Endless Dungeon - Review
The roguelike genre has been increasing in popularity over the last few years, with games like Hades, Dead Cells and Slay the Spire, to name a few. One of the latest to come out of Amplitude Studios’ is Endless Dungeon, a cross between a tower defence and the aforementioned roguelike. With games in similar genres under their belt, does their latest game make the list of great games in the roguelike genre, or is it just another by the number games?
One thing that’s clear from the very start of the game is the quality and high calibre of Endless Dungeon’s animation and cutscenes. The art throughout the game itself as well as the animation are done so well that it may leave a high expectation for the game itself… at least it did for me. Within the first thirty seconds, you should be able to work out the tone, style, and narrative of the game itself. Once established, the game takes you through a tutorial to give players the standard guide to the rules of the game, what the controls are like, and what your objectives are. To ensure there are no spoilers and simply put, your aim is to navigate through an area to a safe zone by opening closed doors, whilst bringing along a bot named Crabby that would unlock the doors to the next area. The challenge that takes place is as you open doors to rooms and other pathways, they could turn out to be a spawning point for hordes of enemies, or contain treasure chests and more.
As you try and find the exit, your objective would be to survive by shooting down the waves of enemies, that are clearly out to get Crabby and yourself. To help you survive, you’re able to build turrets after collecting enough scrap metal and pieces, you’ll just have to be strategic as to where you place the turrets and even if you actually place them. Along with your ‘support’ character, whether playing coop with a friend, or single player with an NPC, one thing that’s certain is that Endless Dungeon is definitely a tough slog to stay alive in.
As with any type of game where there are enemy types such a bug based, or mechanical, there are certain weapons you pick up along the way, that are definitely helpful in keeping them at bay. For example, bugs are weak against fire but are resistant to acid type weapons, whereas mechanical enemies are weak to electric based weapons. Speaking of weapons, each character that you unlock has certain attributes to their damage, for example, Zed having quite a strong attack with her rifle, and Bunker having a short but wide burst type attack. This means you’ll be able to pick up secondary weapons along the way by opening chests and/or completely changing up your arsenal. In addition to weapon upgrades, there are also character upgrades where you’ll pick up chips along the way and with them will be able to upgrade or open up character abilities, such as moving faster, healing abilities and more. All this boils down to is that there are a range of options and character builds to make your dungeon crawl a little easier, if that’s even possible.
All that said though, Endless Dungeon’s visuals and animation are top notch, and the gameplay seems great on paper with an intended replay value, unfortunately the game gives very little motivation to want to keep going. In fact, even its narrative isn’t something that may keep players enticed. When it comes to roguelikes isometric games, the high benchmark is Supergiant’s Hades. The narrative is so well written into the mechanic of repetitively playing the game after death, it keeps players wanting to go through its punishing dungeons. Not only that, but depending on the upgrades you pick up to add to your arsenal, it highly motivates players to try different combos, weapons and more. With Endless Dungeons’ weapons, you can definitely upgrade its attributes, as mentioned previously, making them stronger to help players last longer through their run, however, it is rather straightforward and not really the strongest aspect of the game, which is a missed opportunity due to its simplicity.
It’s very clear that Endless Dungeon was made for co-op and not for those single players. But even with that in mind, it unfortunately feels short lived. Yes, it’s definitely fun to play the game with friends as you’re able to chat and strategize while playing the game, unfortunately it gets old real fast. Five rounds is more than enough to want to take a break from it, giving it very little more motivation than playing solo. In addition, my experience in trying to find a random matchmaking game online was near impossible, as it was left at waiting to join other players, which usually ended with no success. Endless Dungeon seems to be a culmination of Amplitude’s Endless saga, which includes the Endless Space series and Dungeon of the Endless, so that might keep fans of those games happy. Nevertheless new players might find it a little daunting to begin with and given that it the game seems to lean into shorter play session, the time to adjust may be too long for most. Don’t that dissuade you though, if you’re a fan of the tower defence roguelike genre, then there is plenty to enjoy, just know it’s a hard slog to get to the best parts.
The Score
5.0
Review code provided by Sega
The Pros
Top notch graphics and animation
Gameplay controls feel great and satisfying when shooting down enemies
The Cons
Short-lived gameplay that’s difficult to stay enticed to keep going
Dull tutorial and narrative that lacks to keep players engaged
