If you haven’t heard of Undermine, you’re missing out. The original game (review here) was an absolute indie roguelike masterpiece and while it didn’t get quite the acclaim of Hades or Dead Cells, this wonderfully fun game from a small 3 person studio from Canada has become incredibly popular! Now developer Thorium is back with Undermine 2 and everything about the original has been expanded into a much larger experience that simply has to be played!
Undermine 2 starts out with a lot more storyline than the original game. The Black Rabbit is on the prowl for something to steal and ends up captured. Then she’s imprisoned in Delvemore Castle. After the intro, you start once again as a peasant and your job is to assist Camilla in revitalizing Delvemore Castle’s gold mine as she’s been demoted to Third Disciplinarian. There are lots of small stories in Undermine 2, but this is an action game above all else, so while the flavor is fun, this isn’t a deep story so let’s get to the meat of the game (pun intended).
In Undermine 2, as with the original, you play a series of peasants. The individual peasant doesn’t matter because each time one falls, another takes their place. Each death puts you in the shoes of a different character with the same attributes as last time. This time around you can choose a male or female peasant rather than being randomly assigned, but honestly, it’s all personal preference. In addition to a peasant, now you’ll eventually unlock the option to play Inquisitor Dante and the Black Rabbit as well. Both characters play radically differently from the peasants however. Inquisitor Dante has a whip instead of a pickaxe and rolls instead of jumping. He also has a default flame attack which is useful for solving puzzles and burning enemies. Black Rabbit has a close range slash and a dagger throw and she’s much faster than the other characters.
While each playable character has their pros and cons, the peasants are still the most balanced. Dante probably takes the most practice to get the hang of and Black Rabbit is agile but not all that powerful at first. Fortunately, like any good roguelike, you can upgrade the abilities of all your playable characters using medals. These permanent upgrades gradually make you an unstoppable juggernaut no matter which character you are playing and the early stages become easier and easier. Once you learn how different relics and arcanas interact, you can choose specific items to help you on your way. Unlike the first game, Undermine 2 allows you to spend gold to ‘reroll the dice’ so to speak and choose new items in both the Pilfer shop and in dungeon relic rooms once you’ve purchased the requisite unlocks in the castle at the beginning of a run.
Unlocking things is the key to progress in Undermine as a general rule anyway. For example, to get through certain types of blocks using bombs, you’ll need to complete a quest by gathering an item, die, and then go back to the area you got the quest. A fair portion of the game requires you to solve problems and unlock new areas this way. Death is literally the only way forward. Of course, if you’re really good, you can make it all the way down to the bottom of the mines and warp back, having completed the game. That’s not the end, but it’s another way back. You can also continue further into “The Well” where you’ll face increasing levels of difficulty until you eventually die. Dying in the Well doesn’t count the same as dying in other stages though and you’ll find much greater rewards down there once you get the hang of beating the main gameplay loop consistently.
Aside from scripted rooms, the entire dungeon in each level is randomized. You never know what’s behind the next door or how the room will be laid out until you enter. Fortunately, it’s slightly easier to keep from falling into pits than the last game, but fusing relics into more powerful combinations is noticeably more difficult as you pick up item after item in each level of the dungeon. Boss levels are more frequent now too, and every second stage contains a boss at the end. These fights are the most exciting parts of the game with each massive boss having a wildly different attack pattern. Occasionally, you’ll get a different boss that replaces the original one in a room, but it seems fairly random. Regardless of what boss you’re fighting, you have to pay attention even when you’re strong as they tend to do a lot of damage fast when they corner you. In the new Duskfall update, the newest boss is a giant toad that has a number of unique attacks. Beating a boss means a huge payday in gold and a chest full of thorium as well as some new relics.
Once you’ve completed a few quests, you’ve likely got more than a few crowns (coins) that will allow you to buy upgrades. You only get a handful per run so upgrading takes a lot of coins but as you progress, you’ll unlock more and more uses for them. Each playable character has a host of upgrades you can purchase which raise the power of their weapons, their life points, and the strength of their armor. You can also buy additional support options in the main area of the game as you rescue characters from different levels of the dungeon. These NPCs allow you to upgrade the pilfer shop, Black Rabbit’s store, and even your bombs. There’s also an unlockable potion shop and even Camilla sells additional items that will help you. Just make sure you use those crowns wisely because the further you can get, the more you’ll earn, speeding up your progress.
