The Under Presents Reviews

A game that you must experience. Really worth whatever it is priced for. It was bit to artsy for me to complete thought. Highly recommend this experience. Wish if there was more of this.

This is a pretty magical use of VR. [h1]Story Time:[/h1] I've now finished the 'murder mystery' storyline at the heart of it. This bit is really easy to explain... You're a ghostly presence on a boat journey, listening in on all the conversations, trying to piece together what's happening. Occasionally able to steer events through witnessing them, and capable of the odd intangible act, you eventually start taking jaunts into the protagonists' minds... Although the first act was pretty prosaic initially (and the act of 'clicking' to make characters coalesce more like busy-work than fun), it proved to be full of onion layers to peel back, rewarding return visits once you've reached the 'end' of the tale. There's a fey-ness to the overall story arcs that won't be to everyone's taste, but as the magic-realism stepped up, and you suddenly found yourself in someone's distant memory of Cuba, it become a very diverting nest of worlds indeed... There's some repetition here, as you make sure a conversation is definitely relevant (the 'witness list' can be a bit glitchy), or re-tackle a dream-sequence puzzle. And if I was to aim a real barb at the whole thing, it's that the puzzles themselves are pretty uneven, and the opaqueness of the weaker ones can be more frustrating than challenging. This is exacerbated by failure dumping you out of the whole story mode, a 'loop of shame' which isn't ideal. The sheer wonder and whimsy of the better transitions washes a warm sunshine glow over the experience as a whole though. [h1]A Journey With Strangers:[/h1] When not in the story realm, you pace around a mysterious multiplayer zone. There's a structured introduction, as a grand compère leads you into its grubby cabaret folds. And he'll pop up again at unexpected moments. But you're left foraging through its abandoned sand dunes with other players... trying to figure out its many mysteries. I've spent hours in this bit, and I like it a lot, but I'm no closer to understanding what the hell is going on . Echoes of the story mode are buried like fossils, cabaret acts serenade you, while silent online companions tutor you in the flexible magic system for summoning items. (I'm very good at producing salt cellars...) I'm not sure if I'll pursue it all the way to its conclusion, but I have enjoyed the free-flow co-op, and pursuing personal lines of investigation. (And refreshingly there's some silly physics 'sandboxing' potential here too, which the storymode denies you in the main, as its 'jellified' interactions with props have no real impact on the whole). I find some of the more end-game recipe memorisation a bit much. But I'll see if I can't have a proper session of unlocking some of its more perplexing aspects. Or at least figure out what the cheese mask is for... [h1]What's the Secret Sauce?[/h1] There's a blend of successful techniques from other games here. From the [url=https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1340334450180299123/312C602556FC073E99A8EE984D242CF476CE9E79/]miniaturised diorama[/url] prodding, to the Journey-style multiplayer (with bonus hand gestures and body language emoting), to the magic realism twist on the 'rewind time' murder mystery. Not all experiments can work. Ironically the 'distend the world' teleportation technique was borderline nauseous at first, but it was trippy too, so I stuck with it. And other downsides are familiar from their prior game, Virtual Virtual Reality. Circling back to retry an impenetrable section is not always that ideal... At its heart though, I think these guys just understand VR's power to transport...

I stumbled upon this game completely by accident. I was reading a review for a different game and decided to check out the guy who wrote it. That is when I found his review for The Under Presents. The price is very low, so I decided to dive in with no prior expectations and... I rarely take time to recommend a game, and honestly, this is the most difficult game to recommend to anyone. Not because it is bad in any way, but because It's difficult to recommend a game that you can't accurately describe without sounding pretentious, but I'll try... The Under Presents is a sort of an amalgamation of different ideas. It's an immersive interactive theater....thing....With art installations, puzzles, space-time manipulations, temporal clones of yourself, a mystery to solve in a very unique way, only possible in VR, as well as a surprising element - a seamless multiplayer in the style of Journey, wherein you and other players will converge in a shared world and are unable to directly speak to each other. The only way to communicate with these players is by using gestures and snapping your fingers. One should also note the unique locomotion method used in this game, along with different kinds of tricks and, I hesitate to use the word 'gimmicks', that I haven't seen in any other game, VR or otherwise. This description is still underselling what The Under actually is, so I'll just join others in saying that you should totally give this game a chance, go in blind, expecting nothing and allow yourself to be completely bewildered, confused and lost for a while. The game's cheap and you can always refund it, if you feel like it's not your thing. But if you end up liking it like I did, maybe consider also writing a 'review' to make people more aware of this experience. It truly is one of a kind.

