Undergrave

Wired Dreams really outdid themselves on this one. This game provides a great variety of strategies and approaches, every run you learn a new thing or two and when you think you mastered the level, your greed become your demise. It's a hard game, a true roguelike experience, no handholding. If you liked Red Ronin or if you enjoy Turn-based strategy, get this game. Even if It's not on sale, it's cheaper than a fancy coffee, hahaha.

Undergrave is yet another 'slam-dunk of a game' by Wired Dreams Studio! I had a great time playing through this game and recommend it to anyone who enjoys turn-based, tactical, puzzle-like experiences. Initially, I found Undergrave to be far more challenging (frustrating) than the other games I've played by this developer (Red Ronin, Upaon: A Snake's Journey). Not to say that these other games weren't uniquely difficult in their own ways but, in contrast, Undergrave has a bit more complexity and nuance to its gameplay mechanics while giving the player very little information on how to play. Much of the early gameplay is trial and error - learning the quirks of enemy movements/attacks, the introduction of new enemy types, and experimenting with the all creative ways you can dispatch them. The real genius of Undergrave's gameplay is that, despite its deceptively simplistic combat, you are very much limited by the cost of your movements/attacks (AP) and careless usage can find you inadvertently positioned to receive damage. Though difficult by design, Undergrave is still quite fair and approachable. After a few hours of failed runs and after finagling a personal 'meta' for perk selections [spoiler]iron knuckles/jumping supremacy[/spoiler], it all clicked together and I was then able to expertly complete each level with creativity and panache for all subsequent playthroughs.

I hated this game but I won't say it's not recommended because I know it will be right for some people. If you've played "Into The Breach" before, I think that will make for a pretty excellent indicator as to whether or not you will like this game. I, for one, can't stand it, but this genre of "puzzle games disguised as roguelikes" definitely scratches an itch for certain gamers. Give it a go, and see if it's one for you.

A unic take on the tactical turn style, close to what was done in Red Ronin but this time with a roguelike twist. This game is awesome whether you are dashing as fast as possible through the enemies or carefully planing every throw and jump while in your last HP point. The upgrades give a nice bit of variety to every playthrough but the random obstacle style of level design gives a little space to be inproved upon. 10/10 would trow my sword to run away and fight another day again

Quick Description: -Undergrave is a minimalist tactics strategy game from the team that brought us Red Ronin. It's smart, strategic, and offers quite the challenge. There is no tutorial whatsoever, so the learning curve can be a tad steep. The upside is that seeing improvement is really rewarding, but it can be very frustrating to die to a boss simply b/c you don't understand why basic mechanics that damage all enemies do no damage to this specific boss. I do think that fans of the genre will find a fun and rewarding game, but I probably wouldn't recommend this to newcomers to the genre b/c of the steep learning curve. What's Good: -This game is quite challenging, but is very skill based. Every run is different, but no upgrade feels overpowered imo. Some upgrades are clearly better, and any time you can avoid wasting an upgrade on recovering health, it's a big advantage. You are thrown right into the deep end right away, so being able to improve is extremely rewarding. -I really like the simple, clean, minimalistic art design. I think it's a great choice for a tactics game developed by one person. Being able to see all of the tiles, knowing exactly when you are in danger of taking damage is far more important than an elaborate art design that distracts from the game fundamentals. -This game is a true roguelike which is a major distinction from Red Ronin. I think it's a great choice, and adds tons of replayability and variety to the overall experience. I really like Red Ronin too, but some of the puzzles in that game had only one solution to the problem. In this game, you will be given far more freedom to be creative and be successful on your own terms. Could Use Some Changes: -Although every run is unique, most of the runs will play out in a very similar manner. You will never RNG your way to a victory w/ an overpowered build. This is more common in bullet hell games, so most prospective players probably won't expect that in a tactics game, but I thought it was worth mentioning. -The basics of this game are pretty easy to understand, but you will go in blind on your first few runs. There is no tutorial, and you are expected to learn as you go. I think there is a certain charm to this kind of style, but not everyone will love this choice. Some may feel a bit lost over the first 30 minutes to hr before you start gaining some confidence. My biggest gripe w/ this choice is that you are pretty guaranteed to lose on your first attempt w/ each boss b/c it isn't always obvious how to approach the boss battles. -The more I played this game, the more I noticed very small issues here and there. This game as a whole feels a little rough around the edges compared to top of the food chain games in the tactics genre. Consensus: -Middle of the Road Game (Tier 4 and makes up 25% of my reviews). Undergave is a fun addition to the roguelike tactics genre. This dev continues to put out consistent high quality games that won't hurt your wallet. I do wish that Undergrave had some form of tutorial and at least would give basic information on dealing w/ the bosses. While there is a certain charm to this very minimal approach to the genre, it does feel like it's lacking a few accessibility options that would make the game more approachable to a larger audience. Nonetheless, if you are a fan of the genre, Undergrave should be a fun addition to your library.

