Announced for release this month as early as Nintendo Indie World last August, Going Under is ready to make an appearance on Nintendo Switch on September 24th. Unofficially debuted through a demo released a few months ago (or on the occasion of the Summer Game Festival of Steam), the title looks like a satirical dungeon crawler, extremely colorful and very funny. Instead of catapulting us into yet another moldy dungeon, full of goblins and resurrected skeletons, Going Under takes us into a "hellish and cursed" realm. contemporary, that is, made up of fizzy drinks, caffeinated colleagues, unlikely employers and several failed tech startups. In short, the conditions for originality are really all there.
The very difficult world of internships
The undergrounds of Going Under they are full of enemies, traps and references to the culture of American startups (Does the story of the big companies born from the garage at home tell you something?). The title created by the Aggro Crab team is built as a blatant e funny satire of that happy world that is so much advertised by companies, but which actually hides a whole series of "rip-offs" and dark sides. Not surprisingly, in this brilliant indie we are called to explore cursed ruins that are nothing more than the result of many startups ended up in misery, whose employees have turned into monsters doomed to roam the ruined halls for eternity. And we do it by playing the role of a poor intern in the Marketing department, Jackie Fiasco, which is paid to the sound of visibility and pats on the back (a "salary" that undoubtedly recalls many contemporary realities). An internship, ours, which clearly has nothing to do with the company's marketing department.
Our task, in fact, will be to free the poor monsters (also called "Joblins") from their sufferings, give them back their goods, and thus enter into the good graces of our enigmatic leader, interested in getting his hands on some relics. Catapult yourself into the colorful dystopian city of Neo-Cascadia, we were therefore hired by fizzle, a company intent on launching a particular one on the market fizzy drink, and which also has a box factory on its side that uses an army of drones for deliveries. And it will be the "upper floors" of the Fittlze that will function as the main gateway to the extremely dangerous undergrounds, in which we will be forced to descend free and unwillingly. We can't say no to the boss, right?
The worst workplace of all
Going down a slide, we will explore the various floors of the underground, making our way through relaxation areas, offices, warehouses, canteens and more. Going into the levels haunted by highly respected enemies and bosses, all we can rely on to kill monsters will be office supplies. Pens, pencils, cacti, laptops, brooms, staplers or even pillows: by arming ourselves with everything we will gradually find at hand, we will be able to advance in level and survive the very difficult world of internships. Occasionally we will also be lucky enough to find real weapons (such as swords, spears or water pistols) or even gods vehicles (like toy cars), with which we can do even more damage to the desperate Joblins who roam the ruins.
In this sense, Going Under will test our ability to "problem solving”, Given that there will be many occasions in which we will be called to take split second decisions, to choose which weapons to keep (the space in the inventory is in fact limited to only 3 tools at a time), to evaluate when and which ones to launch, to think about the best attack strategy. One wrong, risky or missed move, and we will be brought back, exhausted and with a negative note on our assessment, to the "headquarters" of the Fizzle offices. This is where we can find ours colleghi, which they will often ask us to carry out some task or mission in their place (again for free, of course).
In fact, despite appearances, it's not that easy to navigate the levels of Going Under. In addition to the obstacle represented by boss (with some of them hating their employees' "long" bathroom breaks, and others resembling Jeff Bezos o Elon Musk), to leave us with the water in the throat will also be those rooms unexpectedly full of enemies. For this it will become essential to resort to equipment, care and upgrades. Similarly to other roguelike titles, by exploring the various rooms on each floor we will be able to find shops (like coffee shops) e power-up able to make us increase health, strength, speed and some skills. Because, remember, in Going Under the game physics is often unpredictable, and responds very well to the blows of our decisions.
How does it perform on Switch?
Fluid, light and fast. As for the technical sector, Going Under surprises for its simplicity of effect. The Aggro Crab team managed to make the Switch title for sure well optimized - in fact, we remind you that it is an exit multiplatform. Beyond some loading a little longer, no critical issues, bugs or frame drops were found neither in docked mode nor in portable mode.
Given the nature of the game, Going Under perhaps lends itself to being faced more than anything else in the handheld mode, but given the complexity of some bosses a Pro Controller could solve most of our problems. Also from the front of the battery life nothing to report, even if to be a light game it consumes perhaps a little more than expected. In any case, it is possible to easily make a typical commuter trip for a total of approx 3 hours, before the console actually needs a new charge.
