Going Under is a satirical dungeon crawler about exploring the cursed ruins of failed tech startups. As an unpaid intern in the dystopian city of Neo-Cascadia, you’ll wield office junk as weaponry as you make your way through the offbeat procedural dungeons beneath your company campus.
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Solid experience.
Well this is a charming little project :)
With Aggro Crab's upcoming crustacean-themed souls-like "Another Crab's Treasure," releasing this coming week, I figured I'd familiarise myself with their debut game, Going Under: Internships Are Heck, to give it its full title. Suffice it to say, I was incredibly charmed by the cut of this game's jib.
Going Under is a procedural roguelike dungeon crawler where you play as newly-employed intern Jacqueline Fiasco as she tries desperately to climb up the corporate ladder of her employer, Fizzle, a lowly subsidiary of megacorporation Cubicle. Though she was hired based on her marketing skills, Jackie finds herself instead trawling through dungeons and fighting goblins, demons, and skeletons in the vague hopes of getting a promotion.
It's a cute and humorous premise, and honestly, it gets a lot of mileage out of it, employing (pun intended) a sharp wit (with some genuinely funny dialogue) and a charming cast of co-workers to pull you into its world and keep you there with a simple yet engaging combat loop that never really gets tired, thanks to a rotating roster of skills, modifiers, and weapons that help continuously switch things up.
Needless to say, the art style is, of course, also a huge draw, seemingly drawing from corporate motivational posters as inspiration and spinning that off into its own kitschy, genuinely adoring look and feel for all of its characters and props.
Really, I'd say the only part that could bring the whole thing down a bit for many people is the difficulty spike in the second half of the game. To provide a bit of context, as spoiler-free as I can make it, the game has its own "rotating of the castle" moment at the midway point and encourages you to go through it all over again except with an extra challenge this time in order to get the true ending.
Now, usually, prospects like this (especially if they are mandatory to seek out the "true" ending) generally turn me off, but to its credit, Going Under isn't a particularly lengthy game; it has a really enjoyable gameplay loop, and there are some handy 'assist mode' settings for accessibility purposes that you can tweak on top of that, so it's really not as taxing as that might sound.
So yes, there is a difficulty spike in the second half, but it's much more manageable than it might seem.
Really, my only complaints are down to issues with RNG, but really that's more of an issue with roguelikes as a genre than this game specifically, as its kind of built-in to the whole experience of them. Besides that, the combat can perhaps get a bit repetitive, especially if you're attempting the same dungeons multiple times in a row during that tricky second half, but again, it does the job well enough.
For a first outing, though, Going Under is incredibly charming and supremely impressive in how well it is put together and presented in all facets of the game. There are some setbacks but not enough to warrant caution in recommending it to anyone at all.
In fact, if you're tired of scrolling through Indeed or LinkedIn all day, playing this will no doubt prove to be an incredibly cathartic experience.
8.5/10
With Aggro Crab's upcoming crustacean-themed souls-like "Another Crab's Treasure," releasing this coming week, I figured I'd familiarise myself with their debut game, Going Under: Internships Are Heck, to give it its full title. Suffice it to say, I was incredibly charmed by the cut of this game's jib.
Going Under is a procedural roguelike dungeon crawler where you play as newly-employed intern Jacqueline Fiasco as she tries desperately to climb up the corporate ladder of her employer, Fizzle, a lowly subsidiary of megacorporation Cubicle. Though she was hired based on her marketing skills, Jackie finds herself instead trawling through dungeons and fighting goblins, demons, and skeletons in the vague hopes of getting a promotion.
It's a cute and humorous premise, and honestly, it gets a lot of mileage out of it, employing (pun intended) a sharp wit (with some genuinely funny dialogue) and a charming cast of co-workers to pull you into its world and keep you there with a simple yet engaging combat loop that never really gets tired, thanks to a rotating roster of skills, modifiers, and weapons that help continuously switch things up.