The last update to Undermine 2 also added familiars, a welcome return from the first game. Your canary that gathers gold can be replaced by a variety of other familiars once you hatch them. This time around you have to find all the eggs and bring them back to the castle, then fulfill additional requirements in order to hatch them such as killing enemies with light attacks or shocking them. They are noticeably more powerful than your default bird and you’re definitely going to want to experiment with them as the familiars add a lot to combat.
The Duskfall update also adds a few new options to Undermine 2, the most notable of which is a new first stage filled with goblins called “Duskfall”. In addition to a completely new level with new enemies, there’s a new market called the Thimble Thicket which uses iron obtained from the forge as currency and a new challenge mode called the Grim Crucible. You gain access to the Crucible through an item found at the end of a run and it unlocks in Camilla’s office as a trap door. Changing the settings in the Grim Crucible makes the game harder and grants you additional Grim if you finish a run, allowing you to further challenge yourself in the next run. There are too many new items to go into but suffice it to say there are plenty of fun new surprises awaiting here.
Visually, Undermine 2 is subtly more impressive than the original. While the home base layout is very similar to the original and several of the levels are reminiscent of those in the first game, the visuals are also noticeably improved with more detailed characters, enemies, and backgrounds and a wider variety of environments that the first game. The pixel art is still excellent, but you can tell a lot of care has been taken to make this a noticeably more premium experience and each update to the game improves things slightly. New areas are lush and detailed and bosses are more complex and exciting. The GUI is mostly simple as well, though it is a bit of a pain to navigate through your menu to figure out what certain potions do. All in all this is a gorgeous update to an already well-designed series that has a unique and enjoyable style.
The music is also quite good here, both incorporating old songs and adding new ones. While this isn’t a soundtrack to write home about, it’s good and repeated plays don’t get on your nerves, which is a huge selling point these days. Honestly, the music fading into the background and subtly reinforcing what level you’re on is brilliant and ends up working very well; it’s probably better than standout tracks for long-term play. The sound effects in Undermine 2 are where it’s really at though and there are plenty of new sound effects that create much higher overall player immersion. The totality of the experience of visuals and sound make the whole game a memorable time.
There are a few other notable changes to Undermine 2 that you’re going to want to know about. The biggest is the ability to change things in the option menu, such as pilfers. While pilfers are an integral part of Undermine 2, they’re also supremely irritating if you’re trying to progress. The shift to in-dungeon gold only makes them less of an irritation than when you had to depend on your gold coming out to progress, but having them steal your money when you need it to survive still sucks and being able to turn them off entirely focuses the game a bit better. Not carrying over gold is a bit strange since you end up struggling to make ends meet in some runs and lose because of it, but hemorrhaging gold was frustrating in the first game too. The same goes for powering up familiars as before they just hatched with thorium. However, this works well because it reinforces the power of each familiar and you end up paying more attention to them.
The one thing that’s changed a lot however is the difficulty balance. Undermine 2 is much easier, especially with the peasants. Within a handful of playthroughs, it was easy enough to start getting to the bottom of the dungeon and either looping the game or dropping into the well. The standard difficulty is now much more approachable than the previous game and honestly, it makes the same more fun than a progression of failed grinds. Sure you still die, but you die less frequently and it’s usually your own fault for rushing. Item drops are far more random and less combinable, but powerful combos seem more frequent and you end up overpowered as the standard rather than the exception, making for a more enjoyable experience.
With the Duskfall update, Undermine 2 has shown that it’s on its way to becoming an outstanding indie game. Lots of tweaks and balance changes have made this a very fun and approachable game and with the Grim tokens, you can challenge yourself as much or as little as you want, rectifying the difficulty issues in the game. There’s plenty of content here so far as we approach a full release and Thorium shows no signs of slowing down. This is a game to watch and you’re going to want to play it. Even if you don’t like roguelikes, Undermine 2 is pure fun in the way that games back in the 90s were. You just keep throwing yourself at it to see what happens and it always manages to surprise. At only $20, you’re definitely going to get your money out of it too and by the time the full 1.0 release rolls around, it’s going to be one heck of a ride!
This review is based on a digital copy of Undermine 2 provided by the publisher. It was played on both PC and Steam Deck. Note: The Steam Deck version of the game docked runs at 720p maximum and does not look great on a large 1080p TV, though the game looks fine in portable mode. Undermine 2 is exclusive to Steam at this time.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.