Going Under

The art is beautiful, taking the corporate art styles into a game was genius. Using workplace objects as weapons fulfills a fantasy I and many others have had. It has its moments, but its humor is filled with dated memes and references. It's painfully unfunny and the characters lack depth. Half of the content is repeated (The game is copy and pasted twice). Balance is garbage. Entire rooms explode at once, and enemies attack from all directions int he late game. Maps are often covered in darkness or spring a traps as soon as the player walks into rooms. It's not hard, but it is unfair. Patterns are readable and reactable in a vacuum, but good luck seeing them behind walls or behind the camera. There is no reward for tolerating this game. The final boss is awful and the ending is not worth the effort. Better to watch than to play.

I work as a web developer. The writing of this game was so incredible I told a bunch of people. One of which I know finished it. I just sent him the following message that I think encapsulates my thoughts well. I might take going under off my want to finish list. I tried so hard not role playing a QA tester and I was succeeding. Now I'm half way through the last dungeon on a decent run and to the best of my knowledge of how I can interact with the game I'm stuck in a wall. I can't say I don't like the gameplay but I also can't say I like it either. I wanted to atleast get the 3 relics because the writing, art style, creativity etc is incredible. This game was made for people like us! However I think it might be time to say it missed its mark for me and move on.

Game Pros: Runs. Actually pretty well, linux and windows. Pretty much never crashes or bricks itself Not terribly resource intensive Fun for at least an hour and a half Le reddit humor You can just toggle on the "assist" mode in the main menu once you get tired of dealing with all the bad game design choices. Except the menu issue, that won't ever change. Cons: Menu's are optimized like ♥♥♥♥. Unlike other roguelike games that understand death is going to happen often and frequently especially when looking for good runs at the start, this one assumes you either have the patience or time to waste over a minute every time you want to reset. Other similar games for example (enter the gungeon) would let you reset after death, or instantly from the pause menu. This game REQUIRES you wait through 3 menus that take nearly 2 minutes once you factor in loading as you HAVE to wait for post game, HAVE to go back to the hub through a load, and HAVE to load into the map you were trying to play again. You can't change your controls to prevent auto pickup on dodge so you will often dodge with an empty hand, pick up a heavy object and be unable to move out of the way as it slows you down. There is little to no Iframes after being hit nor do certain attacks provide any at all enabling for stunlock deaths. Enemies can spawn in rooms in such a way that makes fighting them nearly impossible without an optimal build meaning if you encounter this room too early in a run you are going to die to the aforementioned stunlock. The last update in this game was in 2021 so expect all of this to stay this way forever. The game expects you to complete a gauntlet mode of 12 floors 10 times. With no starting perk. No bonus lives. Also enjoy spending HALF of the time you finish this challenge in loading screens and menus. It takes about an hour+ per run. By the time you finish this game you might have around 40 hours in the game. That equates in my case to around 31 hours playing the game and another 9 in menu's. Over 20% of your play time absolutely should not be stuck in menus and loading screens. Literally inexcusable. This type of game has been made countless times before and by now this should be figured out. Risk of Rain 2, Slay the Spire, Golden Light, HoH, Necrodancer, Gungeon, ♥♥♥♥ even Inscryption did it once they added the endless mode. This is not hard, just TOO hard for this game apparently. Its easy to want to give a game a pass when compared to some of the abysmal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shovelware I have played on steam. But is the metric for being a good game really "playable and not an assetflip"? No its not. This game is only good if you don't actually play it beyond the easiest difficulty and don't mind how little it respects its players. But don't worry. You can just toggle on the "assist" mode. Its not a bad game, its just not a good one. If there was a score for MID I would give it that.

[h1] ★★★★ [/h1]

Finished a casual playthrough (beating the final boss and getting the endcard + credits) in around 10 hours. Runs great on Steam Deck. I feel like this game was not appreciated in its time. It's not a king of the Rougelike genre but it is a solid little game. The weapon system is fun and I wish the "choose your first item" mechanic appeared in more of these smaller roguelikes, it prevents resetting from getting a bad first item. I am a big proponent of the Narrative Rougelike™️ and I think Going Under delivers witty writing with a handful of archetypal characters. The critique of the tech industry and startup culture as a literal dungeon speaks to me as someone who had a parent in the industry in the 2000s and 2010s. Ray's character is *extremely* true to life, the startup bro personality is not exaggerated. Considering the price this game goes on sale (as I'm writing this it's literally $1.99), you should pick it up. It's challenging enough to hold your attention, the jokes usually land, the Rougelike mechanics are fun. Plus, it doesn't overstay it's welcome, it's the perfect length to have fun with but not have to slog.

