UNDUNGEON

In the genre of Western RPGs, where everything has long been invented and overused, it is difficult to surprise and stand out with something. Therefore, rare exceptions, like Planescape: Torment and Disco Elysium, are perceived so warmly. The authors of Undungeon were clearly inspired by the first. Here, too, there is a multiverse divided into plans, many incomprehensible names, wonderful creatures and races, and we play as an immortal hero, the Herald, who meets characters who remember him perfectly from previous cycles (but he does not remember them). Naturally, the game falls short of the level of Planescape, but it still turned out interesting.

Player cover
Save our cores!
Undungeon has a very unusual setting, but for me, as a person who had just finished watching the last two episodes of the original Evangelion (people who know will understand what kind of mess is going on in my head!), At first it was almost physically difficult to clearly perceive this as well. Therefore, I will allow myself direct quotes about what is happening here:

Once dimensions were hollow spheres. Moorings with nuclei were located on the inner surface of their world matrices, they connected dozens of planets… The Core of Creation gave the gods who settled in the dimensions mass to create new worlds… But the balance of the Core was grossly disturbed, and it fell into its own center, forming an abyss underneath. The shift shifted the laws of reality and tore planets apart. Now they are slowly disintegrating along with the laws of the universe. And the matrices of dimensions fall into the abyss under the mass of the gods living in them, and the only thing that now connects them with reality is the sutra leading from the Core of Creation to the Core of the Hub…
UnDungeon Overview
Here, even some of the enemies speak in riddles. Literally.
Mastered? Got something? And you say, “Evangelion”… But the bottom line is simple – the task of the immortal herald is precisely to prevent this final disintegration and the fall of the worlds into the abyss. And for this, you need to activate moorings with Cores in each dimension, attach them to the Hub (in fact, this is our base), build Noah’s Ark there (yes, literally) and then kill the local god – this will save some of the mortals. When we do this in all available dimensions, we will be able to build a new reality, that is, in fact, save the world. Although our Herald looks like a messenger of death itself.

Yes, this is the face of our hero.
Replacement heart. And the brain
In order not to torment you further, I will say right away – despite all of the above and a bunch of outlandish words / names, we are doing our usual things. The herald travels around the map, finds and clears new locations, meets merchants or bandits there, communicates, fights, completes quests, upgrades and collects resources to build the ark.

Yes, there is a Ku dimension. Remember “Kin-dza-dza”?
In the Hub, more and more opportunities for crafting are gradually opening up – we make equipment and medicines, grenades, other consumables, recycle unnecessary for new resources, create implants. The latter are actually organs, but the essence is still the same: by making and installing a new heart / brain / eyes / skin / legs / gastrointestinal tract in the appropriate slot, we increase certain characteristics or, as, for example, in the case of with the gastrointestinal tract, increase the effectiveness of treatment. There is even a social organ that gives bonuses to allies and discounts from merchants – and what kind of organ is so wonderful, you will find out for yourself …

We learn new organ recipes right in the battles. And then you can conduct an autopsy and remove the necessary “ingredients” from the enemy body.

In battles, when severe wounds are inflicted, the organs, let’s say, fail.
Having accumulated enough essence (experience, that is), we pump not the character, but his Core, but the essence is again familiar and understandable: each level increases the Herald’s parameters and opens new cells for installing runes (give random bonuses to characteristics) and nodes. The second are artifacts, which differ from runes in that they give permanent effects. And also identical nodes can be combined into more powerful ones by paying a specially trained master for this with essence, that is, in fact, with experience already gained.

The core of the character, by the way, can also be changed to a more advanced one.
Tell me what you’re equipped with and I’ll tell you who you are
These are the details that make up not only the uniqueness, but the specifics of the Undungeon gameplay. For example, the enemies here are pumped right in battle as damage is done to us. That is, some small spider hit the great immortal Herald – and now one, two, three stars already light up above it, and it becomes more and more difficult to kill it. This is no longer a trifle, but an important and interesting feature.
In battles, you constantly have to move in jerks.
In addition, each type of weapon, breastplate, and mask worn by the character gives its own skills. Some claws, if you hold the corresponding button, allow you to deal damage to everyone around, others – to make a jump to the target. One mask allows you to make a controlled dash with a spread of mines behind you, the other makes you invisible for a while and increases the movement speed.