The game feels slow and clunky (UI), repetitive (worlds are a bit too long), upgrades aren't compelling. It's no Hoplite.

Great, addicting gameplay. Like a much simpler, purer version of fire emblem, in the best way possible. There's a lot of room for QOL improvements that could push this up a few points, like some kind of autosave feature. My game crashed at one point after completing two zones with no damage and after restarting the game, all my upgrades disappeared. There are also some small bugs like new enemies appearing in older zones or inputs sometimes being delayed. Would rate a solid 8/10.

it's hoplite meets hyper light drifter and I am down for it. not sure why the music feels like you're in an elevator but it's catchy all the same. I should warn that as of 7/25/22 there are still some run-spoiling bugs in this, but the (solo?) dev is actively working to address them. Definitely worth supporting.

This game is quite fun but some mechanics are hard to understand. For example, when I stun enemies, sometimes they move on the next round sometimes they don't move. Am I missing something or is this a bug? Which skills stuns the enemies? We need more variety of upgrades. Life steal, shield, magic, calling your sword back like Thor/Kratos, etc. I know it will be hard to balance but making a overpowered build against merciless enemies would be fun. I am at the second place rn. I am going to keep playing to unlock new things. I hope there are some. IMPORTANT: Please change the poster. Your game has cool art style but that poster is just bad. You can do better. I almost didn't buy this game because of that poster.

I'm not too big into strategy games, but this is pretty cool, after a few deaths you get the hang of it, the ways you can kill your enemies are thoughtful methinks and what i like the most is how you can snowball your way trough the... dungeons? Also the replayability with the [spoiler]New Game and New Game+[/spoiler] it's really nice its fun

Originally I was introduced to this game view the demo that is available to download and play for free on Android/IOS, I had played the Android version and was instantly hooked because of the amazing combat system and in my play-through of the demo I was under the assumption that this was a strategic through and through skill based game with light roguelike aspects since each biome only gets three chambers throughout it to select an ability boost or upgrade or when available, to regain some health. So seeing as how it was on sale in the Steam store I decided I had nothing to lose and gave it my 7 dollars and some change. I progressed through the first biome perfectly fine after a few attempts, was rather low on health after the boss fight so I choose to go into the second biome with a fresh clean slate run giving up the upgrades I had previously acquired from the first biome. This is when I had realized I was that Undergrave was not what I had originally thought it to be. Some roguelikes are designed to be more skill heavy while others are designed to be more luck heavy, rarely if ever a roguelike will strike that perfect balance somewhere in the middle. Undergrave definitely has no intention to strike that balance and makes it very clear early on that unless you complete a run start to finish without dying or losing once you are never going to progress all the way through to end, barring of course having a 1 in several thousand run where you do actually make it because the rng goes your way, which can and at some point will happen because that's just how math works. Unfortunately I had lost track of time and attempted a refund but was denied because my playtime was already over 9 hours. No complaints on my end there, rules are rules, fair is fair, I should have been more observant, but nothing lost, nothing gained and the dev definitely deserves monetary support. I know many people love and will love this game and hey, if roguelikes that are more rng intensive and brutal for the sake of being brutal and padding out the play time are your cup of tea then more power to you. As for me this one's easy to let go of and ultimately end up being replaced by Brotato, which is an amazing roguelike near and dear to my heart. All in all, I wanted to lay out the good, the bad, and the ugly of this game and make an honest attempt at a legitimate negative critical review because all the other negative reviews are not helpful or informative in the slightest. So all in all, I did not enjoy the nature of the base difficulty of this game as I was unable to find a way using movement and strategy in any optimal way to best the game. The enemy AI has unpredictable movement patterns that, at least for me, were unreadable so there was no way to gain an advantage there. The randomly generated dungeons and enemy spawns would sometimes give you dungeons with too many obstacles limiting your maneuverability as well as spawn in many enemies of varying types while placing you in rather close proximity setting up a very bad situation that you can't logic or skill your way out of. So for those reasons I cannot recommend this game to anyone that isn't specifically into and drawn to these types of games, because your success in completing a run entirely hinges on perfect play and maximizing your upgrades in the upgrades rooms without ever failing a biome once. Because if you do fail say on your third biome, you have no choice but to go all the way back to biome number one and start the process all over again from scratch. I could have lived with this if it was at all possible to backup your save once you reach an upgrade room, so that way if you do poorly attempting to reach the next one you could simply transfer the backup save over and start from the checkpoint. Sadly the game was coded in such a way that renders such an exploit impossible and even more fun to point out, the game is programmed in such a way that even cheat engine exploits will not work, I had wasted hours attempting to do so in the most complex way one can use cheat engine to achieve this. Not to mention that the game is so obscure there are zero guides for it so any and all possibilities a player such as myself with, what I would call, slightly lower skill level, could have at carving out even a slight advantage are practically nonexistent, and for that reason...I'm out as they say on the Tank ;) XD lol.

