Info about UnderMine:

Official game description:
  
Delve deep into the UnderMine and discover its secrets, one peasant at a time! UnderMine is an action-adventure roguelike that blends combat and dungeon crawling with rpg-like progression. Mine gold, die, upgrade yourself, and try again! Discover hundreds of items including relics, potions, blessings, and curses that all combo and stack for a new experience every run. Challenge dangerous bosses and rescue helpful characters that provide new upgrades for your adventure. Decipher the cryptic messages of the Undermine’s residents and unfold the mystery at the heart of the dungeon.  
Discover relics, potions, prayers, blessings, and even curses to forge that perfect run. Watch as items pop off and combo with one another to make a god peasant of destruction.  
Discover friendly (and some unfriendly) characters in need of rescue. After returning them safe to the mine's hub they will offer powerful upgrades that can be used from run to run.  
Explore every nook and cranny to discover hundreds of secrets. New relics, potions, characters, and story bits lay behind the statues, rocks, and walls of each floor.  
Each area of the UnderMine contains one (or more!) deadly boss that will test planning, patience, strategy, and skill. Prepare well, because a test awaits!
Wickedly Lighthearted
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UnderMine has a rich world to explore and discover with charming characters and a plot full of intrigue. Experience the plight of the poor Delvemore peasants. Told to brave extreme danger for a boss that doesn't quite care about them or their safety. A pretty funny situation when you think about it and something we can all relate to.
Community
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Want to find out more about UnderMine? Ask us questions? Post dumb pictures? Join our Discord!

Release date: 6 Aug, 2020

Categories: Roguelike, Action-Adventure, Dungeon Crawler, Character Progression, Exploration, Resource Management, Real-time Combat, Inventory Management


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Engaging & Fun Gameplay (weight 0.99): Players consistently praise the game for its engaging and addictive gameplay loop, fluid controls, and overall fun factor. Many find it a highly enjoyable and entertaining experience that offers good value for its price.
- Excellent Roguelike Experience (weight 0.3): The game is highly regarded as an excellent roguelike/roguelite, particularly noted for its accessible progression system that appeals to both newcomers and veterans of the genre. It successfully blends classic roguelike elements with unique twists.
- Beautiful Pixel Art Style (weight 0.15): The game's pixel art style receives widespread acclaim for being beautiful, charming, and well-crafted. Players appreciate the vivid animations and overall visual aesthetic that enhances the game's atmosphere.
- Satisfying Progression System (weight 0.13): The progression system is a major highlight, providing a satisfying loop of improvement and a constant sense of getting stronger. Permanent unlocks and upgrades ensure that even failed runs feel rewarding, encouraging continued play.
- Abundant Content & Secrets (weight 0.09): The game offers a substantial amount of content, including new loot, powers, upgrades, and secrets to discover. Frequent updates also contribute to the feeling of a continuously expanding and fresh experience.
- Varied Item & Relic Systems (weight 0.08): The variety and impact of relics, blessings, curses, and other items are highly praised. These elements introduce strategic depth and ensure that each run feels unique and exciting due to diverse combinations and effects.
- Unique & Challenging Bosses (weight 0.08): Boss encounters are frequently mentioned as a positive aspect, being unique, well-designed, and offering a fair yet challenging experience. Mastering these fights provides a sense of accomplishment.
- Improved 'Binding of Isaac' Style (weight 0.06): The game is frequently compared to 'The Binding of Isaac,' with many players finding it to be an improved or more accessible version. Specific comparisons highlight better graphics, more creative bosses, and a less chaotic feel.
- Great Value for Price (weight 0.06): Many players feel the game offers excellent value for its price, often stating it's worth full price or an absolute steal when on sale. The game's ability to hook players into grinding for upgrades also contributes to its perceived value.
- Dynamic & Fresh Mechanics (weight 0.05): The game's mechanics are described as impactful and well-implemented, with a constant introduction of new elements that keep the gameplay fresh and engaging for many hours. The random dungeon generation also contributes to replayability.
- Engaging Blessing/Curse System (weight 0.05): The blessing and curse system is highlighted as a unique and engaging mechanic that adds a layer of risk/reward and strategic depth to runs. The ability to manage or remove curses is also appreciated.
- Adaptable Difficulty Options (weight 0.05): The game offers adaptable difficulty, allowing players to choose between a more casual experience and a challenging hard mode. This design caters to both beginners and experienced players seeking a greater challenge.
- Pleasant Audio & Soundtrack (weight 0.05): The game's soundtrack and sound effects are consistently praised for being cool, pleasant, and fitting perfectly with the game's atmosphere. The music is noted for its beauty and ability to create an epic feel.
- Simple, Amusing Story (weight 0.05): The game features a simple yet interesting plot that doesn't interfere with gameplay. Its passive narrative and amusing dialogue add charm without being overly complex or distracting.

