Under Dead

Under Dead is a surprisingly fun and unassuming zombie-themed horde survival game that is made by a solo developer and stands out due to its lack of meta progression which is refreshing among the genre because it leads to each run being quite tense and exciting since you will rarely become overpowered and must instead rely on your skill and acquired game knowledge (as well as some luck).
Overall, I recommend it because it captures the essence of the zombie theme quite well despite its amateurish (but charming) look and the purposely low power ceiling of the gameplay adds to the tension that is naturally present in the theme as there is rarely a moment where you feel untouchable and can go AFK which is quite unique among the genre and leads to some very nerve-wracking moments. Moreover, the developer seems very keen on updating and improving the game which is a great sign for its future.
Note: this review is current as of Update 1.0.1 released on 25 May 2025.
S U M M A R Y
- The gameplay is shockingly riveting due to the lack of meta progression, inability to become overpowered very easily, and the addition of objectives on the map that help keep you engaged throughout a run;
- The replay value is actually good given the ability to auto-aim and manually aim (each of which provide a vastly different experience), the wide variety of weapons and items, and the 15 classes, but the game doesn't have much content that incentivizes you to keep playing after you've seen everything you're interested in;
- The graphics are very bare-bones and look amateurish but the wide variety of sprites do have some charm to them and look almost cute in a weird sort of way;
- The soundtrack is composed of generic and forgettable apocalyptic music but the small selection of songs are all played throughout a run, which is a nice touch, and the sound effects are great due to their weightiness;
- The story is non-existent but this genre in general and this theme in particular rarely have overarching stories anyways so this isn't much of an issue; and
- The game is missing some quality-of-life features such as displaying weapon stats and which slot they occupy (primary or secondary), stat icon tooltips, numerical cooldown timers, being able to access the glossary and bestiary from the pause menu, and the ability to re-bind the controls.
A C H I E V E M E N T S
The game has 52 achievements which mostly revolve around completion and collection milestones that will be acquired throughout casual play; however, some of the classes are much more tedious to play than others while a few achievements will require you to go out of your way to get them. Unfortunately, the Veteran achievement is currently unattainable because it is impossible to reach Level 100 in a playthrough while the Miraculous achievement is nearly impossible to attain because it requires you to be extremely lucky and get three of a single high-rarity luck item plus a few other more common luck items.
That being said, the game is marked as "Profile Features Limited" which means that it will not count towards your "Perfect Games" count and other achievement-related stats until it makes a minimum number of sales or has met other non-revenue criteria thresholds.
R E V I E W
Gameplay
The gameplay differs slightly from the standard of the genre because it doesn't have meta upgrades whatsoever so it relies solely on your skill, game knowledge, and of course some luck. As such, you rarely become overpowered to the point where the game is trivialized (unless you happen to get lucky with rare weapons) which makes the game more entertaining in general as you never really feel like you've secured a win until it's actually over. This feeling is magnified by the fact that you automatically aim and shoot at the nearest zombie which adds another layer of strategy to the game as positioning becomes even more important if you want to target certain zombies (of which there are a large variety who have different stats and attacks, including ranged attacks).
The game only has one mode where you must survive for 15 days and a run takes around 30-35 minutes to complete but, sadly, there is no endless mode so you can't enjoy a fantastic build whenever you do get lucky which is a shame. Throughout each day, objectives are spread out across the map, such as saving and protecting other survivors and salvaging para-dropped supply crates, to keep you engaged and broaden the otherwise monotonous, mindless, and mundane gameplay of the horde survival genre. After each day, you are also given access to an optional shop to spend coins and purchase weapons, abilities, or stats by way of items.
Unfortunately, none of the mechanics are outright explained which is a definite area for improvement; however, the game does provide a glossary and bestiary which is a huge step up from many other games in the genre that don't provide anything of the sort and I feel that these should be available by default in order to help the player make informed decisions when attempting to choose synergistic items or make specific builds.
Oddly enough, the ability to manually aim, fire, and reload are unlockable options which strikes me as a very strange decision as I think that the game should stick with either auto-everything or manual-everything and focus on one mechanic as its core foundation rather than having both be available because they provide very different experiences. In fact, I never turned off any of the manual options once I unlocked them because I found that the extra level of control made the game much more engaging and, ultimately, enjoyable. Since auto-aim is the default setting, the aiming of active abilities was only built with it in mind and is based on your last movement direction which is very unintuitive and is awkward to get used to and there is no way to change this. Another peculiar design choice is the confusing collision detection which allows your head and torso to be damaged by fire or acid that is on the ground underneath those parts of your sprite.
The multitude of weapons are split up into primary and secondary weapons which are satisfying to use but I found that a pure damage build was the only viable playstyle. Others exist but felt secondary compared to pure damage since they fill more of utility role and require you to get lucky with the items that are offered to you anyways so they aren't always available. For example, burn damage is the next most prominent one but has so little support in comparison to a pure damage build that it ends up being extremely weak (not to mention wearisome as you have to kite the zombies while they burn excrutiatingly slowly) while other playstyles are even more niche. At the end of the day, all of them do very little damage and you end up relying on weapons to deal the bulk of your damage.
Due to the above, the 15 classes end up playing very similarly with the only difference among them being their starting equipment -- if each class had different stats then that would help flesh out their own identities and could even bolster the weaker playstyles but many of the weapons are rare enough that the classes can feel quite distinct until you find an objectively better weapon that most classes would upgrade to, at which point they become completely homogenous with one another.
Conclusion
Overall, I recommend this game because it was surprisingly delightful and charming despite its amateur look and I believe that not having meta progression while having objectives to pursue throughout the run really helped make it much more enjoyable than I had initially assumed based on its looks and its departure from the usual high-power fantasy that most horde survival games devolve into made it quite refreshing to play.

A really fun game, with A LOT of content.
70h in and still finding new items. Totally worth it.

I'm surprised. I liked a lot this game. Different ways to play it and kinda hard tbh.