount of information you have to know in order to complete tasks, survive battles, and move forward can be frustrating. Thankfully, the battle system is fun, the arsenal that our protagonist is equipped with is satisfying, and the recruiting of NPCs to join you on your journey is a lovely touch.

All of this is why Undungeon is a tough one for me to review, because it does certain things really well while missing the boat on others. The attention to detail at certain points deserves praise, but the neglect in other areas cannot be avoided. If you enjoy large action RPGs, this may be a solid title for you. However, if you are a casual fan that does not have a lot of time to invest, I would sadly ignore this one.

Undungeon Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: tinyBuild Games
Developer: Laughing Machines
Release Date: September 29th, 2022
Price: $19.99, £17.99, €19,99
Game Size: 6.1 GB