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The Undergarden
Reviewed on: Xbox Live Arcade
Release Date: Nov 10th, 2010 (Coming soon to PSN)
Developer: Vitamin G
Publisher: Atari
ESRB: E
When Zips gave me The Undergarden to review, I was totally in the dark as to what type of game it was. As I was downloading the title, he informed me that it was a game that was meant to relax and calm down whoever was playing it. Perhaps sensing I was having a tremendously busy week, he thought that The Undergarden would be a great boon to my stressful life.
How wrong he was.
Story/Gameplay
The Undergarden has a novel idea: create a game that has no conflict, yet is fun to play and navigate whilst keeping a serene and endearing atmosphere about itself. Immediately the only other game that springs to mind is Solitaire. While I know several people who routinely enjoy Solitaire and play it quite often to pass the time, I have never found the game or any of its facets entertaining. This is how I feel about The Undergarden.
The Undergarden is purposefully under-described in the story department and even the loading screens offer vague semblances of the underlying themes the game tries to establish during the course of play. You play as a fairly cute Undergarden-ling that flies amongst the Undergarden trying to bring color and light to the rather dreary fauna-esque underwater landscape. There are no enemies, there’s nothing pursuing you, it is just you versus…nothing really. Unless you count an environment content with not being colorful an enemy, there’s no conflict to be found in the game.
This idea gives way for players to just explore and complete 100% of the objectives in the level (in the form of collectables and bringing color to every area of a level) without breaking a sweat. There’s absolutely no pressure on the player to do much of anything. It’s like giving an unmotivated teenager a paintbrush, turning him to a blank canvas and saying “go to it, son.”
That whole unmotivated thing gets in the way, and therein lies the problem.
The idea of conflict kills the title and rips any want to plan the game away from player’s hands. It was quite a chore to finish the levels presented to me because, while the game is plenty cute, I didn’t feel any reason, big or small, to go through and bring colors to The Undergarden. Even Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which is bursting with creativity, vibrant colors, and a very low-level of stress presents the player with conflict.
Without conflict, the game is lost to me. I felt no drive to keep playing, and I honestly didn’t care one way or another what happened. The puzzles presented in the levels, as cute and illustrious as they may appear, bore no meaning to me and I often felt like I was going through the motions completing them.
Graphics
The Undergarden sports some neat visuals, which compliment the underwater-ie look of the game nicely. For an XBLA arcade game, developer Vitamin G gets a lot of mileage out of the same backgrounds and color palettes, which looks beautifully different whenever you infuse the world’s with color. If I had to label the art style in the game, I’d call it a whimsical Tim Burton style. Your main avatar (which can be dressed up in different outfits as time goes on) has the cute look down pat, and even the de-colorfied zones are attractive to look at. Nothing here will truly “wow” you but the visuals compliment the game well enough so that nothing will bother you.
Sound
Funny story, there’s really nothing wrong with the music in The Undergarden but you’d be hard pressed to actually be impressed with it or taken in by it. The serene tones that make up the Undergarden’s soundtrack almost work too well. I found myself actually falling asleep while playing the title. My solution was to put on Radiohead’s “Kid A” which actually only exacerbated the situation. This is a very chill game which, when paired with the right music, can create a dulcet environment in which to fall to sleep. When you couple the soundtrack with the game’s lack of conflict and free-flow gameplay, you’ve basically made the video game equivalent of Ambien. I can’t take points off for the soundtrack, but the game will probably make you fall asleep unless you blare something with a rock-esque sound. However, this will break the entire mood of the game. It’s a catch 22.
Summary
The Undergarden is a terrific experiment by developer Vitamin G, however the pitfalls of the game lie in its fundamental design. When creating an experience devoid of conflict, you create a very unexciting game that is easy to write off and not become immersed in. At the time of this writing I had no reasonable way to test out the game’s multiplayer component but I can clearly say that my desire to play this game with another person is about as low as can be. Pretty graphics, a soundtrack that puts you to sleep (in a good way), and gameplay that doesn’t inspire any amount of “give a damn” doesn’t exactly add up to a compelling experience. The game of “zen” is waiting to be developed, and the Undergarden takes a short step towards that goal.
