The Land Beneath Us | A PS5 Review

Dear Villagers' latest roguelike release introduces to us a simulated computer world lightly steeped in Welsh mythology wherein the would be hero is tasked with saving it's real world creator. The creator, having dabbled in soul farming for the betterment of humanity through technology, has attracted the attention of some really bad guys. The devilish sort. Thus getting herself whisked away to God knows where ... most likely Hell. 

As the duly appointed protagonist you take on turn based battles in isometric tile lined floors in set locations that are equally as rewarding as they are treacherous. Guided by the Main PC AI, and beholden to a hub of sorts that allows for upgrades, quest fulfillment, and the venturing forth into the various Hellscapes from the land below you must rinse and repeat playthroughs until you've beaten the final boss. Through gateways of varying types on each floor that are made available upon a room clearing you'll find lucrative opportunities to deck out your weapons and relics build while harvesting currencies, and dealing with the bad guys. A means to an end.

The Land Beneath Us, is at it's core, an isometric roguelike that incorporates synchronized turn-based combat wherein your movements coincide with the movements and attacks of enemies. You will face the fight in small platformed areas or floors that harbor hazards, loot, and enemies of varying ranks. Determining the nature of the floor is a portal system that uses gateway exits as a means to selectively choose what risk or reward you are seeking next. Be it a battle for weapons, relics, gold, souls, event stops, or item shops you'll find randomized options that will either hinder or help progress, accordingly.

In each run you start of with a free relic and weapon chest. Each chest contains three randomized cards with either a relic or a weapon. Relics are the game's passive perk system that buff various combat performance aspects. The weapons, on the other hand, are the weapon based attacks assigned to the four cardinal directions of movement. Each of which activates upon movement in a certain direction. These weapons, like the relics, come in different rarities and will tie-in with your relics build. You can setup a healing build, a knockback build, or a ranged build depending on weapons chosen among other things. It should be noted that while there are 4 weapons to equip in total there are also 5 relics that can be assigned and swapped at any given time. Swapping these relics and weapons is crucial to playthrough longevity as the enemies you face will become harder to deal without the proper loadout.

While gateways offer their fair share of risks and rewards there are also boss battles every 10 rooms that will test your mettle when it comes to the gameplay meta. Each boss, like each enemy, has a certain pattern of movement and attacks to mind. Each of which takes up a certain amount of tiles per action. To counter their approach you can choose to skip movement turns with the press of a button, and can in doing so evade their telegraphed next action by having them highlight it with a yellow marking. The yellow tiles show the enemies next move, and next attack pattern, especially if it is projectile based. 

Enemies, in general, are the main threat outside of the other environmental hazards that will steal away your heart health upon contact. Depending upon the previously accessed gateway you'll either face a lesser set of enemies, a more difficult one, or the boss supposing you chose those over the more rewarding gateways. Utilizing the game's inspection option you can assess the threat and stats of each one of these before engaging. 

As you slowly progress through the floors you will also be fulfilling quests through certain feats that will, in turn, unlock souls and weapons for use in following runs. Souls, of course, are the currency with which you'll upgrade your three base attributes. Those attributes include starting health, gold gain, and starting gold. With each upgrade applied the price for the upgrade increases until it is finally maxed out. Alongside this are a chips currency. This rarer currency is earned from a complete playthrough, and can be applied to a skill tree that further enhances character stats/performance.

Beyond those staple features lies a chips mechanic that incorporates two different chip modes, and chip buffering. This is basically a buff reward system that rewards you for successfully inputting a sequence of directions within a floor. Doing so will add buffs to your character helping in the survivability area. The two modes within the chip system are more or less automatic and delayed applications of the buffs depending on preference chosen. 

The Verdict ...

For a roguelike of this nature the experience is very grindy, and short lived to begin with. It isn't until you unlock, and pay for much needed upgrades at the hub portal that things become doable. It's something we sometimes see in games that crutch heavily on artificial difficulty, and unnecessary feature padding to extend a game's replay value. 

It is obvious the developer wanted the player committed to the grind, but the grind was honestly a bit too much considering the gameplay setup. The grind just does not feel warranted in it's extreme state, and an hour or two into it I felt kind of annoyed at how easy it was to die without substantial carry over rewards. Even the lucrative quests offer little reprieve as they are tasks in tedium, equally as grind heavy as everything else. 

Visually and audibly the game is a nice pixel constructed indie with a decent soundtrack. Complete with Welsh characters ripped from that mythology. It has it's own art style that vaguely resembles that of other indies, but does set itself enough apart from the competition to be it's own beast. There is nothing to hate or dislike when it comes to overall presentation. Weighing all of it together, however, has me feeling a bit torn. I like the game to an extent, but feel it needs some changes to the grind. Maybe some reworking of the base mechanics and reward system. As is though it's alright. It's not horribly bad, or exceptionally good. Somewhere in the middle.