Needless to say, the art style is, of course, also a huge draw, seemingly drawing from corporate motivational posters as inspiration and spinning that off into its own kitschy, genuinely adoring look and feel for all of its characters and props.
Really, I'd say the only part that could bring the whole thing down a bit for many people is the difficulty spike in the second half of the game. To provide a bit of context, as spoiler-free as I can make it, the game has its own "rotating of the castle" moment at the midway point and encourages you to go through it all over again except with an extra challenge this time in order to get the true ending.
Now, usually, prospects like this (especially if they are mandatory to seek out the "true" ending) generally turn me off, but to its credit, Going Under isn't a particularly lengthy game; it has a really enjoyable gameplay loop, and there are some handy 'assist mode' settings for accessibility purposes that you can tweak on top of that, so it's really not as taxing as that might sound.
So yes, there is a difficulty spike in the second half, but it's much more manageable than it might seem.
Really, my only complaints are down to issues with RNG, but really that's more of an issue with roguelikes as a genre than this game specifically, as its kind of built-in to the whole experience of them. Besides that, the combat can perhaps get a bit repetitive, especially if you're attempting the same dungeons multiple times in a row during that tricky second half, but again, it does the job well enough.
For a first outing, though, Going Under is incredibly charming and supremely impressive in how well it is put together and presented in all facets of the game. There are some setbacks but not enough to warrant caution in recommending it to anyone at all.
In fact, if you're tired of scrolling through Indeed or LinkedIn all day, playing this will no doubt prove to be an incredibly cathartic experience.
8.5/10
CAPITALISM BAD
amazing music and art direction
i loved the combat system too, its a rogue-like where anything can be your weapon, so you can literally throw a chair at crypto-bros , GOTY
amazing music and art direction
i loved the combat system too, its a rogue-like where anything can be your weapon, so you can literally throw a chair at crypto-bros , GOTY
Fun art style and commentary on work culture and corporations other then that the game itself is very repetitive and the combat feels very clunky and underdeveloped
Going Under para mim é um jogo bem simples, mas ainda sim tem seu charme. Sinceramente não prestei muita atenção na historia pelo fato do jogo estar totalmente inglês então não vou poder opinar muito sobre esse fator, mas acredito que seja alguma crítica ou reflexão sobre a vida corporativa. Agora algo que é maravilhosa nesse jogo é a sua gameplay, o fato do cenário ser a sua arma é algo genial e fora os combates desse jogo serem bem frenéticos. As boss fights também são bem desafiadoras, não diria impossíveis mas também não tão simples. Sua estética é bem distinta, os gráficos bem cartunescos e os visuais estilizados o tornam algo bem chamativo junto da trilha sonora que se torna uma peça principal por contribuir na diversão e na emoção do game. Pode jogar sem medo, é bastante desafiador mas ainda sim muito divertido
Enjoyment - 8/10
Difficulty - 4/10
Going Under pits you against angsty co-workers, unfair working conditions and insufferable bosses. This hits too close to real life, but it works! Playing as a new marketing intern, you must progress through each company dungeon, battling enemies along the way, collecting new gear, and defeating bosses. This rougelike is a little bit uncommon, which is surprising because it is a solid game.
It also offers an assist mode that drastically reduces the difficulty of the game if you need it. Complete the main story, side objectives, unlock all the original skills, get specific kills on enemies and the platinum is yours!
🏆
Difficulty - 4/10
Going Under pits you against angsty co-workers, unfair working conditions and insufferable bosses. This hits too close to real life, but it works! Playing as a new marketing intern, you must progress through each company dungeon, battling enemies along the way, collecting new gear, and defeating bosses. This rougelike is a little bit uncommon, which is surprising because it is a solid game.
It also offers an assist mode that drastically reduces the difficulty of the game if you need it. Complete the main story, side objectives, unlock all the original skills, get specific kills on enemies and the platinum is yours!
🏆