Dungeons Review

7.0

Review Score:

As long as there have been video games, there has been one type of mission, one level, one game type that has existed. Or, at least it feels like it, because of all the possibilities interactive entertainment presents, dungeon crawlers seem to be the most tired, overused and dull ideas that developers like to incorporate into their productions. Walking through seemingly endless room after room, going through the motions and killing enemies, wondering quite what the point of it all is or ever was. Existential-crisis inducing situations aside though, dungeon crawls really are quite dull. So, in a hope to rejuvenate the idea, Kalypso have flipped the concept completely on its head in a similar style of the Dungeon Keeper games of the 90s. You’re in charge of the dungeon now, and may death itself have mercy on any hero that dares wander into your path.

Or perhaps that’s a touch overzealous. Unfortunately, at the start of the game the imaginatively titled ex-girlfriend of your Dungeon Master character, Calypso, lets heroes loose into your dungeon in an attempt to destroy your ‘Dungeonheart’ and overthrow you. After a swift escape that introduces a few basic gameplay elements, your task begins- enter dungeons around the kingdom, wreak havoc, claim them as your own and regain your strength until you can exact revenge on Calypso.

There isn’t any fancy open-world content or the like, and overall Dungeons feels more like a Real Time Strategy game than the typical dungeon crawlers from which it draws its premise. A level in Dungeons will play out pretty simply: controlling the Dungeon Master from either a third person or top-down perspective, there is little variation in the base idea, but the idea is a busy one.

At the start of a level, the player will likely be stood in front of their Dungeonheart, presented with a relatively straightforward maze-like dungeon area and a minion-spawning Pentagram to be converted (bringing it under your control) somewhere on the map. This is the first task- to increase your ‘area of influence’ (the area in which you are able to build) by converting a Pentagram, and to begin spawning monsters from it. With the conversion of a Pentagram comes the building of a monster shelter, which literally gives the monsters on your side shelter. Once you are set up with a Pentagram which, having increased your area of influence, is busy spawning monsters, you are ready to place prestige gimmicks around your dungeon.

A game like Dungeons wouldn’t be much if it was just building a dungeon and enjoying the pretty colours, though. The aim of the game is to increase your area of influence, improve your dungeon and make it more appealing for heroes to enter. Heroes aren’t just a nuisance in Dungeons- they’re essential. When a hero enters your dungeon through a door the player opens at a time of their choosing from within their area of influence, having placed sufficient prestige gimmicks, they wander around the place. As a Dungeon Master, it is your job to see that they enjoy themselves, and that is what prestige gimmicks provide- entertainment for the hero whilst increasing your dungeon’s prestige to the required level. The more a hero is enjoying themselves, the more soul energy they gather, and the more you can eventually harvest from them. With your weapons, mainly, but also by utilising prisons which torture any additional soul energy from the hero, with different prisons having different rates of extraction and a better ability to extract soul energy.

Speaking of soul energy, there are three resources to manage in Dungeons- soul energy, prestige and gold. Soul energy is obtained from the aforementioned harvesting of heroes who have enjoyed themselves, and is used to purchase gimmicks which in turn increase Prestige. In order to maximise your soul energy, it is necessary to cater to heroes’ individual needs with your gimmicks. These needs will be something like gold or books, and having a variety is useful for success.

Prestige, increased as above, allows the player to use their soul energy on higher-level gimmicks which entice higher-level heroes.

Gold is earned mainly from heroes defeated and is used to purchase items such as prisons, libraries, etc. and can be placed on the ground to entice greedy heroes, increasing their soul energy.

It isn’t a one-man show, however, and to assist the Dungeon Master we have Mr. Sidekick and goblins. Mr. Sidekick is a helpful guy that will be of great assistance in the earlier portions of the game, guiding the player. He will alert you when something of interest occurs, such as enemies entering, or let you know when a new area of the dungeon is available. Goblins are primarily used to dig away at the walls of the dungeons, opening up these new areas for heroes to explore with some pre-placed gimmicks and Pentagrams to see, and digging also earns a small amount of gold. The player is only able to summon a certain, limited number of goblins in each match, however.

Completing various tasks and challenges will award the player with skill points, used to teach the Dungeon Master skills on skill trees (skills!) down on of three paths- combat, improvement and building. Attribute points which are used to improve strength, agility, intelligence and constitution are earned too, which improve the Dungeon Master’s ability to fight. Scrolls are also awarded, which are one-use spells with special abilities. Scrolls are earned through the completion of challenges outlined before a game, which add something extra to work towards during a match. Points are also awarded to the player which can be used to increase the Dungeon Master’s

Aside from heroes, occasionally the plot will kick in and enemies will enter your dungeon. This is a nice diversion from harvesting heroes, requiring the player to spend some time attacking enemies before the enemies can destroy the Dungeonheart. It’s a juggling act that requires the player to think strategically about who they attack, and if they should let any heroes slide. The game also throws in the odd side-quest, which helps the longevity.

Graphically, Dungeons is fairly basic and for the price of the game are somewhat underwhelming, and although they do serve the game reasonably well as a downloadable title, retail buyers would likely expect more. The textures are generally lacking in particular detail, but it suits the art style of the game well and I encountered very little in the way of graphical glitches once a patch had been applied. The audio is similarly serviceable, the score being unmemorable but at times atmospheric and suiting the game rather well. The voice acting is on the whole rather good, particularly for Mr. Sidekick, it suiting the theme and creating some level of humour. It’s never laugh-out-loud, but a smile might be brought to your face by a few of the lines.

If I were to lay any complaints down on Dungeons, it would be on the camera and the difficulty curve. Quickly dropping you in at the deep end, Kalypso expect the player to quickly familiarise themselves with the different gameplay aspects whilst playing, and it does become something of a juggling act to work into the game. The camera can also be bothersome, neither the third person angle nor the top-down, isometric view point being incredibly convenient, and that the game does not pause should you open the map to examine the situation does not help matters.

Overall, Dungeons is a game that will either instantly grab your attention or leave you uninterested from the word go. It’s something of a lazy resolution, but it is apt- if you have been reading this review and thinking that Dungeons would be worth your time and money, it probably is. But if you’ve been thinking it might, vaguely, somehow interest you, it probably isn’t worth the price tag.

NXT Score: 7/10

Pros

• Good concept, well executed
• Graphics and sound are appropriate and of a good quality
• A good length

Cons

• Somewhat frustrating camera
• Quick to introduce new ideas, could be difficult for more casual players to break into

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