The masters of tactical dash n slash strike again. This is the most challeging game they've done yet, recommended if you wanna try a roguelike with an awesome mix of mechanics.

This is an amazing turn-based strategy game! Simple mechanics but challenging strategy battle. Enemies each one with a unique movement and attack. Player needs to anticipate severaus moviment ahead to sucess and pass throght what a think is procedural level. With you like Into the Breach, get to play this one Game Excelente, perfeito! Ha muito tempo procuro um turn-base strategy como esse. Tipo de game que passo horas jogando. Rogue-like que posso voltar a hora que quiser entre pausas de trabalho ou numa viagem. Se gostou de "Into the Breach" precisa jogar "UnderGrave"

Boring, with nothing new and very limited amount of stuff to do or explore. Already the first level gets pretty boring after only two or three playthroughs. Much rather spend my time with Into The Breach.

Very quick to pick up and play--very satisfying gameplay with solid mechanics

Pretty cool tactical game, not too complex, not too simple. Got some build variety in its upgrades and I unlocked a new character after beating it which changes it up a bit.

This game is great in its simplicity. You have limited moves, limited health, limited everything. It's like a puzzle on steroids, since everything can and will kill you. So it's like a rogue-like puzzler? Anyway, I love attempting a run every once and awhile and see how far I can get. Sometimes it's far, sometimes not, but I tend to enjoy it everytime. If you don't get too hung up on the limitations it places on you and just embrace the difficulty and the challenge you shall enjoy it.

Great turn-based strategy game that is overall well balanced (enemies, amount of HP, AP,...), has an ideal difficulty - it is challenging but not too hard nor frustrating. There is a freedom to strategy with three abilities which each is different but crucial and makes significant impact - i can't imagine to take away one of them while at the same time it feels like just enough. Special abilities that can be taken in upgrade levels are enhancing possibilites in tactics which changes the whole strategy - it makes one to think differently with what he has in hands, with different powers making new and unique experience, which adds to replayability because one can pursue to try next powers in future runs. The pixel colorful graphics has its charm accompanied by a neat, minimalist soundtrack and little effects that take place while standardly moving, dashing through enemy, jumping, throwing sword or are wrigling on background. Four worlds seem just fine to fill up content with changed enemies, locations and soundtrack, and also new unlocked abilities. Additionaly I would highlight the last moment AP bump that can be used if you gain enough green points - to collect it one must risk getting them in unsafe place near enemies, but it payoffs if one happens to get in an unconvenient position with too little AP - this mechanic isn't in free itch.io or mobile phone versions and it is just a fine addition to already existing mechanics that only gives. Though simple gameplay and mechanics I haven't found too similar game to this in terms of how well balanced it is, what mechanics it has, and how it could be captivating and got me invested in and focused. Well made small game, good job.

