Dungeon Crawling.
Nintendo platforms are home to some of the best dungeons in all the land, thanks to a Hylian stalwart and a certain legendary series. It is somewhat ironic then, that in the absence of what Switch players would probably define as a dungeon from Link's latest adventure has allowed indies to pick up the slack. Whether Entering One More dark (or even the Darkest), more than a few games have tried their hand and it’s now the turn of a ‘devious’ RPG/ 2D platformer.
Devious Dungeon is a medieval/ fantasy pixel art title that presents you with one straightforward main objective- escape. This is achieved by first finding a key to open a portal somewhere within the randomly generated levels, and after a certain number of successes, you’ll be faced with an ogre, soldier or beast type boss to slay.
Merely racing through to collect the key and go through portals will only get you so far, as every so often, you’ll have the opportunity to spend the cash you’ve collected on upgrades, replenishing health or buying new weapons such as swords or hammers. In terms of action, there is no real nuance to the combat, with no option to change weapons on the fly and no variation in attacks. Likewise, traversal of the levels is a pretty basic routine of jumping to avoid projectiles or pits of spikes.
It’s rather fitting then, that anything that makes a difference in Devious Dungeon is ‘by the numbers.’ From your upgradable health and XP gained from defeating enemies, to armour and weapons that reduce or increase damage, the statistics are integral to your progress, and you’ll become more accustomed to seeing digits spew out of enemies rather than be dazzled by the gameplay.
Despite Devious Dungeon being simple and generic, the platforming and slaying many different types of enemies is reasonably fun, even if the level design and numerous but bare bones ‘quests’ are serviceable at best.
All in all, Devious Dungeon is an enjoyable but achingly simple and generic experience. The monotonous cycle of looting and increasing stats is made tolerable by the variety of enemies and maybe a compulsive need to afford all weapons and armour. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does keep things rolling at a steady pace.
Final Score: 5.5
No comments:
Post a Comment