Rock Bottom PC (Goldberg-Final)

Descend through 8 unique layers, unlock devastating abilities, and discover what lies at Rock Bottom. Starts off a little slow, and it’s quite expensive for what it is (100% achievements in 3.3 hours), but it eventually delivers the satisfying feeling of swimming through the land, watching numbers climb, and flooding the brain with dopamine. The achievements require a bit of grinding after the story, but not enough to detract from the overall experience. Other people in the same Steam Family will probably 100% Rock Bottom as well. Definitely recommended as a bite-sized, brain-off experience. The ores could be labeled more clearly on the left side of the screen and in the combiner.

Several runs were spent hunting the wrong ores because some colors overlap, leaving menu position as the only reliable way to tell them apart. A way to “lock” pickaxe traits would also be a welcome addition, so rerolling all three traits isn’t necessary just to improve one while keeping two decent ones. Rock Bottom may be intended as an endgame point sink, but the feature would still be a nice quality-of-life improvement. Adorable visuals with a fun gameplay loop.

The only real downside is that the power creep ramps up too quickly, making it easy to steamroll through the stages. Still worth the price and the fun it provides, with a feel that is somewhat reminiscent of Shelltender. The biggest issue is the use of AI-generated art. If custom sprites weren’t possible at launch, delaying Rock Bottom or waiting until original assets were ready would have been a better choice. AI-generated sprites take opportunities away from skilled artists and often have an uncanny, unappealing look when noticeable.

In this case, it isn’t the most obvious, but the discussion forums show that other players have questioned whether AI assets were used. Rock Bottom was released very recently, and while improvements are expected over time, the base game should already be polished at release. Fortunately, it largely is. There are little to no bugs, only a few minor gimmicks. Aside from that, the game is enjoyable. The gameplay loop is satisfying, and the upgrades have a noticeable impact, making each new upgrade feel meaningful on the next run.