Edit 1: 100h+ (previously 50h+) Seeing as how people have noticed my review and is now sitting on the first page, I will try to provide more accurate information on the current build. Reason being that as of recent patches, most of the issues I talked about have been fixed and do not reflect the state of the game anymore. I have also realized that most of my points were explained for those who were already familiar with the first game or have already bought the second game and explored it for a while, which might be difficult for completely new players to understand. I am a very straightforward person and I keep things clear and honest. I do not review games, services or products often so maybe I will not explain stuff very well. Please take this review with a grain of salt. I am planning to update this review every 50 or 100 hours that I invest into the game. Going forward, I will list the good and bad aspects of Undermine 2, both in comparison to its predecessor and as a standalone title. Positive: • Improved graphics. From vfx to monster designs, animations and what not, the game improved a lot on the visual aspect compared to the previous game. • More relics. The current build offers around 30 extra relics, bringing it to approximately 196 relics, compared to the first game which had 166. A few (3-4) are not yet obtainable, but will be soon. • Multiple characters. As of now we only have access to 2 characters, one being the Peasant, a dwarf coming from a long legacy which continues with each death, whose playstyle revolves around gold nodes, strength and dexterity, a well rounded character, while Black Rabbit, previously being only an NPC, is now an agile character whose kit focuses on luck (stat) and chests, with lower base damage stats but faster attacks and mobility. Future characters might follow the same pattern, being designed around a specific stat, mechanic or feature. • Modding support. With their new modding tool called Anvil, even non modders which do not have coding experience can create simple mods, as scripting can be done visually more or less similar to UE5 blueprints. Besides the fact that modding support by itself will allow the game's content to run for years even after the development stops, its also simplified to allow anyone to add what they want into the game. • Couch co-op. Although there are big issues with how remote play works on steam and its performance, shared screen co-op is still co-op. Devs have said that online co-op will be looked into and possibly implemented later, as its not a current priority due to its high resource demand. • Intricate stat system. Many complain about it being overly complicated and hard to grasp, yet its a very simple system. Items scale and proc with certain stats. Players are also directly affected by these stats, such as attack range, speed, hp etc. All of these are very easy to understand and their explanations are accessible in the stats menu by hovering over them. These stats were already existent in the previous game, some were just hidden and used simply for calculations. People's complains about them are unreasonable, the ability to view what items scale with and what the stats affect is a simple and very advantageous addition. Negative: • I will start off by bringing to your attention that the game is currently released in Early Access. This means that you are purchasing a product that currently has bugs, unfinished designs, unpolished elements or missing features which will be fixed or added with future updates. Bear this in mind before purchasing the game. • Now, the first issue I want to talk about is balance. The current playable characters, relics (passive items), arcanas (active items) and difficulty levels are not perfectly balanced and might seem a bit harsh or slightly too easy at times, depending on the situation or person, but the game overall is strongly enjoyable and normally you should not have any issue with playing the game. • Salamander tail - an relic which sometimes applies burn to enemies, cooks food and lights braziers - has a small bug which prevents it from melting frozen items under certain circumstances. Will be fixed soon. Regarding previous issues, it now cooks food on the first hit with an ranged or melee attack regardless of luck. • Items can sometimes fall off in a cliff when mining gold nodes, opening chests or killing enemies . This is presumed to have been fixed although its more about improving the code for it. • Pits are fairly easy to fall in, although this is a matter of player dexterity. I have not found falling in pits an issue so far. • Gold is scarce early on . This has been improved in the last patches. It is now possible to afford at least a relic from the shop upon mining all nodes available on the floor. I find the values a bit too high now but this is just a personal opinion. • Meta currency (crown coins and thorium) which are used for character upgrades and unlocking relics are limited to boss chests, random thorium chests and also as a temporary way through the donation box in the shop. The values which were deemed too low by some people have been slightly increased in recent patches making progression a bit faster. • Early game high difficulty . This has been significantly reduced in the recent patches. • Lack of intuitiveness. Some mechanics might feel a bit non-intuitive, such as Rabbit Shop acting as a relic banning system, Forge system of only trading basic items for iron not being clear from the start, or some stat values not clearly indicating how much they actually affect gameplay (e.g. critical chance per luck stat). Overall, the game expands upon most of Undermine 1 aspects as well as improving them, but follows a slightly different approach to its core gameplay since UM2 focuses more on rogue like than rogue lite . Many longtime fans of the series might not feel happy about this, but I believe that the new formula is still as entertaining and satisfying as the old one. There are multiple issues at the moment but this is to be expected, its Early Access, this is the whole point of it, gaining feedback, improving the game and adding more content.. The negative reviews are understandable but its too early to judge the game solely based on its release state. I recommend the game for what its going to be, not only what it is right now. Stay healthy, peace.
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