On paper, Undungeon is right up my alley. An action RPG set in a sci-fi world woven with beautiful pixel art. However, a convoluted story, an overly complicated combat system, and an incredibly large number of loading screens make for an overall poor experience.
The story is too difficult to follow. The premise is that seven different “alternate universes” will merge to trigger a cataclysmic event. You are a member of a secret society determined to stop the destruction of the world. You take the form of a Reaper character reanimated. You have no memory of your past and take orders from higher powers. At least that’s what I think is happening.
The story begins without any explanation. Normally I don’t like to give a lot of explanations, but some worldbuilding is essential. It is clear that you are part of this influential hierarchy. However, you are not powerful. Part of the journey involves collecting body parts to recreate yourself. This makes for an interesting RPG hook, but it ruins the story.
The quest also needs more explanation. For example, the first mission requires you to collect items for God. Even though I followed the tutorial, I skipped through the story instead and missed the objects I needed to collect. Sludge a few paragraphs every time you get a new request. None of it makes sense because of the lack of background. I played most of this game via TV, but reading all the text in handheld mode is a pain.
Worse, the control scheme is complex. Attacking is easy, you have to press the Y button to damage your opponent. You have to press the X button to use the item. This will throw the item in front of you and you will have to hit it with your melee attack. To switch between items, you must select a different object with the box assigned to the X button. This applies to all buttons. There are many pauses, switching a given item to each button before continuing an onslaught that breaks the button.
You said you would find different body parts to modify your undead character. Applying rare pieces will give you better stats. However, to complicate matters, there are also runes that can change stats. Another table has the weapon layout. We appreciate that creators want to offer a lot of customization, but sometimes there are too many good things.
On top of all this, there are lengthy loading screens. Levels have both overworlds and zones to explore. Leaving the area and returning to the Overworld endure long loading times. This experience pulls you out of the story, and for a game that already suffers from a lack of narrative construction, this adds fuel to that fire.
Undungeon has some unique features. The game has a karma element that drives how characters react to you and determines the overall fate of the dimension. Not completing these quests will lower your Karma Score.It’s an interesting feature buried under the burden of the rest of this game
