UnderMine Reviews
UnderMine offers a rogue-like experience that’s both entertaining and addictive, with each run through the titular dungeon making for an exciting (and dangerous) romp. There’s a satisfying sense of progress to be found with the collection of gold and improving your character between runs, whilst the solid level design ensures there’s always something new to overcome or discover during each run. It can be a little bit guilty of lacking originality in places and it didn’t do anything I hadn’t seen done in the genre before, but its great sense of exploration and competent design across the board ensures that UnderMine stands out as a must-play rogue-like.
The secrets and characters you encounter truly give every attempt a unique feeling, and once you make it through the Undermine's five areas and bosses, you unlock the Othermine, which is a true roguelike without the base game's progression mechanics. There are dozens of hours to be spent with UnderMine, and many more if you want to complete the 96 in-game achievements and find every partner familiar, item, and potion. Without question, Thorium Entertainment has struck gold with UnderMine, and it's a worthy addition to the Switch's stable of rogue-ish titles.
As far as roguelike dungeon crawlers go, UnderMine is firm but fair. There’s no need to go into this game bracing yourself for a barrage of beatdowns like you would with others of its ilk, but you’re also not going to get very far if you think that a slower approach to the roguelike experience means an objectively easier one. I know that my tastes are not representative of everyone else’s. However, I’d still like to confidently state that UnderMine is a must-play for anyone who fancies themselves a roguelike fan.
If all rogue-like titles were like UnderMine, I would be an avid fan. Yes, it still has all the annoyances associated with the genre, but these are forgotten because of the light-hearted gameplay. The RPG elements with the upgradable equipment, the variety of enemies, and the curses and blessings make each playthrough different. Lovers of this genre, will either already have this, or have considered trying it. If you normally give these a miss, I recommend giving this a go. If you don’t have Gamepass, you can buy a copy here! Can you solve the mystery behind the earthquakes beneath the city? Grab your pick and venture into the deep. If you die, don’t worry as there are peasants lining up to take your place.
UnderMine applies roguelite concepts in a great game. The cycle of exploring, collecting money, dying, improving the character and trying again is addictive, as each game is unique and there is a constant feeling that we are progressing. The variety of powers that can be obtained along the way, in particular, makes each attempt exciting and unpredictable - part of the fun is just seeing what crazy combination of skills will come next. There is a lot of content to explore, although the need to grind to unlock certain resources makes things a bit repetitive, apart from a few other problems. In the end, UnderMine is a solid, polished action dungeon crawler.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
UnderMine may look like a Super Nintendo game, but it takes some of the best (and sometimes frustrating) elements of games like Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon and brings it altogether to create an addicting journey.
For anyone who's a fan of Rogue-like indie dungeon crawlers with a hint of RPG elements in them, I heartily recommend UnderMine. Even for gamers who don't like indie titles, like myself, it's totally worth playing. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much fun I've had improving my runs until I finally managed to beat the first boss without too much trouble. After every time I died, I couldn't wait to continue digging and see how far I could get this time. However, I missed the opportunity to apply my own playing style a little more. This is mainly due to the randomness of the Relics, but I would also have liked to see some more RPG options regarding upgrading your character. UnderMine is a great game that I will definitely launch more often.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
UnderMine is exceedingly well done for an early access title and deserves just as much fanfare as other big established roguelikes now that it’s a full release. Impressively, it has a complete feature set and seems to be ready for a bright future, quite unlike the mines it’s set in.
Overall, a solid title in the genre which offers plenty of content to enjoy and some well-implemented visuals; only let down by some frustrating mechanics and slight graphical flaws.
So overall, Thorium’s Undermine is a fantastic Roguelike on both the PC where it has released from Early Access and on the XB1 where players are now playing for the first time. Top down and only designed to keep being entertaining hours down the line as you push further and further into the mine, here is a Roguelike that is both accessible to players new to the style and to long time veterans looking for a new challenge. Check back next week for some Let’s Plays as we were wonderfully treated to both an XB1 and a PC code to cover Undermine!
If you are looking for a new challenging game to take on with a unique take on a tried and true genre, UnderMine is absolutely a must-play. Especially as a day-one Xbox Game Pass release, there is simply no reason not to go spelunking in this well-crafted, deep, and challenging game. With its unique take on roguelike combat mechanics and an array of resources and stats to balance and manage, UnderMine is a great place to start for newcomers to the genre and players looking for a serious challenge alike.