Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

While its overly simplistic art style isn’t going to linger long in the memory, Unexplored's unusual approach to balancing combat and map generation certainly will. There’s very little story here to be had, but like any great dungeon crawler, the real adventure is the one you write yourself. With plenty of scope for weaponsmithing and all plenty of permanent perks to unlock to help negate the sting of its permadeath, Unexplored: Unlocked Edition offers danger and delight in equal measure.

Thanks to its randomly generated dungeons, the game features a long lifespan, reinforced by its simplicity and ease to pick up and play. Where the game feels like a letdown is on its lacklustre sound environment, as well as on its excessively long loading times and hastily made multiplayer mode.

After a few short tries to get a handle on the combat and learning to traverse the dungeon, I began consistently making multi-level runs. The unfortunate part, is that those runs really weren’t increasing in enjoyment the further I ventured. With the ever increasing amount of roguelite titles to choose from, I think I would rather just play one with better combat and a better crafted dungeon.

With gameplay best suited for a mouse and keyboard, a frankly unflattering aesthetic, and truly dreadful presentation, Unexplored: Unlocked Edition comes off mostly unengaging. To put it bluntly, the core gameplay loop simply isn't strong enough to carry a procedurally generated adventure. On top of that, the procedural generation, while fairly extensive and capable of leading to genuinely unique sessions with each playthrough, isn't enough to make up for how lacklustre Unexplored feels overall.