Common complaints:
- Frustrating difficulty and grind (weight 0.71): Many players found the game's difficulty curve frustrating, especially in the early stages, leading to a tedious and unrewarding grind. This, combined with repetitive gameplay and a lack of satisfying progression, made the experience feel like a chore rather than fun, often leading to players abandoning the game.
- Unsatisfying relic and item system (weight 0.28): The relic and item system is heavily criticized for its lack of impact, poor synergy, and uninteresting effects. Many relics are deemed useless or provide minimal benefits, leading to repetitive builds and a feeling that itemization doesn't significantly alter gameplay or provide exciting power spikes.
- Clunky combat and movement (weight 0.2): Players frequently reported that the core combat and movement mechanics feel clunky, stiff, and unresponsive. Specific issues include awkward jumping, slow movement, and a 'stop and swing' melee attack, which collectively hinder fluid gameplay and make combat feel bland and frustrating.
- Unbalanced blessing and curse system (weight 0.12): The blessing and curse system is widely criticized for being unbalanced and often detrimental. Curses frequently outweigh blessings in severity, leading to frustrating runs where players feel penalized without adequate compensation, making the risk-reward ratio unfavorable.
- Repetitive and unbalanced enemies (weight 0.12): Enemy design and balancing are problematic. Small enemies often deal disproportionately high damage, while bosses are criticized for being too tanky, repetitive, and lacking variety in their attack patterns, leading to tedious and uninspired encounters.
- Annoying gold mechanics (weight 0.09): The gold collection and loss mechanics are a significant source of frustration. Enemies that steal gold and the penalty for dying (losing half of collected gold) force excessive grinding, making the core loop feel annoying and artificially extended.
- Forgettable story and soundtrack (weight 0.08): The game's narrative and audio elements are largely forgettable and unengaging. Players found the story to be lacking or non-existent, and the soundtrack failed to leave a lasting impression, contributing to a generic overall experience.
- Lack of content and innovation (weight 0.07): Many players feel the game lacks sufficient content and innovation to justify its full price. It's perceived as generic, offering little unique compared to other titles in the genre, and its quality diminishes when pursuing 100% completion.

Gameplay feedback:
- Core Roguelite Loop: Mine, Die, Upgrade (weight 0.33): The core gameplay loop involves players, often peasants, repeatedly delving into procedurally generated mines to collect gold and resources. Upon death, most progress is lost, but a portion of gold is retained for permanent upgrades, allowing players to become stronger for subsequent runs.
- Gold Economy & Permanent Upgrades (weight 0.28): Gold is the primary currency, obtained by mining walls and rocks. It's crucial for permanent character upgrades (health, damage, gold retention) and temporary in-run purchases. Players must balance spending gold for immediate benefits versus saving it for long-term progression.
- Top-Down Roguelike Dungeon Crawling (weight 0.16): The game is a top-down action roguelike dungeon crawler, featuring procedurally generated rooms and multiple floors. Players descend through various biomes, fighting enemies and bosses, with an emphasis on randomized elements and a challenging difficulty curve.
- Progressive Difficulty & Replayability (weight 0.14): The game offers significant progression and replayability, with difficulty increasing as players delve deeper. While initially challenging, it becomes smoother with character improvements and player skill. A post-game and New Game+ mode provide additional content and challenges.
- Blessing and Curse System (weight 0.11): A unique blessing and curse system adds strategic depth. Players often receive curses in exchange for blessings or valuable items, requiring careful management. Curses can be removed using specific items or at altars, influencing run variability.
- Diverse Item & Relic System (weight 0.11): Relics, potions, and other items are crucial for run effectiveness, providing temporary buffs and special abilities. Many of these items and their recipes must be unlocked through discovery or quests before they appear in dungeons.
- Pickaxe-Centric Combat (weight 0.1): Combat primarily revolves around the pickaxe, which can be used for both melee and ranged attacks. The combat system is described as simple yet demanding, requiring players to master attack patterns and positioning.
- Discoverable Secret Rooms (weight 0.09): The game features numerous secret rooms and hidden areas, often discoverable by subtle visual cues or specific interactions. These hidden locations reward players with valuable relics, blessings, and other goodies, encouraging exploration.
- Similarities to Binding of Isaac (weight 0.08): The game shares strong similarities with The Binding of Isaac, particularly in its roguelike mechanics, room-clearing, item collection, and character progression. It's often compared to other roguelikes like Hades and Dead Cells.
- Jump Mechanic for Dodging (weight 0.07): A distinctive jump mechanic serves as the primary method for dodging attacks and traversing environmental hazards. This adds a platforming element to the top-down combat, requiring precise timing and movement.
- Gold-Stealing Enemies (weight 0.05): Specific enemy types, known as 'gold snatchers' or 'pilferers,' actively try to steal collected gold. Players must quickly defeat these creatures to recover their stolen currency, adding a dynamic threat to gold collection.
- Challenging Boss Encounters (weight 0.05): Boss fights are a significant part of the game, appearing at the end of major stages. They require players to learn attack patterns, utilize strategic positioning, and sometimes use specific relics to succeed.
- Pet Companion System (weight 0.04): Players can acquire and upgrade various pet companions, each offering unique abilities such as gold collection or combat assistance. Pets provide passive support throughout runs.