[h1]Experienced on the Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality[/h1] You can see my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/bKUIIjQhcEw This game does remind me of The Invisible Hours where you can manipulate time to move the narrative experience along. There are puzzles to solve and you will have to use time to your benefit. There are three Acts involved in the story of the mystery of what is happening to the research vessel, The AIckman, plus the Epilogue. You can rewind or fast forward time to catch the characters involved in the plot in different locations and at different times to piece together the mystery. There's also this theater part of the experience where different Acts perform. There's also a multiplayer portion where you may catch live actors and you may choose to participate and communicate via hand gestures and body movements. I did see various stage shows, [strike]but no live performers or other players during my playtime.[/strike] The length of the game will vary wildly and all I can say it took me 5 hours (I was taking my time and trying to explore every area and catch every sequence), but I suspect this game can be "finished" in 2-3 hours. There is full locomotion and snap turning available. However, there's a "scrunch" mechanic, which I like to personally call pinch-zoom because that's what if feels like. You're basically grabbing a spot and you're quickly propelled / teleported into that location. It's the fastest form of locomotion, but not exactly precise. This "scrunch" is required in some specific areas and, unfortunately, on both the Oculus Rift and WMR, was an unreliable method when required to get into a specific area. More often than not, it just wouldn't work. Persistence does pay off, but frustration will be part of the experience. The game starts in a confusing manner and you're not really given directions on what to do. Some may not like this lack of hand-holding. There are several clunky mechanics which do bring down the intended experience. I enjoyed the mystery, but I found the execution less than stellar. [strike]Plus, it feels like a lonely world on Steam. I never saw anybody else online and with a game like this, that is focused on a shared experience, it really felt lonelier than a normal single player game (I did have multiplayer turned on). [/strike] [b]Rate 7/10. I got it on sale and it's worth the price of admission for the single-player experience. It's quirky and feels like it should be better, [strike]but on Steam it does sort of feel like a ghost town.[/strike] [/b] [i]p.s. I forgot to put in my review that Windows Mixed Reality does NOT work by default. You have to edit your controller bindings for them to work. I uploaded on Steam VR workshop a working controller binding. [/i] UPDATE 4/17/2020 - I tried again to get into multiplayer on a Friday night and this time there were three other people online, plus a live actor. It was an enjoyable & unique social experience. However, I'm not sure you can count on that happening too often, although, I do hope I'm wrong about that. I guess you need to take a leap of faith with this game. As such, I have upgraded my review score from a 6.5 to a 7/10.

An absolutely unparalleled experience of art in VR. It's a beautiful game in every way. You and other mysterious timesprites wander around the Under, master a creative crafting system and learn more about the world with wordless charades with one another. The singleplayer content is good, but nowhere near as good as the unique multiplayer. Even if you are scared of playing with others, please give it a try - there is no talking, and everybody who plays is eager to communicate, learn and teach. You will make friends without saying a word. You will feel genuine sadness when they disappear. It will connect you with humanity in an alien way. Please, Tender Claws, for the love of god run another live performance again like the Tempest. I would pay any amount of money to take part.

I've known the under for a very long time, around a year and a half, ( I can't fully recall) and I can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that there will never be a game quite like this one, and even if the live actors aren't there I would recommend this to any VR player, its so quirky and full of life, and Incredibly fun.

Thought this was a singleplayer game until a couple hours into the game I stole a piano from an NPC and then it taught me how to cook and gave me a tour. What a surreal experience.

A magical multiplayer experience combined with a unique single-player story. Time spent in The Under - the multiplayer component of TUP - is composed of a mix of magical crafting, exploration/puzzle-solving of the desert, and general tomfoolery with your fellow time sprites. (Plus some actor encounters, if you're lucky!) Players are anonymous, and have no voice chat, so your communication is limited to gestures, coupled with the items you can find/craft. This often leads to delightful interactions and messing about with the other players you encounter. A VR gem.

This game is really cool, sucks that nobody's talking about it. Play this game. Spent hours just in the multiplayer area looking for secrets and stuff with a friend, barely even scratched the surface of singleplayer. I'd definitely say, give it a chance.

The way this game works...go into it as blind as you possibly can, because it's an absolute trip! 10/10 weird experience, would play again.