Kivi's Underworld
Review
Hack'en'slash, the oldfashioned way
by Rook
reviewed on PC
Rising darkness
A horde of Dark Elves of the underworld approaches. Evil armies so vast, their overwhelming power so unfathomable, that most of the peaceful Lumens refuse to even acknowledge their existence. Besides, Dark Elves are but a myth.
One lone outcast, Kivi, knows the truth of the threat through his own firsthand experience, which nearly cost him his life. Though Kivi escaped, his warning of impending danger was mocked as the crazed ranting of an outcast. In addition to Kivi’s words not being taken seriously, his encounter with the Dark Elves inadvertently started the countdown to their destruction as now the Dark Elves presence was exposed.
Your task as a player is to follow the outcast hero Kivi along his adventure to save his Lumen community as he battles his way through the darkest depths of Thunderclap Mountain to stop the Dark Elf army.
The Lore
The tale is as ancient as the spoken word. A horrible and immense evil threatens a peaceful folk and the responsibility of saving his community falls onto one man. Well, in this case, Lumen. In a nutshell, Kivi’s Underworld is set within the ever expanding world of the Depths of Peril game by Soldak Entertainment. This first game told the story of the Lumen adventurer Kivi who, through his search for riches and knowledge, accidentally stumbled into Dark Elves.
The Lumens are a small subterranean race who have enjoyed ages of long, prosperous and peaceful lives deep within the underworld of the Thunderclap Mountains. Kivi is a rare case being an adventurer, since such a career choice is often considered ridiculous and associated with insanity. Needless to say, when Kivi returned with news of the approaching Dark Elf army, his warning wasn’t very well received. Thus the story begins as Kivi takes it upon himself to delay the approaching threat as long as he can, while awareness of the threat spreads and a real defense can be formed.
Days of Yore
Lore aside, Kivi’s Underworld is a perfect example of why certain game genres will never completely die off. Kivi’s Underworld is a classic third person Hack and Slash with considerable cast of characters and an entertaining storyline that is reminiscent of the days of yore when Polyhedrons ruled the tabletop and DMs were a deity.
The player starts off playing as Kivi, though with some time and successful missions, the player will slowly begin to recruit new playable characters to his cause. Each character has his or her own job, specialty and play style and any active character can be used to play in any chapter of the game, regardless how new the character is or if the mission had been previously completed. I'll get back to that shortly.
This is a good old fashion Hack and Slash where points matter. The more treasure you find, the more bad guys you dispatch and more the hidden secrets you discover, the higher your score and that will directly influence your end-of-mission rewards.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
