RoguedexPart 1 (Sep 2023) · #8 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (2:52:55)
An action-adventure roguelike with a bit of RPG tossed in. Adventure deep into the UnderMine and discover powerful relics, deadly enemies, hidden secrets, and a few friends to help along the way.
Consensus
A75.9/100
Steam players90.2% positiveVery Positive9,863 reviews
Metacritic ↗79/100
VG Insights estimate ↗≈296K copies · ≈$3.7M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2023 · #31 of 42 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A top-down, pixel-art action-adventure roguelite by two-person studio Thorium in which a peasant delves an ever-changing mine, blending Zelda-style combat and exploration with RPG-like gold, relic and permanent-upgrade progression.
UnderMine is well received: Steam shows about 90% positive across roughly 9,900 reviews (Very Positive), and critics on Metacritic rate the PC version 79 and the Switch version 83, praising its polish, presentation and upgrade systems while noting it does little unexpected. Player opinion splits on its heavy meta-progression: fans call it a satisfying one-more-run loop with lots of secrets, while detractors find the early game weak, grindy and RNG/curse-driven. It left early access (Aug 2019) for a full 1.0 launch on Aug 6, 2020 with Xbox Game Pass inclusion, then came to Switch (Feb 2021) and PS4 (Mar 2021). The studio has since moved to UnderMine 2, which some recent reviewers read as a sign the original is mostly finished; the Steam store page shows a soft recent-review dip (small sample).
Players love
- Polished, charming pixel-art presentation and fitting music, often highlighted even by players who dislike the gameplay loop
- Strong sense of progression: failed runs still unlock upgrades, items, NPCs and permanent improvements, fueling a 'just one more run' feel
- Huge amount of secrets, events, hidden rooms, recipes and achievements to discover, including after beating the main story
- Rescuable helpers/NPCs with their own skills and permanent perks add RPG-style depth
- Combat and relic/potion synergies can produce fun, sometimes absurd builds late in a run
- Flexible pacing: you are not forced to rush or beat every boss each run, and post-game challenges and difficulty adjustments add replay value
- Plays well on both gamepad and mouse-and-keyboard; easy to pick back up casually
- Critics call it well-constructed, with clear mastery of controls, upgrade systems and overall design (Nintendo Life 90, Hey Poor Player 90)
Common complaints
- Grind is the top complaint: incremental meta upgrades make early runs feel intentionally weak and unfair
- Many items and relics are seen as minor stat boosts that do not change how you play, so builds feel samey
- Item pool and content variety are limited: the same items keep reappearing and only a few bosses repeat every run
- Annoying or artificial difficulty: traps at room entrances, bomb-filled trapped chests, sliding off ledges, enemies swarming with little room to dodge
- Curses and scarce healing can ruin an otherwise good run, which reviewers describe as anti-fun
- Gold does not carry over between deaths, making it hard to save up for big purchases
- Melee versus the ranged/boomerang option is seen as unbalanced, with the first boss hard to hit in melee
- Some players report slightly delayed controls after actions, unclear item descriptions, and room mechanics with no explanation
Can feel tedious
- Grinding meta currency to get modest damage or stat boosts, which some call padding that stretches limited content
- Repetitive loop of samey rooms and enemies after the first dozen hours
- Having to survive many runs just to reach later bosses, especially for new players who die early
- Low-impact relic drops and RNG-locked synergies that make good runs rare
- Keys, bombs and healing feeling too scarce to open most of a floor
What's unique
- Gold-and-greed loop: you mine gold, spend it on upgrades and lose part of it on death, with a peasant-fodder dark-humor story
- RPG-flavored stats, potions and shopping layered over Zelda/Isaac-style action, which some reviewers say suits RPG fans more than hardcore roguelike fans
- Persistent NPC/helper rescue system and a huge web of hidden recipes and secret rooms
- 'Othermine' mode, praised as a purer start-from-zero roguelike experience once found
- Mine that changes every run, with the freedom to descend at your own pace rather than speedrun
Players want
- More varied weapons or starting loadouts, since the base attack set never really changes
- More impactful, build-defining relics rather than small numeric boosts
- Greater variety in bosses and items, and post-game challenges that add new content instead of only self-imposed handicaps
- Smoother early-game balance: faster gold, less RNG around healing and curses, less reliance on meta grind
- Clearer in-game explanations of item effects and room interactions
- Clearer in-game explanations of item effects and room interactions (already listed) and more polish on control responsiveness
- Tighter control responsiveness; some reviewers note delayed actions when timing matters
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeRogue-litePixel GraphicsDungeon CrawlerRPGActionIndieAdventureSingleplayerTop-Down
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Undermine is a top-down dungeon-crawling roguelike where you play a humble miner collecting gold and upgrades. It looks basic and has nothing structurally unique, and the early game deliberately feels underpowered. Once you get past the start, items synergize so well that you become absurdly overpowered and can break the game. He finds it packed with content and modes, and has returned to it many times. He calls it a really good game and places it in A tier.
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