Hades was the smash hit of 2020, and considering its pedigree how could it be anything else? Developer Supergiant games had made hits before in the form of Bastion, Stealth Inc., and Pyre. This year they decided to try their hand at the roguelike action RPG, with much the results that one would expect from a veteran developer producing an entry in the years most popular and imitated indie style. An excellent entry in the roguelike genre, doing little to advance the formula but much to capture awards with it’s polished visual style and greek mythological setting.

Touted as an open world “Sharkpg” Maneater sees you control a shark in the ocean and steadily level and evolve it into an apex predator. This game has an interesting character and setting, unfortunately that is mostly all it has going for it. The player controls a shark, and this particular shark happens to be the star of a nature documentary. The games central premise and story focuses around this faux nature documentary and the voiceover bits are often quite funny. Add this to the unique method of locomotion and unique setting of the whole game taking place underwater and you have all the elements one would want to make a winning open world RPG but the problem is that the character and setting wear off and eventually one is left with the same game one has played 1075 times in the form of every other open world RPG ever, but with a shark as the main character.

Going Under : Internships are Heck managed to impress me in a year full of strong roguelike releases by its own sense of style, which ironically is the thing that kept me away from the game the longest too. You see, indie games with a tongue in cheek self-aware style of humor have become more and more common and nothing grates on my nerves worse. To me it is the easiest and least effective style of humor in a game and it’s often paired with a strange confidence in its own hilariousness that makes the whole thing that much worse. Seeing the title of this game I thought it would be one such game. However the game is genuinely funny, which can be said of so few other games. At times it can lean in to some generational in-humor and internet type jokes a little too hard but most of the time it doesn’t overdo it and the likable and distinct cast of characters sell the whole thing. Like Hades the bigger smash success rougelike of the year Going Under tells a story outside of the roguelike dungeons that progresses nicely with your character. The silicon valley pastel color and simple shapes visual style tied the theme of the game together very nicely as well and throw in some catchy music for your dungeon quality and you have an above average roguelike in its sense of style.

Style is where most of Going Unders innovation lies though. For its gameplay it adheres pretty closely to the now standard indie roguelike formula. The gameplay is mostly a Zelda style third person action game. Perhaps it's one gameplay innovation is that your weapons break fairly quickly so swapping between them and picking up new weapons in the dungeon happens every few rooms giving you constant changes to your weapons and gameplay style as you work your way through a run. Nearly all of the objects in the level can be picked up and thrown at enemies as well, creating a zany “use whatever you can get your hands on” type of combat that contributes to the game's sense of humor. It does everything that other things do well though. The combat is solid, the roguelike randomization keeps things fresh and you slowly progress through the game with small permanent upgrades and more knowledge of its systems. It’s all done well enough for the well executed style to bring the complete package out of the sea of indie roguelike releases.