Welcome to our review of Unexplored, the Unlocked Edition for Nintendo Switch.
The Dungeon of Doom awaits…
Unexplored is the roguelite that feels like a roguelike. An accessible yet challenging action RPG that has won praise for its revolutionary level generation tech. Explore dangerous dungeons, forge magical items, solve mysterious puzzles and battle hundreds of foes.
Unexplored: Unlocked Edition includes the main game and its three DLC packs: Mithril Run, Ripley Run, and The Dark Ritual. Descend into the depths of the Dungeon of Doom and complete your quest: steal the Amulet of Yendor from the fearsome dragon and make it out alive.
Unexplored is nothing special and outstanding, it is just a solid dungeon crawler with randomly generated levels and bad gameplay. As the main player, you have a top-down view of the current level and as you progress, you open up more and more of the map and soon you will find the way to the next level.
Depending on which difficulty level you pick, you will encounter more or less of pretty much everything. More gold, enemies, …. are all up to your own decision. I loved the arcade mode most, where you had more interaction but things were also more intense. The player itself is a round object with the weapons sticking out and you need contact with the enemies to deal damage. There is a certain level of difficulty here straight from the start, even the easiest of enemies can sometimes surprise and deal damage.
I must say this game does not stand out one bit to me, it brings fun color schemes and dungeons to a faulty attack system that I disliked straight from the start. At one point I was surrounded by several enemies and was just unable to get really out of it. It ended my run and also my fun. I commend it as a dungeon crawler, but not as a game overall. I feel like so much could be done to further improve the game, but that is not my intention for this review.
As I mostly play in handheld, I need to remark the smallish menus and the often strange and older User Interface. Nothing troubling while playing on TV, but it felt like a shortcoming in handheld mode. Another thing to mention is that contrary to how great the dungeons were built up, how big the contrast is in regards to the bland audio. I would almost call it boring.
At the current price point, I think the game is more reserved for roguelike dungeon lovers rather than the occasional gamer or anyone looking to pick up a quick game.
In conclusion, Unexplored suffers from being nothing special and you can’t shake the feeling that this game has great potential. If the amazing dungeons were to be mixed with a different approach to how to battle, I would probably enjoy this game so much more. Often it felt like the lack of proper attacks were to blame, I honestly did not enjoy the way to fight enemies. My rating is 40%.
