Jobs are stressful. That’s obvious to anyone who has worked a job in their life, or has a guardian figure who works nine to five on a weekly basis. You gotta have a morning routine so you look and be prepared upon entering the workplace. Dress nice or be up to code with what they want you to wear. Then you gotta make sure you eat a big meal, and that the big meal doesn’t make you late to work. Drive to said workplace and attempt to avoid traffic, because being late may or may not have consequences. Get to work, clock in, work for three or more hours straight, clock out, take a break, clock in, clock out, lunch break, clock in, clock out, and then go home. Try to rest up as much as you can, go to sleep, and wake up next to an alarm to do it all over again. It’s a process you get used to, but no matter what you’re gonna feel tired and stressed all the time. Cause there’s this fear that if you’re not doing something all the time you’re not being useful. Then there’s the fear that you’re not making enough money, or if you don’t comply with some of the rules fully you’ll get written up or worse fired.
Enough about talking about jobs and working for forty years till the day we retire and die. That was supposed to be a reference to SpongeBob by the way. Let’s talk about a game that makes the workforce look fun and is one of the most refreshing roguelikes I’ve played recently. The game being Going Under, an action roguelike developed by indie studio Aggro Crab. It was their first game and as their debut title they wanted it to be as grand as possible. Even after launch day they gave the game multiple updates so that it would feel like a well polished product, and once they got it to a state they were happy with they moved onto other things. They’ve made two games since Going Under and those are Subway Midnight which came out a year after Going Under, and Another Crab’s Treasure which came out this year. The game that was advertised as the first ever crab soulslikes. A game I was very excited for and am happy it’s getting a lot of positive reception, so to celebrate their recent outstanding achievement I thought it’d be a great idea to check out their first title and see where their great beginnings started.
Going Under was a game I was a little bit worried about whether I’d like or not. I’ve been having roguelike fatigue and have begun to realize some video games don’t benefit from the roguelike model. Going Under looked interesting to me for its visual style, witty humor making fun of the corporate office space, and its chaotic gameplay. However, it chased me off due to its difficulty barrier and of course it being a roguelike. I put it on the backburner for a bit, and it wasn’t until recently I picked it back up and stayed addicted to it for a couple days. Going Under is fantastic. It is one of the best roguelikes I’ve checked out this year and have played recently. There’s a lot of creativity on display for what is a pretty simple game, and while the mechanics and difficulty may chase some people off I think if you’re willing to stick around you’ll find a very rewarding and fulfilling experience. It’s a game whose rights outweigh its flaws, and the sheer love put in has gotten me excited to check out Aggro Crab’s other works including their latest game. Let’s talk about Going Under and why it deserves your attention.
Story
The game follows Jacqueline Fiasco as she shows up for her first day on the job. An internship at Fizzle Beverages, a company that specializes in sparkling drinks with many exotic flavors. The company recently got bought out by Cubicle, a massive corporation in the city in charge of the success of surrounding businesses and the satisfaction of others. They help ship out supplies and make sure everything is going smoothly. The staff at Fizzle Beverages are joyful over their new investors, and business is booming as more people want to try out the new Fizzle flavors. Jackie is excited to work at such a hip company, but before she can start her shift she notices a weird creature in the back of the room. What appears to be a goblin in worker uniform, and it runs off into a nearby pipe. That is Joblin and they work for what is now the defunct Joblin company. She is a bit worried at first but Marv, the boss of her department, tells Jackie to chase after the Joblin. She does so and finds the remains of the Joblin business.
The whole place is filled with the previous staff now turned monsters. She battles her way across business using what she can scrape together, and upon getting deep enough into the business she runs into the head of Joblin. The boss sends a bunch of heavily armed Joblins at her, she faints due to exhaustion, and is dragged back to Fizzle Beverages to quickly recover. Turns out there’s all sorts of businesses going under, hence the title of the game, and Marv wants her to take these businesses down before more trouble can be caused for them and the higher ups at Cubicle. So instead of helping around the office Jackie will learn to master the battlefield, fight monsters, grow stronger upon each failed attempt, and hopefully bring peace and respect to the workplace. She’ll maybe even learn the truth of what’s going on, and what the higher ups really think of all those below them. What a business represents to them.
