Undungeon [Xbox]

Developed by Laughing Machines, Undungeon is an action-RPG that follows in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event known as The Great Shift, where seven variations of Earth were merged. You’ll start off the story as Void, Keeper of the Void Dimension - with a second character, Marduk, able to be unlocked later. You must reach The City of All Dimensions, known as Arkhaban - situated at the root of Creation - and collect the seals of the Six Heralds.

It’s a surprisingly complex game, with an unbelievable number of systems, from Karma, Trading, Crafting and more - and it has lore fed to you through numerous text-based interactions and info-heavy pop ups, to try and give some semblance of an explanation for how everything works. There’s a hub area, with a floating eyeball named Vidicus who will explain things to you, as well as train you up on the basics - which thankfully can be re-read at any time via your communicator, as there’s just way too much information for my poor human brain to hold. You’ll travel from here to other areas using Piers, a “Fast Travel” system that isn’t quite a fast-travel system, since there’s no other way out aside from it.

You can fully customise Void, changing out different body parts and organs, from your Skin, Heart, Eyes and Brain, right through to your Core and any upgrade nodes attached to it, and this all adds a really interesting layer to things - tweaking your character to best utilise scrap-parts you find along the way. Parts get worn down over time, such as your mechanical claws, and these will need to be swapped out, so having spare parts is extremely important, and useful, too.

Visually, the world is richly detailed with varied locations, and the characters you meet are interestingly crafted, with designs that range from humanoid figures to abstract, mish-mashes of flesh and other materials that makes for some impressive beings. Sadly, the game had a lot more promised in its initial stages of development, having a Kickstarter campaign that ran back in 2017 - with plans for seven playable Heralds, with a variety of well-designed appearances, some of which I’m sad we’re missing out on now, although one can always hope that they’ll add more content over time. The soundtrack is very well fitting, but the lack of voice acting can make the world feel quite bare - particularly due to the excessive amount of reading that is required across all of the information dumps. The dialogue is interesting, and would have worked really well with some good voice acting - I’ve actually been reading it all aloud as I go, and the interactions between certain characters would have been entertaining to hear, as opposed to me just acting it out myself.

Enemies have various buffs, including damage that will be increased by 100% after a successful hit - denoted by stars that linger above their heads for a limited time before turning into one-hit shields, this makes things significantly more challenging the worse you are, as not only will enemies keep getting stronger as you continue to get weaker, but the health mechanics are done in such a way that you can have organs for extra health, but as these get damaged - you can only regain health up to a certain point, so you’ll be continuing with less health until you’re able to equip fresh organs again, which can ultimately make things feel incredibly frustrating.

Whilst some of the mechanics are quite difficult and cumbersome, others are unique and interesting, such as the way that enemy deaths will determine the chances of certain drops, depending on the method of killing; such as by Laceration, Mortification, Explosions, etc. - this also impacts whether or not an autopsy can be performed, to enable organs to be harvested. You will meet characters on your travels that may want to join you on your quest, and they will accompany you, helping you deal with enemies for as long as they live. You can toss health items to them when they’re running low, in order to prolong their life, and keep them by your side. Utilising items is done in a pretty unique way, requiring you to toss the item in front of you before breaking it - but in doing so, leaves it temporarily open for enemies to use instead, whether they be health items or enhancer buffs - especially if you’re intending an ally to use it in the middle of a busy skirmish.

Dying will reset you back to your previous checkpoint, whether that was the last time you used a Pier to travel, or any Mirrors that you have come across on your travels, as whilst these can’t be travelled directly to like the Piers, they serve as a checkpoint that will rebirth you into the world upon death.

There’s a day/night system within the world map, and travelling from area to area requires the use of the map to direct yourself on where to go, and it will take time to do so, running through the certain number of days it takes to travel. You’ll sometimes get missions that are tied to this day/night cycle, being timed in such a way that they must be completed in a certain period of time (and time spent travelling from place to place will need to be factored into this).

Undungeon is by far a game that you will need to dedicate a lot of time to. It’s fun, but can be pretty frustrating at times - so thankfully it’s available on Xbox Game Pass to play without having to take the risk and splurging £16.74 on it from the Xbox Store. If you’re looking for an intense action-RPG to sink some time into, then Undungeon just might be worth a go - especially if you’re already a Game Pass subscriber.

In the end, we decided to give Undungeon the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.

Are you interested in Undungeon? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to tinyBuild for the Undungeon Xbox review code!