Inexplicably descending a dungeon full of trials, tribulations, and an eclectic cast of evil creatures that are dead-set on causing your avatar’s demise – sound familiar? While it’s extremely easy to draw parallels to Downwell ($2.99) – and such comparisons are certainly welcome, considering the latter was our Game of the Year Runner Up in 2015 – Journey Below ($2.99) manages to distinguish itself from similar titles through putting its own unique spin on the rock-hard, high-scoring gameplay that is so well suited to mobile gaming. It may not be the most expansive experience, but dig beneath the surface and Ravenous Games have managed to create a surprising level of depth in Journey Below that makes sure it doesn’t stop being a highly compelling addition to the dungeon crawling genre.
As with Downwell, Journey Below is extremely easy to pick up, with only two controls in jumping and attacking. The latter serves as the sole method of eliminating the numerous creatures encountered within the twelve levels, however attacking also acts as a mid-jump dash, which has a significant degree of importance in dodging spikes and enemies within the maze. This is because, similar to titles such as Wind-up Knight (Free), your character forever moves left or right until a wall directs them in the opposite direction. Enemies vary from simple ground-based obstacles, flying critters that home in onto your avatar, cannons that fire projectiles around the screen, and ghosts that can travel through walls to attack any unprepared players being too conservative on the ground. This ensures that there is an interesting degree of variation and individuality for each creature, which goes a long way to defining the unremarkable environments your knight must navigate.
While every adversary perishes in one hit, and some of the later enemies can prove to be a nuisance with their vastly improved offences, it’s the positioning and timing of attacks and jumps that is most pivotal in Journey Below. Similar to Slayin ($0.99), every move must be accounted for, as a poorly placed dash or mistimed wall jump could cause you to fall into the path of an awaiting creature. This emphasis on slower paced positioning distinguishes itself from games such as Downwell, as instead of refined reflexes being the difference between life and death, there is a more methodical focus that rewards players that don’t go dashing into the depths.
From the start, the only context you’re given in Journey Below is that you have to ‘slay the monster and save the kingdom’, despite it being hidden twelve levels into some nondescript cavern. It may be an entirely illogical and even irrelevant piece of detail, however it acts as a surprising stimulus to keep on descending the dungeon – what actually is at the bottom? While there is an endless mode available, the finite nature of the normal mode of Journey Below gives a tangible incentive to keep attempting to conquer the maze, even when it can get chaotic and challenging at times. When you do eventually make it to the boss, despite the final battle being a little overwhelming, it is a very satisfying feeling to merely discover what this creature is, especially owing to the fact it’s probably taken many attempts, and many seemingly expendable knights, to finally make it that far.
Of course, discovering the secrets at the bottom of the dungeon isn’t the only incentive for persisting with Journey Below – the high score elements should satiate any leaderboard lovers and competitive players alike. The impressive combo system implores quick action within each level, as while the score multiplier will increase by 0.1 for every enemy you eviscerate, if you do not kill a creature before a timer runs out, it will drop back to x1.0, ending the combo run that may have extended back many levels. This means that being more risky in killing enemies, at the possible cost of losing a heart of health, is a chance worth taking for anyone looking for the highest score possible, and furthermore occasionally leaving enemies based on their individual points total could be a successful strategy for people focused on efficient runs. For example, the sedentary tentacle creature will give less points than the ridiculously infuriating floating orange skull; there is a lot of potential for experiencing Journey Below in entirely different ways based on the individual priorities of the player.
My only real criticism of Journey Below is that, even with a strong core concept, it is limited by a lack of variation in certain aspects of the game. The upgrade system – which allows you to choose one of three abilities at the end of each level such as increasing your health, raising the score multiplier or restoring the life of your knight – isn’t as memorable as the equivalent in Downwell. Each upgrade tends to blur into the last, and because they aren’t particularly unique, you’re likely to collect the majority of them by the end of a successful run. While you can choose whether to focus on improving your chances of survival versus scoring the most points, Journey Below doesn’t move beyond this binary approach of character customisation, and some more left-field or potentially double-edged abilities would be a welcome inclusion. Similarly, having multiple game modes that enhance and hinder your character in varied ways to create a different challenge within each descent would help shake up the gameplay from the repetitive Normal, Hard and Endless modes that are currently present in Journey Below.
Still, this complaint is relatively superfluous – I had a lot of fun with Journey Below, and it has a lot of potential to expand into a more defined and expansive title in future updates. Giving each level its own unique identity while adding more enemies, upgrades and modes is the easy part; the core gameplay is a lot more difficult to realize, and Ravenous Games have done a fantastic job in creating a challenging yet fair auto-runner title on the App Store. While it may be easy to start the descent in Journey Below, it’s a far harder task to reach the bottom – and even more difficult to put down.