Gameplay
Going Under is a 3rd person action roguelike where you navigate procedurally generated levels, fight your way through baddies, accumulate a collection of power ups to grow stronger, and fight a boss at the end if you can manage to get deep enough into a dungeon. Whenever you die you get sent back to Fizzle Beverages and lose all of the power ups you obtained. The dungeon will be randomly generated again alongside equipment and upgrades, and you have to fight your way through it again in an attempt to get back to where you once were. It sounds demotivating, but it’s for those who are addicted and motivated enough to see if they can get it next time. The only thing you really keep from running is the core currency, and it can be spent on new skills you can possibly pick up while venturing. Skills can offer a variety of benefits that help make each run feel new and more chaotic than the last. A buzzsaw that swirls around you and deals damage to any enemies that dares to get close. Emitting an electric shock whenever you take damage, so it allows you to get the edge and punish foes. Being able to set foes ablaze when you lock onto them, getting big and strong, and giving you boxing gloves when you have nothing else to fend yourself with. With brings me onto the combat, which is the core focus of Going Under.
It’s not like most roguelikes where you choose a weapon or class at the beginning of a run and it carries you through from beginning to end. Instead the game has durability amongst all the tools you accumulate. Every weapon breaks after a few hits, and you can only carry three weapons at a time. This means you will always be scrambling to pick up different weapons during fights, and while this takes some time to get used to it leads to a fast and chaotic combat loop. Making use of what you have and finding ways to punish enemies. Slice their face up with a sword, watch it break, and then pick up a keyboard and see them get stunned due to electricity bursting out of the now shattered keyboard.Each object you pick up has a different attack speed and damage output, and larger weapons will usually take longer to swing and leave you more exposed so be careful when mashing the attack button. Everytime you defeat an enemy you get money, and money is a currency not kept upon each run. Money can be spent at shops to either get healing items, skills, or weapons. Useful since healing is a rarity throughout dungeons. Healing gets more expensive on each floor, so sometimes you might want to take on optional challenges as a risk to get more of what you need to survive. There are a total of three dungeons in the game, and once you beat them all you unlock the final dungeon. Each with their own enemy types, traps, and weapons.
It’ll take a lot of work to get through each dungeon. Understanding the enemy types, the pattern of the boss lying at the end of each one, and accumulating enough upgrades to stand a chance. It can be frustrating, but thankfully you have options including assist features for any players who are having a tricky time. Even then the game isn’t afraid to bum rush you from all sides, so make sure you play wisely and efficiently. Besides that there’s nothing else for me to say about this game. It’s simple, but the elements at disposal are executed well and there’s a bit of depth to the gameplay if you are willing to find it. Show 'em what you are really made of.
Thoughts
Going Under is fantastic. It’s the most fun I’ve had with a roguelike in a bit and never once did it feel like a chore to play compared to some of the other roguelikes I’ve reviewed this year. That being said I will admit this is not for everyone. There are difficulty curves and design choices that will chase people, or make people see Going Under as an alright experience. I got into the groove of things, and if you’re willing to accept its quirks you’ll have a lot of fun. The combat loop is one of the main selling points of Going Under and it is handled very well. Durability is something I hate in video games. It disrupts the flow of gameplay and often creates fear within the player’s head. Wondering how many more hits the weapon can take before it breaks and they have no other options to defend themselves with. In fact, durability can discourage players from interacting with certain aspects of the combat or all of it together. Breath of The Wild being a big example of this as often players would find ways to defeat foes without utilizing weapons, but at least the game was built around environmental reaction and freedom. Going Under is a game that is combat a majority of the time, so some worries start to pop up. Surprisingly it manages to make low durability weapons and frenetic fights fun and it's due to how many tools there are at your disposal.
There are plentiful amounts of weapons lying around each encounter, and enemies will always drop weapons when defeated. If you pay attention to each run and master each piece of equipment you’ll know when to rush over to certain spots, grab specific items, and get the drop on enemies. Whip out the heavy hitting tools when you are surrounded, or make use of the field. There’s quite more depth than you can expect from a game like Going Under. You can set the battlefield ablaze and watch your enemies burn to a crisp. Throw an explosive at them and watch as they’re blown to pieces as well as other objects. Electrocute them and see a chain reaction, have them run into the patch of a minecart, and so on. You can do quite a bit and it’s this constant switching back and forth between options that makes Going Under fun and rewarding. No single encounter outside of bosses will go on beyond two minutes, and every dungeon has at least three floors and a boss room. Each floor is quite linear and easy to navigate. Always pushing you to get to the objective, and I like instead of having to wander around aimlessly to find the room that leads forward. There’s also symbols telling you of rooms that can give you skills and items, so it helps you keep track of where is what and where you can rush to in case you miss something.
