The Winter Uprising is in full swing and good games seem to be popping out faster than secret diplomatic cables. It’s hard to say if the organizers thought they should put their best foot forward or not since we are only a few days into the actual event, but so far Eyehook Games’ roguelike action adventure Epic Dungeon is setting the bar at a notable altitude.
Gameplay
Being a big fan of roguelikes, it would have been nearly impossible for me to not love Epic Dungeon. In fact, Epic Dungeon practically plays like a check list of what it means to be a member of the all too rare roguelike sub-genre of games. This is not to say, however, that the game sticks precisely to the mouth breaking purists’ definition of what it means to be roguelike, as the game unabashedly stands on the shoulders of turn of the century giants.
When it comes to the straight-and-narrow, Epic Dungeon’s permadeath, randomly generated dungeon maps, and obfuscated magical items are right in line with the roguelike. It then takes a jaunt into the modern real time movement and combat popularized by the Diablo series and introduces a very similar character progression system made up of stat and skill trees for customizable development.
Within the game you’ll find four character classes; Gambler, Shaman, Tinkerer, and Berserker. As the characters level up they can allocate points into the same stats and skills with the only difference being a bonus in the selected classes hallmark ability. As the game progresses this begins to manifest itself as a pretty shallow system that lacks much, if any diversity. As more and more points result in an almost complete homogenization of the four and makes one wonder if having classes was even necessary.
The statistics system is fairly ambiguous within the game itself, but are described to a degree within the help section. The actual effectiveness of the stats are left within the ether requiring the player to do some experimentation to find what works best for their play style. This grants Epic Dungeon a big enhancement in replay value.
Another huge contributing factor to Epic Dungeon’s robust replay value proposition is its encounter system. The encounter system can best be described as a series of random events that appear throughout the world and propose a varying set of text based situations. For example, my Gambler stumbled into a nice comfy place and decided have a nap and when he awoke a goblin had made off with all of his clothes. So at this point the Gambler had to fight off enemies in his scant state and hunt down the bastard goblin. This situation could have gone entirely differently depending on the players class and his luck skill. I would have to say that this is probably the most awesome feature of Epic Dungeon and adds the most enjoyment to the experience.
As previously mentioned, the replay value of Epic Dungeon is signifigant, but it is important to temper that statement with a little more discussion on the game’s designed length. Epic Dungeon is made up of fifty level’s and has a closed end, something that obviously was not part of the Diablo experience, and in my opinion rather limited the games overall awesome factor. Just as the game started to get some rhythm and awesome items started to show up the game was over. I would have really liked to have seen either the ability to continue on deeper, or the unlock of a higher difficulty.
The issue of length kind of manifests itself in the item system the most. The actual gear you pick up never takes on that really epic feel, as they seemed to stick entirely to their base stats. A sword always had damage but never seemed to have other stats, armor just had armor, and jewelry ended up carrying everything but that just felt normal within the context of the game.
As we take a step back and view the whole of the work that is Epic Dungeon, the product is a resounding triumph of competent design and polish. The flaws are there, but seem to disappear into the work and rather than making me feel like saying “I wish this game was different” it made me say “man Epic Dungeon 2 is going kick ass” and I don’t even know if such a thing is a glimmer in Eyehook’s… eye.
Audio/Visual
Visually Epic Dungeon plays it safe with a true classic pixel art style. Only in a few instances does the game break from the truly classic and implement some more contemporary visual effects in the form of dynamic lighting, some wavy transition screens, and a fog of war like effect created by some pixel art clouds. Another nice addition is the gore effects that leave permanent bloody pools all over the floor after you’ve killed an enemy, it adds a nice dynamic characteristic to the environment. These effects blend nicely into the pixel art and never gives you the sense that “something here doesn’t belong.”
The player character models get a nice touch as well in the form of visual armor representations and weapon visuals that make you feel that new upgrade you just got with your eyeballs. The visuals might not have been able to carry the game on its own, but as it stands, it didn’t have to.
The audio of Epic Dungeon is fine. It isn’t amazing, it wont stand on its own and make it into your iTunes library or on your holiday wish list, but that’s okay. The music is subtle and unobtrusive and wont distract you from gameplay or wear you out as you get to the 49th floor. The sound effects are mostly okay as well, subtle enough to not be overly intrusive, there isn’t a whole lot that needs communicated via the sound in the game, and I on more than a couple occasions just took the headphones off. No points were really gained or lost in the sound department.
Summary
Epic Dungeon is a big success, it’s tons of fun and will keep you playing for several hours. Mechanically the game is solid, the visuals are pleasant, and while the audio wont blow you away you wont much care because when it’s all said and done you’ll still be hoping for a sequel to throw your Moon Bucks at. Eyehook Games’ Epic Dungeon is 80 Microsoft points and gets an easy “Buy” recommendation.