Review: Underneath the Ground

JoshtheLego has certainly done some interesting games in the past, such as Abandoned: The Subway Dare, and Inspecting a Mystery: House of Fun, Underneath the Ground is no different to his previous games, although this reminds me more of Abandoned since it has that "adventure" feel to it. But, let's delve into this shall we?

Gameplay
Without spoiling too much, the story of the game is pretty simple. The player has been lead underground by the roars of a beast, and has decided to follow them with no turning back. Underneath the Ground is what you could call a puzzle game, I suppose.

What you'll be mostly doing in the game is traversing each section and looking for the 6 digit code hidden in the environment or plain sight. The game may seem pretty easy by the first level, but it gets harder quickly. After you finish a level, you'll get another part of the story, and there's also a nifty "clue" sheet you can use to put down what you have of a code so far.

Creativity
There need to be more games like Underneath the ground, they tell and story and present their mechanic, with no strings attached.

But is being stuck underground a creative concept? Not exactly, but I do praise the game for not doing down a "horror" route.


Building
The building style could be described as minimalist in a way, but that is by no means bad since the way it's done really helps the game out in the cosmetic department. Dynamic Lighting is also featured, which looks good especially in this shot featured in the game's "gallery".


The Good, and the Bad

The only flaw I could find in the game is the length, but that could be solved in a possible sequel.

Class Dismissed.

Conclusion

Underneath the Ground could be summed up as an experience. It's not exactly what I would call "groundbreaking", but the amount of care that was put into the scenery easily thwarts the building in a few games I've seen lately.

So, if you have some time to spare, plunge into Underneath the Ground.