Action-adventure roguelike UnderMine now available in Early Access

UnderMine from developer Thorium is an action-adventure roguelike with a bit of RPG tossed in, it's now in Early Access with Linux support. Note: Key provided by the developer.

Featuring some gameplay elements found in the likes of The Binding of Isaac, you proceed further down the UnderMine, going room to room digging for treasure and taking down enemies. There's also some RPG style rogue-lite progression involved too, as you're able to find powerful items and upgrades as you explore to prepare you for further runs.

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Your task? Explore the UnderMine, free some trapped NPCs to get them working for you and find out what's causing all those darn earthquakes.

The first time I died was quite amusing, with the crazy old Wizard saying something along the lines of "You're back…oh someone new?" and then just casually moving on. It did feel a little like Rogue Legacy in that way, which is another inspiration for the game. The way the Blacksmith also deals with a new you, is quite amusing too. UnderMine just has such a huge amount of charm.

As you go through, you get introduced pretty quickly to these cheeky little green critters calls Pilfers and they're quite amusing. Whenever you mine, they're never far away. Ready to pop up at a moment's notice, to bounce off with some of your treasure. I don't think I will ever get tired of smacking them off the screen, it's just so satisfying when you land an axe throw on them, as they make such funny little sounds as they fly off the screen.

I've lost count of the amount of Gold I've lost because of those little green devils.

What I wasn't quite expecting was the boss battles. There I am minding my own business, taking out some rats and slimes when I come across a Gold vein just like any other. I casually saunter over, axe in hand and when I take a swing at it—the damn thing comes alive, it's a huge rock monster. It begins to smash the ground around me, rocks falling down everywhere and then it rolls into a ball and spins straight at me. Safe to say, that was not my finest moment. I died quite quickly.

For the few hours I've spent in it before the release, I've enjoyed every second of it. Each run I feel like I'm getting that little bit further, discovering more little things like secret passages and more. One time I discovered a secret purely by chance, as I smacked a green slime carrying a bomb which blew up and revealed it for me—result! Character upgrades are great touch too, since they persist between each new peasant.

There's even a sprinkle of Slay the Spire I see in it for the Relic feature. As you explore more and deeper into the mine, you can collect a ton of these Relics. Some might provide more power when you're low on health, gain damage when picking up gold and all sorts.

A nice little touch that could easily be missed, is the character face when you fall down a hole. I only noticed this one, since I was grabbing screenshots from various points and it's pretty hilarious:

Other little touches I noticed as I played more, like the Hoarding Pilfer reminding me of the Thief from Golden Axe. You need to chase it around, give it a few swings of your axe and it will drop some goods. Makes it quite hilarious when it drops Gold though (it drops other stuff too), since then the normal green Pilfers appear and it's a mad dash to get all the Gold while hitting the Hoarding Pilfer to release more. I've noticed more but I don't want to spoil too much.

Graphically pleasing, lovely (although quite repetitive) music along with some exploration and action that I can see myself playing often in my free time. It's hard to hold myself back from writing a ridiculous amount about UnderMine as I've enjoyed it that much.

It leaves you with that feeling of needing another run even though you check the time and it's 1AM, just one more couldn't hurt right? I can see this easily being a hit. Might even be a new favourite.

No problems at all in the Linux version that I could see, Steam Controller worked beautifully and all. Possibly one of the most polished games I've played in some time and it's not even finished.

They're estimating it to be in Early Access for around 6-8 months. Find it on Steam now.