I'm a big fan of Wired Dreams. They have great ideas and execute on small games that have interesting hooks. This game is sort of like if you took Red Ronin and thought about how to make it a tactical roguelike. The constrained movement set is a lot of fun, and leads to tense choice making. The enemy variety isn't a ton, but they each add a new wrinkle to your planning. The first boss is definitely the hardest, but there are a couple of tricks in the game that make it exciting to play. Is this a forever game, like Binding of Isaac? No. But it's an interesting puzzle roguelike about managing your resources and knowing when to run away. Also, do try Red Ronin, that game fuckin' whips.

A good game here! Undergrave challenges you to eliminate every enemy tactically, each mistake will cost you. In every run, I learn more about how your powers and the enemies work, this is so much fun. I'm eager to play more of Undergrave, and I recommend it to all fans of roguelikes or tactical games, like Into the Breach. The first boss fight was my favorite part so far.

Amazing game! The art style is amazing like other games of this studio and give me a lot of fun while i play

Wt a fail roguelike game Almost no choose on the action If u want to finish the level perfectly U can do it at only one way Also the award is poor and it dose not match for the level difficulty The game experience is very bad and i dont want to send anymore time on it

I really love this game, however, I'm stuck on the last boss because I can't deal damage to the spoders no matter what. I searched online, to see if I was doing something wrong, but it's a glitch/bug... which made me extremely sad. :(

Neat little puzzle game. Gives you a limited moveset that is exactly that, a MOVE-set, then dumps an increasing amount of enemies onto a grid and asks you to deploy that limited set of moves (which also attack) to hit the enemies without getting hit yourself. Simple, but with enough emergent complexity to make every move an interesting choice. Feels like a faster-paced Into The Breach.

This is another great game from a great developer. Excellent art and engaging, addictive gameplay.

the game design and game-play is great,

If you've read the tags describing the game, you probably know what you're getting. Let me just assure you it's very polished and very fun.

A simple yet utterly challenging strategy game. I love the music, do they plan on releasing the OST?

Excellent game, very strategic. I'll update my review as I make progress! Edit: I finally beat the first boss after 108 minutes of play time. Three more to go, I think?

Auto changing language and terrible controlers made this game really boring for me. Refunded.

It makes me feel like Samurai Jack. This is the best complement I can give this game, and it's probably the best compliment I could give any game! The core gameplay is fun and tactical, combining turn-based strategy with procedural generation in a way that's not too overbearing, but just right in terms of constant fun. If you survive long enough in a run, you'll be rewarded with 1 out of 3 possible upgrades; but these upgrades will be different everytime, and can give you some very powerful upgrades. Currently I have to give this game a word of caution if you want to buy it: The game's hard. Not a "this is the Dark Souls of ___!" game journalist hard, I mean it's a "there's literally no move you can do this turn that will not result in you taking damage." hard. There's 0 reliable ways to restore HP, and you only have 8 HP on a run's start. You can increase this later to 10, but that's only if you get lucky at an upgrade point (which you have a limited amount of and need to survive towards) and it can be likely that you never see it on your run. Normally 8 HP would be fine, all the mobs you fight only deal 1 HP of damage... but the mandatory boss fights needed to beat the game are after 16 rooms of mobs. You have to survive 16 rooms of mobs, with only 8 HP, and with every room getting progressively harder as you advance; just for the CHANCE to fight the boss. This isn't complaining about the game's difficulty, it's actually very well-balanced! There has not been a run I've lost where I thought the situation was rigged against me; instead, I would lose the run knowing that I f*cked up somewhere. With that said, it does have the occasional bug or two. The best I can explain, at least from my personal experience, is that the game sometimes thinks I'm in a completely different spot than I'm actually at. Like, a zombie walks next to an empty space and I get hurt, because that empty space thinks I'm in it when I'm clearly not. It doesn't carry over from room-to-room, and over my 8 hours of play I have only seen it about twice, so that's pretty good numbers. All-in-all to cap off the review, I can highly recommend this game; it's a game you can easily sink hours into, because the core gameplay is just so good! But abandon all hope he who enters, for Undergrave is very hard, and it is unapologetically brutal.

Great roguelike with puzzle elements!

A really really great strategy-puzzle game! So worth the price

If as me you love Hoplite and Into The Breach, then it's for you!

Great Wu-Jian-like game!

Boring game with nothing new to add.

I thought I already reviewed this. Fun tactical game.

Eat ****. Recommended.

cool game

Very quickly ... meh

thumbs

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