Performance notes:
- Excellent performance and optimization (weight 0.06): Many players report that the game runs exceptionally well, especially on the Steam Deck and even on lower-end PCs. This indicates strong optimization and accessibility for a wide range of hardware configurations.
- Performance issues and lag spikes (weight 0.03): Some players experienced significant performance issues, including high GPU usage during loading, general poor performance, and memory stuttering. There are also reports of lag specifically when large amounts of in-game gold are present.
- Bug-free experience (weight 0.01): A notable number of players reported a complete absence of bugs, suggesting a polished and stable release.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended Roguelite (weight 0.38): The game is widely recommended, especially for fans of roguelike and roguelite genres, often compared to titles like The Binding of Isaac and Hades. Many players express enjoyment and look forward to a potential sequel.
- Great Value on Sale (weight 0.33): A significant number of reviews emphasize that the game is an excellent value, particularly when purchased on sale. Many consider it a 'steal' at discounted prices, making it highly accessible.
- Compared to Other Roguelikes (weight 0.04): Players frequently compare the game to other popular roguelikes like The Binding of Isaac and Hades. While some find it a good alternative, others suggest that these established titles offer a superior experience.
- Challenging and Grindy (weight 0.03): The game is noted for its challenging nature, requiring patience and a willingness to grind. It may not be suitable for casual players or those seeking an easy experience, as balancing issues can lead to frustration.
- Unique Mining Roguelike (weight 0.01): The game offers a distinct mining-themed hack-and-slash roguelike experience, focusing on gold collection, combat, and persistent progression through repeated runs.
- Suggests Base Return & In-Dungeon Unlocks (weight 0.01): A suggestion for improvement includes adding methods to return to base and facilities to unlock character abilities within dungeons, which could enhance player convenience and progression.
- Fun with Mod Potential (weight 0.01): The game is seen as a fun time-killer with significant potential for future mods and updates, indicating a solid foundation for community content and developer improvements.
- Lacks Co-op Mode (weight 0.01): A player states that the lack of a co-op mode significantly detracts from the game's value, suggesting that its inclusion would drastically improve the experience.
- Wait for Full Release (weight 0.01): One piece of advice is to purchase the game only after it leaves Early Access, suggesting concerns about its current state or a preference for a more complete product.
- Pit 1 Preferred Over Pit 2 (weight 0.01): One specific piece of feedback suggests that players prefer revisiting 'Pit 1' over 'Pit 2', indicating a potential preference for earlier content or issues with later stages.
- Suggests Using Trainers/Seeds (weight 0.01): A niche suggestion advises using a 'trainer' or 'fun seed' to enhance the gameplay experience, implying that some players seek ways to alter the standard difficulty or randomness.
- Play Until Story Cleared (weight 0.01): One player intends to continue playing the game specifically until the main story is completed, indicating a focus on narrative progression.
- Avoid Joystick Play (weight 0.01): One review specifically advises against playing the game with a joystick, implying potential control or interface issues with that input method.
- Affection for Pilfers (weight 0.01): This point is a highly specific, almost meme-like comment about 'Pilfers,' suggesting a strong positive sentiment towards a particular in-game element.