Story/Gameplay - 3.0
Graphics - 7.5
Sound - 7.5
Useful Links
Official Website
~Reviewed for Total Gaming Network by ChristianOfTheWired
Reviewed on: Xbox Live Arcade
Release Date: Nov 10th, 2010 (Coming soon to PSN)
Developer: Vitamin G
Publisher: Atari
ESRB: E
When Zips gave me The Undergarden to review, I was totally in the dark as to what type of game it was. As I was downloading the title, he informed me that it was a game that was meant to relax and calm down whoever was playing it. Perhaps sensing I was having a tremendously busy week, he thought that The Undergarden would be a great boon to my stressful life.
How wrong he was.
Story/Gameplay
The Undergarden has a novel idea: create a game that has no conflict, yet is fun to play and navigate whilst keeping a serene and endearing atmosphere about itself. Immediately the only other game that springs to mind is Solitaire. While I know several people who routinely enjoy Solitaire and play it quite often to pass the time, I have never found the game or any of its facets entertaining. This is how I feel about The Undergarden.
The Undergarden is purposefully under-described in the story department and even the loading screens offer vague semblances of the underlying themes the game tries to establish during the course of play. You play as a fairly cute Undergarden-ling that flies amongst the Undergarden trying to bring color and light to the rather dreary fauna-esque underwater landscape. There are no enemies, there’s nothing pursuing you, it is just you versus…nothing really. Unless you count an environment content with not being colorful an enemy, there’s no conflict to be found in the game.
This idea gives way for players to just explore and complete 100% of the objectives in the level (in the form of collectables and bringing color to every area of a level) without breaking a sweat. There’s absolutely no pressure on the player to do much of anything. It’s like giving an unmotivated teenager a paintbrush, turning him to a blank canvas and saying “go to it, son.”
That whole unmotivated thing gets in the way, and therein lies the problem.
The idea of conflict kills the title and rips any want to plan the game away from player’s hands. It was quite a chore to finish the levels presented to me because, while the game is plenty cute, I didn’t feel any reason, big or small, to go through and bring colors to The Undergarden. Even Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which is bursting with creativity, vibrant colors, and a very low-level of stress presents the player with conflict.
Without conflict, the game is lost to me. I felt no drive to keep playing, and I honestly didn’t care one way or another what happened. The puzzles presented in the levels, as cute and illustrious as they may appear, bore no meaning to me and I often felt like I was going through the motions completing them.
Graphics
The Undergarden sports some neat visuals, which compliment the underwater-ie look of the game nicely. For an XBLA arcade game, developer Vitamin G gets a lot of mileage out of the same backgrounds and color palettes, which looks beautifully different whenever you infuse the world’s with color. If I had to label the art style in the game, I’d call it a whimsical Tim Burton style. Your main avatar (which can be dressed up in different outfits as time goes on) has the cute look down pat, and even the de-colorfied zones are attractive to look at. Nothing here will truly “wow” you but the visuals compliment the game well enough so that nothing will bother you.
Sound
Funny story, there’s really nothing wrong with the music in The Undergarden but you’d be hard pressed to actually be impressed with it or taken in by it. The serene tones that make up the Undergarden’s soundtrack almost work too well. I found myself actually falling asleep while playing the title. My solution was to put on Radiohead’s “Kid A” which actually only exacerbated the situation. This is a very chill game which, when paired with the right music, can create a dulcet environment in which to fall to sleep. When you couple the soundtrack with the game’s lack of conflict and free-flow gameplay, you’ve basically made the video game equivalent of Ambien. I can’t take points off for the soundtrack, but the game will probably make you fall asleep unless you blare something with a rock-esque sound. However, this will break the entire mood of the game. It’s a catch 22.
Summary
The Undergarden is a terrific experiment by developer Vitamin G, however the pitfalls of the game lie in its fundamental design. When creating an experience devoid of conflict, you create a very unexciting game that is easy to write off and not become immersed in. At the time of this writing I had no reasonable way to test out the game’s multiplayer component but I can clearly say that my desire to play this game with another person is about as low as can be. Pretty graphics, a soundtrack that puts you to sleep (in a good way), and gameplay that doesn’t inspire any amount of “give a damn” doesn’t exactly add up to a compelling experience. The game of “zen” is waiting to be developed, and the Undergarden takes a short step towards that goal.
Story/Gameplay - 3.0
Graphics - 7.5
Sound - 7.5
Total Gaming Network Overall Score – 6.0
Useful Links
Official Website
~Reviewed for Total Gaming Network by ChristianOfTheWired