DUNGEON OF THE ENDLESS: Creative, Frustrating, and Addicting
(Originally posted Aug 21, 2017)
My favorite rogue-like, RPG, strategy, tower defense, dungeon crawler! Its truly a gem of a game. It satisfies an itch for micro-management while also having smart enough AI that executing plans and battles never feels too frustrating. I find myself more angry with my own incompetence when trying to stand against the tide of foes, rather than any failings in the game systems themselves.
Finding new heroes for your party is quite enjoyable and is one of the early draws of the game. The heroes are diverse, albeit due to a somewhat complicated stat system. Its not innovative, it simply takes time before you begin to notice how stats are expressed in the characters. Once you start to see this, you can create an interesting teams with varied stats. Characters also have special moves you can invest in as they level up through your session. This adds a layer of choice to the game once you have a full roster of heroes to chose. Its enjoyable and creates a pretty fun game-play loop while you experiment and learn the best way to get further into the dungeon. Though most players will probably find a strategy that clicks for them pretty early on.
The game rewards you for creativity and daring with a rather novel mechanic that lets you pick where enemies will spawn. In later levels, this becomes an indispensable tool and really elevates the game play beyond the basic tower defense game. Even when the game can be unfair, you never are left feeling like you were completely helpless. There is always a sense that there was more to learn and you simply have not mastered the game yet. It also allows for dumb luck and victories won by tiny margins, which can be a difficult line to walk for a single player game. But Dungeon of the Endless manages it well.
Some problems with the game are unlocking new game modes can be rather difficult. It felt like after unlocking all the heroes I had hardly unlocked any new game modes. This created an awkward lag in my overall progression of the game, and there are some game modes I never even touched because of this. Overall, these extra game modes do not change too much about the core game will satisfy players with more time to commit. But for someone like myself, its a bit unfortunate that content will likely never be unlocked.
The game is also rather difficult. On the easiest difficult I was able to get through to the end with a little practice, but on the harder difficulty the game is more than unfair. The easier difficulty is definitely what most players will want in order to experience the game in its fullest. But in either case, many people may be turned away by the time investment required.
A final critique is the UI is very difficult to understand. You will be confused and there are many game mechanics that will simply not make sense until you have put some time into the game. However, I think enduring this failing is worth it for the overall experience.
The art is grand and there are small story elements that really make you feel the characters are alive, breathing, and facing death together. Its a wonderful game that should be in everyone's library!
