RisenShadow
CAGiversary!
Desktop Dungeons Review
About:
Desktop Dungeons is a quick (5-15 mins) game where you play an adventurer trying to survive making it through a dungeon long enough to find the boss, kill it, and retire.
Initial Thoughts:
There is no story. No plot to bog down game play. No heavy reading for background. If you'd like, make up a story for your character...but don't get too attached, he/she will probably die and even if they don't, after they beat the dungeon the hero is retired.
The closest thing to Story that you have in the game is the alters of gods placed in each dungeon. Usually there are several alters, each to a randomly selected god. Depending on which god you worship will determine how you get points with the deity. For example, the God of Guardians and Protection rewards you for fighting monsters the same level or higher than you, but you lose points for fighting "weak" (under your level) monsters.
Game Play:
Ever hear of a game called Nethack? This is a simplified version of that game with better graphics. Although I died a lot, I had a lot of fun learning which monsters I could fight and which ones I had to hold off on trying to fight.
You begin with 5 basic races and 4 basic classes to pick from. Each race has it's own special bonuses that are more beneficial to some classes over others. As you beat each dungeon, you will unlock new classes and different modes of game play.
Design/Graphics:
The graphics aren't anything special. I do appreciate that the game designers did program in functionality to allow you to resize or maximize the screen so it's not just playable in a small window that it starts off at.
Each dungeon is randomly generated as are the monsters, so on occasion you'll find a boss monster (lv 10, there's only one) standing right in front of you.
The spells that are available that each person can potentially get are creative and offer different styles for surviving a dungeon.
Final Thoughts:
Everything about this game says "quick run." This is the game you play while you're waiting for something else to happen; waiting for a raid to gather, waiting for something to download, waiting for your sig other to finish getting ready in the bathroom, or even just pulling a quickie at work on a break.
I can't say this game is something that I'd be playing months down the line but it's definitely a game I'd recommend to others to share a brief, but enjoyable gaming experience.
Desktop Dungeons website:
http://www.qcfdesign.com/?cat=20
Nethack Website:
http://www.nethack.org/
**note, nethack is probably one of the most complex and complicated games I've ever seen. The learning curve for it is insane. I've never played more than ten minutes into it before losing interest.
About:
Desktop Dungeons is a quick (5-15 mins) game where you play an adventurer trying to survive making it through a dungeon long enough to find the boss, kill it, and retire.
Initial Thoughts:
- The game is simple and Compact, I can pop the game folder on a USB drive, take it anywhere and play it. No installer required.
- The controls are very simple and easy to learn. The tutorial combines humor with the idea of learning by doing.
- Holy shit this game is hard! It doesn't pull punches, you're more likely to die than survive your first few games. I'd died close to 20 times before I finally defeated a dungeon.
- Because the game doesn't pull punches, when you actually win, it makes you feel really good!
There is no story. No plot to bog down game play. No heavy reading for background. If you'd like, make up a story for your character...but don't get too attached, he/she will probably die and even if they don't, after they beat the dungeon the hero is retired.
The closest thing to Story that you have in the game is the alters of gods placed in each dungeon. Usually there are several alters, each to a randomly selected god. Depending on which god you worship will determine how you get points with the deity. For example, the God of Guardians and Protection rewards you for fighting monsters the same level or higher than you, but you lose points for fighting "weak" (under your level) monsters.
Game Play:
Ever hear of a game called Nethack? This is a simplified version of that game with better graphics. Although I died a lot, I had a lot of fun learning which monsters I could fight and which ones I had to hold off on trying to fight.
You begin with 5 basic races and 4 basic classes to pick from. Each race has it's own special bonuses that are more beneficial to some classes over others. As you beat each dungeon, you will unlock new classes and different modes of game play.
Design/Graphics:
The graphics aren't anything special. I do appreciate that the game designers did program in functionality to allow you to resize or maximize the screen so it's not just playable in a small window that it starts off at.
Each dungeon is randomly generated as are the monsters, so on occasion you'll find a boss monster (lv 10, there's only one) standing right in front of you.
The spells that are available that each person can potentially get are creative and offer different styles for surviving a dungeon.
Final Thoughts:
Everything about this game says "quick run." This is the game you play while you're waiting for something else to happen; waiting for a raid to gather, waiting for something to download, waiting for your sig other to finish getting ready in the bathroom, or even just pulling a quickie at work on a break.
I can't say this game is something that I'd be playing months down the line but it's definitely a game I'd recommend to others to share a brief, but enjoyable gaming experience.
Desktop Dungeons website:
http://www.qcfdesign.com/?cat=20
Nethack Website:
http://www.nethack.org/
**note, nethack is probably one of the most complex and complicated games I've ever seen. The learning curve for it is insane. I've never played more than ten minutes into it before losing interest.
