UNDERWARD – Review
With titles such as Murky Divers, Panic In The Woods, and Terrorbytes still visible in our rearview mirror, we already have the next spooky multiplayer title lined up for you. Developer and publisher INTENSE are trying their hand at the genre by making what is essentially a Lethal Company clone, of which we have seen quite a few lately. Nonetheless, most of these so-called clones often have a shtick of their own, creating something fun and unique in the process. UNDERWARD had us intrigued from the start, and when we finally were able to play the game, we had quite a bit of fun.
Story
There wasn’t really a story present in UNDERWARD, which was actually a bit of a shame. The overall atmosphere, the presentation, and even the general gameplay loop are perfect for a fleshed-out narrative. Even if we would just get story bits after reaching certain floors or after a specific number of attempts, it would add a lot of charm to the mix. You do occasionally find a so-called report that tells you a single line of text, giving you some context to what is going on. These reports don’t really have a lot of narrative value, however. That being said, UNDERWARD is all about its gameplay and presentation, and those elements truly steal the show here.
Graphics
UNDERWARD is a good-looking horror title. You’ll make your way through the dark floors of a complex with monsters roaming the halls. The asset and monster variety, however, are rather limited, and even a lot of rooms end up looking the same. The random nature of the game is a bit affected by this, as you’ll encounter nearly identical rooms in each run. Your characters look a bit silly in their hazmat suit, especially when you are retrieving resources together with other players, forming a hilarious conga line to shove a container back to the drop-off point. The monsters are a bit all over the place, ranging from creepy possessed items to demonic nurses with jiggly boobs. All in all, however, the graphics create the perfect creepy atmosphere.
Sound
The sound design of UNDERWARD is fairly good. The soundtrack is minimalistic, and there is not that much background music in the first place. It’s mainly the atmospheric noises that do a lot here, like the sound of toppling boxes, an LED sign falling down, the monsters that lurk in the dark, and so on. Audio cues can tell you a lot of what is going on in some rooms before even entering them. The game also uses a lot of random SFX to lure monsters, such as the sound of a rubber chicken, or even a boombox that plays Japanese voice lines. It’s all well-crafted.
Gameplay
UNDERWARD is a multiplayer-oriented horror game in which you’ll always go deeper into a facility where you’ll have to collect body parts and entire bodies of strange creatures. Except for a tutorial that teaches you the ropes, there isn’t really any explanation of what is going on or what is expected of you for certain puzzles or obstacles in the game. That’s part of the fun, however, as figuring things out feels rewarding. Every run is randomized, and when your entire group kicks the bucket before reaching the floor’s quota and safely extracting, you’ll have to start from scratch again. It’s basically the same format as Lethal Company or Murky Divers. You’ll also have to keep track of the floor’s timer because when the time runs out, even more monsters will roam the floor you’re on. The game also allows you to communicate with your team members via proximity voice chat. You can always opt to just hop on Discord with friends if you want to tone down the difficulty a bit.
The game is no picnic, as the aforementioned quotas go up for each floor, and when one of your party members dies before their resurrection timer runs out, you’ll get a penalty for the next floor’s quota. The containers with bodies (or parts) are scattered throughout the rooms on the floor. Several rooms can only be accessed by using an axe to get rid of floorboards blocking the way or by pulling levers at the same time with other team members. Some doors even require you to bring over one of your precious containers in order to unlock them. Luckily, the container is not lost when doing so. You do have means to defend yourself, as on every floor you’ll find weapons, throwable items, traps, and so on. Quite a few of these don’t do much, but they give you a fighting chance. Other items can be bought randomly via vending machines in the extraction elevator. The currency you get is in correspondence with the containers (and their value) you collected on the previous floors.
At times, UNDERWARD does feel a bit unbalanced. Not only does the difficulty start spiking when you reach the second floor, but the monsters are seemingly hardcoded to detect you no matter what. At times, even when completely silent, when another player made a noise, we would still be detected by a nearby monster. It could still be a coincidence, but this happened on multiple occasions, so we assume they just chose the closest target, even if they are not in plain view. Something we missed in UNDERWARD or titles such as Murky Divers was the option to hide from enemies, like in The Outlast Trials. In The Outlast Trials, you could hide in a barrel or a closet when enemies approached, providing a bit of safety if you weren’t seen going into that hiding spot. This would balance out the gameplay a bit in UNDERWARD, and it would perhaps make things feel a bit more fair.
Conclusion
UNDERWARD is a great multiplayer-oriented horror title in the same vein as Lethal Company and Murky Divers, and while some difficulty spikes did cut some runs short, we had a blast with the game. The simple formula, the accessible gameplay, and the great presentation pushed all the right buttons, and we found ourselves sinking in more and more hours, hoping to get a bit further. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned titles, we can recommend this one for you and your crew.
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