Going Under is a game that sold me on its charm and kept me with its depth and its story. A surprisingly short experience with comparable replay value to games other games in its same genre.

Going Under takes a similar approach to Hades, where your reward for playing the game isn’t strictly getting more powerful each run but instead leans heavily into developing relationships with your coworkers and moving forward a very engaging and poignant story. I found myself shocked with how impactful the contents of this game were with how short the narrative experience was.

Going Under also exists in an incredibly unique design space, its visuals are unique and eye catching, but its design problem “what if there was a dungeon crawler where you play as an intern, set in the body of failed tech start ups, set dressed in a corporate alegria art style” is something that I have never seen before, nor knew I wanted. Going Under’s Alegria charm doesn’t just stop at its premise though, between the “smart” weapons that track enemies, the incredibly creative puns/concepts behind each of its dungeons, having your coworkers “mentor” you to give you passives on each run, and the hilarious variety in its enemy/weapon/“app” this game was in all ways surprising and fresh. I find the rogue-like genre space to be completely over saturated with fantasy/sci-fi design, and this game was a refreshingly ballsy move away from it.

Going Under is a must have experience from an upcoming studio that took an incredibly new and fresh take on a genre that has become over saturated with “same”ness.