

Underponder
Kausemus · 2020 · Adventure, First-Person, Atmospheric, Psychedelic, Puzzle Platformer
PC
8 user reviews75% · 8 📈 Making a comeback 87%
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Screenshots
About Underponder
Being developed by one person since the December of 2015, Underponder is a first-person puzzle/platformer PC-game with a weird and haunting atmosphere, invoking feelings of being lost and alone while wandering in a strange “mindspace” only known as The Underponder.
With no visible user interface the player crawls through various levels searching for clues on how to advance. In the ending of each map, a cinematic is presented. These cinematics progress the story, slowly unravelling the mystery. Along with the familiar keybind setup known to every FPS-player in the world, the game comes with some unique hearing-based game-mechanics. The character has the ability to “close eyes” and focus on the surroundings without vision. While concentrating, some things will occur while some things may occur. For example, some sounds can only be heard with eyes closed.
Since there are (almost) no enemies, the game focuses more on weird puzzles, difficult platformers, the atmosphere and the main story. As a tribute to all the games the developer used to play in the 90’s, the game is quite obscure, unforgiving and harsh at times. “Instant death” being the most common type of danger, some skill and patience is required to complete the game without a mental breakdown.
NOTES:
The game follows dream logic.
There are puzzles involving audio.
Headphones are highly recommended!
May cause epileptic seizures.
Possibility for frustration and madness exists.
With no visible user interface the player crawls through various levels searching for clues on how to advance. In the ending of each map, a cinematic is presented. These cinematics progress the story, slowly unravelling the mystery. Along with the familiar keybind setup known to every FPS-player in the world, the game comes with some unique hearing-based game-mechanics. The character has the ability to “close eyes” and focus on the surroundings without vision. While concentrating, some things will occur while some things may occur. For example, some sounds can only be heard with eyes closed.
Since there are (almost) no enemies, the game focuses more on weird puzzles, difficult platformers, the atmosphere and the main story. As a tribute to all the games the developer used to play in the 90’s, the game is quite obscure, unforgiving and harsh at times. “Instant death” being the most common type of danger, some skill and patience is required to complete the game without a mental breakdown.
NOTES:
The game follows dream logic.
There are puzzles involving audio.
Headphones are highly recommended!
May cause epileptic seizures.
Possibility for frustration and madness exists.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Underponder is a great puzzle and platformer game, the puzzles can be quite hard at times but when you try all the mechanics this game gives you they are definatly doable, altough it is nothing for the unpatient as you have to try out alot and really need to think outside the box. When finally finishing a level though it is quite rewarding with the sense of accomplishement. The Atmosphere of the game is also amazing, from the sound to graphical choices up to the cutscenes it is a very thought through game and quite the accomplishement for being made by only one developer. Also the control and movement feels very fluent and well made. Overall a very nice game for people who like puzzels and platformers and are not deterred from trying alot of things until something works or even take a step back from the game to come back later and thinking how you didnt thought of that solution earlier. Would definetly recommend3 found this helpful
I would recommend this game to anyone who loves natural and dark themes. A very elegant puzzle platformer. Very atmospheric and calming. I enjoyed playing it.2 found this helpful
Visual and audial game experience. Puzzlejumps were sometimes difficult and some clues hard to get, but in the end was entertaining. Worldbuilding is dreamlike and captivating. Using audio as an element to game itself, not just for background effect is also something you don't usually see in games.2 found this helpful
This game reminds me of good old days, when game puzzles were tough and no one held your hand, and games were allowed to be a bit crazy or weird. So this game feels so different than many new games which are built to give lazy and unimaginative players an instant satisfaction, or otherwise they start whining and harassing developers. It seems I am not only one who got those Myst vibes, although this very different in many ways. There is similarity in atmosphere, but details are very different. This game is very obscure, sometimes frustrating, and you can clearly see that it was done imagination first, instead of following some business and marketing excel table. Just wandering around and exploring the environment is interesting, like it was in Myst. Game contains puzzles, but there is some jumping, too - so this isn't just walking simulator. Mostly it is dreamlike, bit surreal, but it can turn into a nightmare, and nightmares may contain monsters. Some sections are really, really hard.2 found this helpful
Underponder is so many cool things it's kinda hard to describe simply. It's an esoteric puzzle-platformer-dreamscape-asmr-game with a dreamlike ambience and almost eldritch scenery, very hauntingly beautiful!1 found this helpful
Well, one thing right off the bat: unless I'm missing something, the game doesn't have a save function and apparently it doesn't automatically save your progress either. I keep thinking I have to be wrong about that, somehow. It makes no sense for a game to do that; it's not a short game, you have to start from scratch every time from the look of it. If I'm wrong, someone let me know lol. *Ahem* Apart from that unfortunate oddness, the game is extremely interesting in terms of the world. This may be the most deliciously surreal environment I've experienced in a game since NaissancE. It's very well done indeed, and as others have pointed out the soundtrack is perfect as well. I love all those ambient textures and soundscapes. I'm definitely giving this another go at some point in the future but I'm going to have to wait until I have a big chunk of time available. If you like weird, eerie worlds and mind blowing space odysseys, this game is definitely for you.1 found this helpful
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