The game is very hard and in some cases I think it pushes you harder than it really should. Those early hours of the game can be tricky because you only have three heart containers. Meaning you can take six hits before an entire run ends, and affording healing items can be difficult if you are not good at the combat and try to play safely by skipping optional challenges. It becomes more manageable as you get better, but later on the game pulls a trick on you. Without spoiling too much narratively you have to redo the three dungeons you beat. This time with new gimmicks, enemy types, and bosses with new attack patterns. It gets harder and harder, and honestly a lot of players who bought this game probably won’t be able to beat it through normal means. It’s good that there are assist options though, which is something I really appreciate. They took the route Shovel Knight Dig took where you create your own difficulty. The game is still hard even with these options on, but at least they make it more manageable. You could give yourself a bigger health bar which is what I did, more invincibility frames, less enemy health, more durability with your weapons, or a combination of the bunch.
I mentioned the game pulls a trick with the dungeons, and I like that it does that. Each of the three dungeons are unique and focus on different business and gimmicks that make sense to the dungeons they are a part of. Joblin is the most basic one with room to room combat. Then you enter a dating app business where there’s tons of fire traps and the optional challenges are you deciding whether you approve or disapprove of someone allah Tinder. Then you hit the bitcoin dungeon where you get bitcoin instead of money from defeated foes, and you can either spend it at the bitcoin shop or exchange it for real cash for other items instead. However, one shop may have something the other doesn’t so you have to choose wisely. There are three dungeons with three floors each, so it makes Going Under sound like a short game. Then it pulls the trick and you have to retraverse them. Fight new enemies, deal with new hazards, and bosses you fought before but with different gimmicks. Like the bitcoin skeleton lord will now fight you on a ferry, and fire cannonballs at you when it summons enemies to harass you. Probably one of my favorite fights in the game for how fun, stupid, and creative it is. So technically there are six dungeons in the game with two more serving as final dungeons midway and at the end of the game. It didn’t take too long for me to beat them with it being shorter with assist options. Super manageable.
I’ve been mainly talking about the core gameplay and design, but don’t let it make you think the other aspects of Going Under aren’t worth talking about. I love the art style of this game. In some ways it’s making fun of the colorful, safe, and comfy look a lot of companies have tried to adopt recently. How they try to act like your friend with this friendly look, but deep down they aren’t the nicest. All of the characters have fun goofy designs, and the bouncy physics to me for some odd reason give it a funny personality most games struggle to have. The story is good, in fact I’d say it’s pretty smart when you take the time to look at it and the work politics it tries to address. How investors don’t care about smaller businesses and that they’ll shut down wholeass companies just to keep the money in their pockets. How businesses don’t care about the mental well being of the workers and that they’ll overwork them just to keep everything on check. How businesses create lies to maintain their image, but deep down they have other desires that will often contradict what they stand for. I say this right now because we’re going through it right now. Development studios are being shut down even if they make something great because it did not meet the unrealistic expectations the companies and investors hoped for. It’s smart and it feels incredibly relevant to this day. Despite the serious tone I’m using I will say the game is not afraid to be funny during all of this. Cracking jokes that make sense and appease people like me.
Now I do have a few complaints outside of the difficulty of this game. I think the skill system is great overall, but some skills are certainly better than others. Like being able to light foes ablaze just by locking onto them is really overpowered in my opinion. Some skills could do a better job at telling you what they did. The skill that makes you bigger either makes you deal more damage or knock goes around easily. I never figured it out. One skill lets you deal more damage when there are more people around you. Okay, so what does that mean? Does that mean when there are more enemies, or when I have NPC assistants helping me. Not useless, but confusing. There’s a couple of bugs and significant framerate drops when too much is going on. During the final level I had an enemy glitch into the wall, and thank goodness I had a long range weapon to hit them otherwise the level would have been incompletable. Besides that there’s nothing else for me to yap on about. This game is great and it goes on sale pretty often since it’s almost four years old now. I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants a fun and refreshing roguelike of pure charm. I give Going Under a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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