Beneath the Mountain Review Summary

Fun, engaging gameplay with potential: The game is praised for its fun and engaging gameplay, with many reviewers highlighting its potential and addictive qualities. The core mechanics and concepts are appealing, and the game is considered enjoyable despite being in early access or developed by a solo developer.

Depth and replayability via customization: Reviewers appreciate the game's depth and replayability, stemming from diverse playstyles, upgrade options, and a rune system. Players can experiment with different builds, unit types, and perks to personalize their experience, encouraging multiple playthroughs.

Appealing art style and UI: The game's art style and overall aesthetic are well-received, particularly the dwarven theme and detailed graphics. The UI is also noted for being intuitive and thematic, contributing to a positive visual experience.

Engaging base building and survival: The game provides engaging base building and survival elements, with constant pressure from enemies. Defensive mechanics allow players to build gates and walls, and position units on the walls.

Combines familiar mechanics uniquely: The game is frequently compared to other titles like Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius, and They Are Billions, blending elements from these games with a unique dwarven theme. This combination of familiar mechanics and a fresh setting is seen as a positive aspect.

Clunky controls and pathfinding issues: Numerous reviews cite clunky controls, unintuitive unit management, and poor unit pathfinding as significant issues. Units get stuck, move inefficiently, or behave illogically in combat. These problems make the game feel unpolished and frustrating to play.

Lacks content, replayability, balancing: Several reviews express concerns about the game's lack of content, replayability, and balancing. Some players feel the game is overpriced for the amount of content it offers, while others find the difficulty unbalanced or the gameplay repetitive. The game feels unfinished and lacks depth.

Buggy and unfinished state: Many reviews mention the game is buggy and feels unfinished, with some comparing it to an early beta. There are also complaints about the lack of polish and the need for more features. Some reviewers note that updates are infrequent.

Performance and optimization issues: Many players report performance problems, including frame rate drops and lag, especially in the mid-to-late game or when many units are on screen. Some reviews also mention optimization issues and graphical glitches. These issues can significantly impact the player experience.

Unbalanced difficulty levels: Several reviews mention unbalanced difficulty levels, with some finding the easiest setting too challenging. There are also reports of difficulty spikes and a steep learning curve. This can make the game frustrating for new players.

Dwarven kingdom defense and exploration: The core gameplay loop involves building and defending a dwarven kingdom against waves of enemies while digging deeper into a mountain to reach a final objective. It blends city-building, tower defense, and RTS elements, drawing inspiration from games like Dungeon Keeper and They Are Billions.

Protect the King to victory: The primary objective involves protecting the king as he delves to the bottom of the map to retrieve a stone, guarded by increasingly difficult enemies. The game incorporates roguelike elements, where the death of the king results in game over.

Meaningful research and upgrades: The game features a research or 'runesmithing' system that acts as a talent tree, allowing players to unlock upgrades and bonuses that significantly alter gameplay. This system allows for specialization and customization of playstyles, influencing unit abilities, economy, and trap effectiveness.

Strategic trap and chokepoint usage: Traps are a key element for defense, but require careful placement due to tile requirements and friendly fire. Creating death mazes and chokepoints is a viable strategy.

Missing tutorial; unclear mechanics: The game lacks a tutorial, making some mechanics unclear, such as squad assignment and the meaning of upgrade indicators. This can lead to initial confusion for new players.

Late-game performance is poor.: Many players report significant performance degradation, including stuttering and low frame rates, especially in the mid-to-late game with a high number of units. This occurs even on systems exceeding recommended specifications, suggesting optimization issues. The developers are reportedly addressing these issues.

Minor NVIDIA visual glitches.: Some users with NVIDIA GPUs have reported minor visual glitches. This issue appears to be isolated to a specific hardware configuration.

Few bugs reported overall.: Multiple reviews note the relative absence of bugs in the game. This suggests a stable and polished initial release.

Normal map generation good.: Normal map generation runs perfectly. This is a very specific and isolated technical point.

Wait for updates/sale due issues: Many reviewers recommend waiting for updates or sales due to bugs, lack of content, balancing issues, and concerns about the game's unfinished state. Some suggest the game is not worth the full price in its current early access phase, while others advise caution due to potential development abandonment. A few reviewers explicitly advise against purchasing at full price until significant improvements are made.

Recommended for genre fans: The game is recommended for fans of the dwarf/Dungeon Keeper genre, base-building, and RTS/tower defense games, especially at a lower price. Reviewers express optimism about the game's potential and encourage wishlisting or supporting the developers. Some reviewers find the game enjoyable despite its early access state.

Lacks innovation for price: One reviewer feels the game doesn't innovate enough or provide exceptional quality to justify its price, especially compared to older titles in the genre. This suggests that the game may not offer a unique or compelling experience compared to its predecessors.

Add Steam Workshop support: A reviewer suggests adding modding support via Steam Workshop to enhance the game's content and replayability after early access. This feature would allow players to create and share their own content, extending the game's lifespan and providing more customization options.

Support the developers: A reviewer suggests buying the game to support the developers. This point is not very specific and doesn't provide feedback on the game itself.

Active development, responsive developer: The game is in early access and being actively developed, with a solo developer who is responsive to community feedback and has a roadmap for future content updates. This suggests a commitment to ongoing improvement and a willingness to incorporate player suggestions.

Customizable settings and cheats: The game has editable settings, a cheat menu, and raid delay settings that can be used creatively. This allows players to customize their experience.

Classic theme, familiar mechanics: The game's theme and mechanics are reminiscent of classic games like Dungeon Keeper and Warcraft 3, combined with colony survival elements. This provides a familiar yet unique experience for players who enjoy these genres.

Requests for language support: Reviewers have requested additional language support, specifically for Russian and Ukrainian. While not essential, these additions would broaden the game's accessibility to a wider audience.

Purchased to support developer: The reviewer purchased the game on sale to try it out and support the developers. This shows support for the game.