From Soldak Entertainment, creators of Depths of Peril, comes Kivi's Underworld, a hack'n'slash game that threatens poor mice out there everywhere. Kivi's Underworld also shows that not having to worry about dice rolls, armor class and mega items is sometimes a good thing, and certainly relaxing.

Hack'n'slash games don't generally put too much accent on story, and Kivi's Underworld is no exception. Everything starts with Kivi's expedition opening a path for Dark Elves to come through and destroy everything. Kivi manages to survive and tries to warn everybody about the upcoming danger, but his warnings fall on deaf ears. Seeing as nobody seems to listen to him, Kivi sets upon enlisting the aid of others and solving the Dark Elf problem once and for all.

This sets the stage for the 30 missions of the game, each having its very own narrated introduction. The missions don't take too long to complete, and the whole game can be finished in a single day if you dedicate enough time to it. Beside the mandatory main objective, there are also secondary objectives that range from killing a number of enemies of a specific type, to finding secrets or loot.

The aid I was mentioning earlier comes in the form of 20 allied heroes, each with his or her special abilities. They can either be found in missions or unlocked when you have attained a high enough score. A single play through is probably not enough to unlock all the characters, but after you've finished the game once, you are told in what mission each character can be found. Even with that information, be prepared to search every wall thoroughly, because Kivi's Underworld has some of the trickiest secret areas to uncover.

The high number of playable heroes might scare off casual players, but Kivi's Underworld is very simple to play, no matter the hero. An active skill, used when right clicking, and a passive ability that's always on, are all the skills that you'll have to manage during the game; besides walking and attacking, of course. Playable characters include warriors, blade masters, barbarians, mages, warlocks, priests and rogues. As I played through the game I found the blade master to be the easiest to use, having both an AOE skill as well as a fast attack. Mages are damaging enough but most suffer from the lack of AOE, and when 10 monsters attack you from all directions, you'll have a hard time killing them one by one.

Death isn't as big a deal in Kivi's Underworld as it is in other games, since you usually have 2 or 3 lives per level. Of course, dying will subtract a big chunk of your score at the end of the level, and that's not such a good thing. You might be wondering why finishing a level with a high score is so important. First of all, you have no XP in Kivi's Underworld. Yes, that's right, you will receive no experience points as the game progresses, so that leads us to the next logical question. How do I improve my character? The high score comes into play here, and depending on your score, you will receive a trophy at the end of each level, trophies that add skill points to your character. The bronze trophy is the easiest to obtain and offers a measly skill point, the silver one offers two points, whereas the gold trophy offers three of the so-important points.

Everything you do during a mission adds to your total score, even obtaining first blood, for example. Collecting different types of gems, getting a killing spree or even smashing a lot of crates in a short period of time will reward you with a higher score. You can get up to 50% more score if you don't die during a mission, kill all the monsters and find all the secrets. Getting a gold trophy in every mission guarantees that your characters will have no trouble what so ever in completing the missions.

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The screen where you can assign your skill points is universal, so all the characters profit the same from them. This isn't exactly a good thing, since it's hard to get a good warrior if all your skill points are invested in mana, and it's hard to have a truly dangerous mage when his fireball can barely destroy a barrel.

During your mission, you will also find power-ups that can be collected and used at the appropriate time. There are about 20 types of power-ups though, and you can only collect 3 of them and that means you'll usually want to stick to 2 healing types of power-ups and a damage one. It's a real shame, since you'll have to pass most of the power-ups that you find, because your 3 slots are full. Life leech and regenerating power-ups are probably the most useful, while power-ups that offer fire or ice coated weapons offer a huge increase in damage.

The levels are filled with different types of monsters and traps. You have a nice bestiary where each monster is described, but unfortunately the only way to discover what the traps do, is to experiment it firsthand. While they may not seem too dangerous, their high number can quickly reduce the health of even the strongest warriors. Secrets are also in abundance in all the levels of Kivi's Underworld. Finding them is quite complicate, and it requires the player to click on all the walls, hoping to uncover them. The rewards are worth it though, since you can find anything from jewels to new characters.

Beside the trophies earned for finishing the missions, there are a number of other trophies that can be attained. You'll have to work pretty hard to get all of them and some reminded me of difficult achievements on the Xbox. There is no real reward for getting all of them, such as gamer score, but they're there, for the completionist in you.

Compared to Depths of Peril, Kivi's Underworld does look a lot better. Everything is detailed and sharp, and the animations are fluent. Of course, there are some bugs, such as your character floating about, but I'm sure they'll be gone in a patch or two. The fog of war implemented also takes into account the line of view of your character, but it can get frustrating when monsters suddenly disappear, obscured by some barrel or torch, and appear next to you.

The sound effects will quickly get repetitive, since there are only so many sounds that a barrel can make when being destroyed, and the music doesn't have anything remarkable to set it apart from other games. However, the narrations are a nice touch that greatly adds to the game.

A SDK is also offered by Soldak Entertainment so every player is free to design his own levels and mods, adding content to the game, and as it has happened so far, a mod better than the original design will surely appear.

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Conclusion:

Casual gamers will appreciate the simplicity of Kivi's Underworld, and the small but fun missions. I really liked that old school feel that the game has going for it, taking me back to the days of Diablo 1, when graphics didn't mean everything and MMO's were a thing of the future. With no multiplayer support, but a ton of characters and missions, Kivi's Underworld is bound to attract the attention that it deserves, from both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Don't frown upon it, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it :)

Gameplay: 88

As Hack'n'Slash games go, Kivi's Underworld is certainly up there with the best of them. While it may not offer the same graphical effects that others take pride in, it certainly makes up for it in the gameplay department. The trophies are a nice touch that is bound to keep gamers interested for a longer while, until good mods start showing up.

Graphics: 76

Definite improvement can be seen in the graphics department. Everything is finely drawn and detailed, from the monsters to the barrels you'll destroy each level. Also, the scenery changes from level to level, with certain shades of color that seem to dominate.

Sound: 70

The game lacks an immersive sound track that would have added to the overall atmosphere of the game, and the repetitive sound effects will make you want to turn off your speakers as you play. The narrated parts are worth listening to, though.

Multiplayer: n/a

Just like Depths of Peril, Kivi's Underworld also suffers from the lack of multiplayer support that would have surely added new depth to the gameplay. I'm still hoping to see this added in a future patch...

Hardware: 73

Performance is great and any modern computer should be able to provide a constant 60 frames per second. Unfortunately, there are a number of bugs that can seriously frustrate players, especially when trying to avoid traps or use the special skill.