Going Under is a fun roguelike that is a cynical game wrapped in a bubbly corporate slop parody artstyle, harkening back to the times where people could actually find internships. The gameplay is fun, making the most of its weapon durability system by allowing you to basically use anything thats not nailed down and within arms reach to be a weapon to swing, shoot, or throw. Im addition to that, there are powerups you gain throughout the game and the abilities you unlock by bonding with your coworkers. The artstyle is well-made and mocks the corporate deco artstyle without being bogged down by it, making for a fun experience. The story and themes are parodies of some of the worst the gig economy has to offer, unfortunately meaning it has aged rather well in that department. Finally, ive been listening to the soundtrack for years now due to how solid it is. Overall, a very worthy buy.

Estando agora recém graduado da faculdade não vejo momento melhor para falar sobre esse jogo, então vamos lá. Fazendo uma breve apresentação, Going Under é um Roguelite que tem como ambientação o mercado de trabalho como um estagiário (o caso da protagonista Jackie) ou profissional Júnior em qualquer grande empresa nos dias atuais, a premissa é que você é uma estagiária que foi contratada para trabalhar em uma empresa startup de produção de bebidas revolucionárias, essa empresa foi recém adquirida pela maior big tech do mundo, a Cubicle (uma óbvia referência a Amazon, mas as vezes o óbvio precisa ser dito). Ainda falando sobre a história do jogo, ela começa bem despretensiosa, mas vai dando várias sacadas cada vez maiores sobre as práticas de trabalho exploratórias e predatórias do mercado de trabalho atual, a protagonista Jackie a princípio foi contratado para a vaga de Marketing, mas logo na primeira dungeon do jogo, somos obrigados a nos livrar de Joblins (Goblins workaholics) que estão perturbando o equilíbrio da nossa empresa, um claro desvio de função, ao longo da história, são feitos vários trocadilhos como esses que precisam de pouquíssima contextualização para quem já trabalhou numa grande empresa. Eu poderia falar horas e horas sobre a história desse jogo e sobre como as críticas são feitas super bem contextualizadas com humor, a Aggro Crab sempre faz um trabalho sensacional em criar jogos críticos bem humorados e que não deixam em nenhum momento de serem ótimos jogos em quesito de gameplay, preciso destacar que Going Under tem uma base tão sólida enquanto videogame e crítica social ao mesmo tempo, que acabou se tornando tópico de TCC para um colega meu do curso de Publicidade e Propaganda, por isso, recomendo que experimentem a história por si mesmos, vale muito a pena! Agora se tratando de gameplay, Going Under se baseia na exploração de 3 dungeons, cada uma com uma versão mais difícil de si mesma, englobando um total de 6 dungeons no total, as dungeons são geradas de maneira aleatória, se baseando de várias salas dvididas em vários andares com uma boa variedade de inimigos em cada uma das respectivas dungeons, o loop do jogo gira em torno do combate por meio de armas descartáveis com os inimigos dessas dungeons para ganhar dinheiro e melhorias para deixar as runs mais fáceis ao longo do tempo (por isso se trata de um RogueLITE). Minha experiência com o jogo foi majoritariamente muito boa, o jogo não foi particularmente difícil, mas também está longe de ser um jogo fácil, a boa variedade de inimigos juntando com a variedade de melhorias e os infinitos trocadilhos sobre o mercado de trabalho me deixaram entretido do começo ao fim, porém, por se tratar da primeira experiência da Aggro Crab em lançar um jogo completo, ele tem umas falhas aqui e ali que uma pessoa que joga o jogo do pé a cabeça como eu acaba se deparando, como hitboxes duvidosas e alguns bugs que impedem progressão, nada muito grande, só acontecimentos muito esporádicos que não influenciam em nada a experiência geral do jogo em si. No geral, Going Under pra mim é uma recomendação fácil pra quem gosta de Roguelikes e Roguelites e está cansado da ambientação clássica medieval que esse gênero tende a apresentar, além disso, fora do contexto de gameplay o jogo tem muito a oferecer em quesito de história e entretenimento, com uma gameplay bem não convencional que tem muito a agregar para o repertório de jogos indie.

Going Under is a short but memorable indie gem. You play as an unpaid intern exploring monster-filled underground offices, using office junk as weapons. It’s absurd, creative, and surprisingly satisfying. The roguelite combat is flexible and fair. Almost anything can become a weapon, but items break easily, forcing you to constantly adapt on the fly. The dungeons are themed around parodies of dating apps, crypto startups, and the gig economy, all presented in a bright and colorful art style that contrasts perfectly with the game’s dark humor. If you enjoy Hades, this is an easy recommendation. Just be prepared to laugh and cringe at how accurately it mocks modern work culture. Rating: 7/10 (I would’ve rated it higher if the game hadn’t crashed on my PC 4 times, forcing me to redo entire runs each time.)