Other player notes:
- High anticipation for sequel (weight 0.09): There is significant anticipation and excitement for the upcoming sequel, UnderMine 2. Players are looking forward to improvements and new features in the next installment.
- Varied playtime and engagement (weight 0.08): Player completion times vary widely, from 10 to over 100 hours, indicating diverse engagement levels. Some players found the game addictive for many hours, while others lost motivation after a shorter period.
- Suggestions for game improvements (weight 0.05): Players have specific suggestions for quality-of-life improvements and new content, such as flexible floor progression, more creative items, varied boss forms, and better blueprint acquisition.
- Ongoing Early Access development (weight 0.03): The game is still in Early Access, with players expressing hope for future updates and content additions. This status suggests ongoing development and potential for improvement.
- Need for more language support (weight 0.02): There is a demand for more language options, particularly Chinese, and confusion regarding the actual language support versus what is listed on the store page.
- Achievement system issues (weight 0.01): Some achievements are difficult to obtain, occasionally requiring new save files or leading players to resort to save file manipulation.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.28): Players feel satisfied due to the game's overall high quality, including its engaging gameplay loop, well-designed progression system, and replayability. The value for money, especially at discounted prices, and the appealing pixel art also contribute significantly to this positive emotion.
- Frustration (weight 0.19): Frustration stems from clunky controls, unfair enemy encounters (especially gold-stealing Pilfers), and a perceived excessive grind. Players also express annoyance with gold loss mechanics, slow progression, and technical issues like crashes and lost progress.
- Disappointment (weight 0.14): Disappointment arises from a perceived lack of meaningful choices, limited content, and insufficient replayability, particularly in the late game. Players also express dissatisfaction with ineffective upgrades, bland itemization, and a general feeling that the game doesn't live up to its potential or comparisons to other roguelikes.
- Excitement (weight 0.08): Excitement is driven by the game's addictive gameplay loop, the thrill of discovery and progression, and well-designed boss fights. The anticipation for a sequel and the game's overall high quality within the roguelike genre also contribute to this feeling.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Players experience enjoyment from the game's addictive and rewarding gameplay, its charming aesthetics (art style, humor), and its ability to provide many hours of entertainment. The challenging yet fun gameplay and the satisfaction of overcoming the learning curve also contribute to this emotion.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Joy is primarily caused by the overall positive game experience, including engaging exploration, the game's humor, and the satisfying feeling of collecting gold and interacting with the pet system. The simple, pick-up-and-play nature of the game also contributes to this feeling.
- Anger (weight 0.03): Anger is caused by perceived malicious or unfair game design choices, such as gold-stealing enemies, forced suicide mechanics, and the loss of progress due to crashes or design. The difficulty of achievements and the feeling that the game is designed to be player-unfriendly also provoke anger.
- Boredom (weight 0.02): Boredom results from monotonous and repetitive gameplay, particularly in the early stages and over extended playtimes. The excessive grind, lack of variety in combat and level design, and the feeling that the game becomes a chore contribute to this emotion.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance stems from specific frustrating mechanics like loot goblins (Pilfers), a poor jump mechanic, and vague upgrade descriptions. Other contributing factors include slow animations, unexplained currency loss, and general design choices that detract from the fun.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is generated by the desire for future content, updates, and improvements, especially in anticipation of a sequel. Players express a wish for the game to evolve and compete more effectively with other popular titles in the genre.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): Appreciation is shown for the game's dark humor, balanced design, and effective risk/reward systems. Players also value the game's artistic quality, fair collision detection, and its ability to be a well-crafted yet not overly difficult entry in the roguelike genre.
- Addiction (weight 0.01): Addiction is driven by the game's compelling and engaging gameplay loop, which creates a 'one more room' effect. The fresh and engaging nature of the runs contributes to players feeling hooked.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise arises from unexpectedly enjoying the game, especially for players who typically dislike the roguelike genre. Discovering the game's quality, its extensive content, and its ability to exceed initial expectations also contribute to this emotion.
- Engagement (weight 0.01): Engagement is fostered by the desire to complete achievements, the game's compelling mechanics, and its replayability. Players remain engaged through the fun of fighting specific enemies for gold and the deep strategic elements of the game.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Admiration is expressed for the game's high quality within its genre, its appealing art style, and its interesting characters and items. Players also admire the game's replay value and its overall polish despite its potential obscurity.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion stems from technical issues, the game's obscurity, and incomprehensible systems. Players also express confusion over conflicting feelings about the game's quality or why a sequel is being developed despite perceived flaws.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): Challenge is a result of the game's overall difficulty, particularly with bosses and late-game content. The difficulty of achieving 100% completion and mastering initial controls also contributes to this feeling.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement is derived from humorous aspects of the game, such as the ability to 'break' the game, creative descriptions, and social commentary. The game's perceived ability to improve real-life gaming skills also provides amusement.
- Contentment (weight 0.01): Contentment is felt due to the game's good value for its price, its pleasant graphics, and its relaxed gameplay. The combination of cute art, music, and tight controls also contributes to a feeling of satisfaction.
- Anticipation (weight 0): Anticipation is solely driven by looking forward to and waiting for the upcoming sequel to the game.}