Going Under Knows that Swords Are Cool, Toxic Startup Culture Isn't
In the first few moments of your job at “Fizzle” in Going Under, your manager tells you that they’re “like a family here.” Then he orders you (the new marketing intern) to travel into the deep depths of the startup underworld and endlessly slay monsters for free while he sips a latte in the comfort of his open concept office. Almost immediately Going Under reveals itself as a cheeky, wonderfully stylized dungeon crawler that successfully satirizes modern day office culture. It also lets you beat up tech bro demons with a cactus, which is a great bonus.
Your name is Jackie, and this job really isn’t what you were expecting. You thought you were going to be designing labels and ads for a soft drink company, but now you have to learn how to dodge roll.
There are three main dungeons you have travel to on your corporate quest (all of which are also failing companies): Joblin, where goblins meet gig workers; WinkyDink, the emoji-filled dating app hell; and Styxcoin, a defunct cryptocurrency spot run by trendy skeletons. Styxcoin is the most impressive of the stages. Entering this dungeon you’re transported into a subterranean land of streetwear skeletons with a “never stop the grind” mentality, and walls plastered with predatory posters that ask things like “Is Your Afterlife Secure?” Styxcoin’s whole thing is that they mine for cryptocurrency, like literally; enemies hold pickaxes to chip away at crypto-rocks (and you), minecarts are plentiful, and torches light up stock tickers scrolling on screens next to stalactites. Unfortunately, their company has gone under. There wasn’t a solid work/afterlife balance, and now Styxcoin’s undead legion of bucket hat wearing hackers, motivational speakers, and miners have decided to take it out on you.
The business fantasy vibe is executed earnestly. I’ve worked in cubicles, at a sketchy tech startup, and an unpaid internship, and Going Under creatively realizes the annoying day to day startup stressors with a revitalizing reverse magical realism. It’s easy to make tired jokes with these concepts, but this game stays enthusiastic with its zingers from start to finish. It feels smart and parodic from the solid set decoration to enemies and weapons that are themed to the area. Fighting sentient emojis in the dating app dungeon or equipping a tablet pen to electrocute enemies with your jab combo is always a blast. It’s enthusiastic in a way that’s sort of infectious, making you want to explore extra rooms to find more motivational poster jokes or learn more about the world from a hipster goblin barista running the item shop. Going Under excels because it builds a distinct personality for each dungeon, and the prolonged commitment to each gag makes it a cultural critique that’s also very fun to play.
Fights are chaotic, close quarters battles where you’re mostly repurposing office supplies as weapons to take down your enemies. A lot of the junk you pick up is themed to the office dungeon you’re in; stapler guns, computer monitors, and giant coffee pots are just some of the equipment you can fight with. All weapons have durability, and even the most heroic ones will break after a few whacks on your foes, so you’ll find yourself in a loop of hitting, breaking, and scavenging for better things to hit with throughout a run. Enemies have better weapons than you most of the time, and all have different quirks and attack patterns you’ll have to be patient with in order to come out alive.
The battles feel grueling, but rewarding. Luckily you never have to go at it alone, though. At the start of a run you can endorse skills like “People Person” which gives you bonus strength when there are more foes around you; “Fail Forward,” which brings you back to life after you die; or my personal favourite, “Clap Back,” which delivers a shock wave back at opponents who hit you. You can also find skills in dungeons and they shake up the experience a lot. I could not stop giggling whenever I used “Clap Back” because it’s basically a defensive mechanism doing a sick Twitter dunk to damage every opponent in the room. There are an abundance of these quirky powers, and even after completing the game I unlocked a lot more that significantly changed the gameplay.
