![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI wasn't really sure what I was getting with Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts--This is one of those games I spent all of $5 on in hopes that it would be entertaining enough to earn its keep. (Actually, it may have been $10, but close enough.)
The game is similar to Gauntlet in a lot of respects, but with more RPG elements. The dungeons are set, not randomly generated, and there's a combination of monsters that are "set" and monster generators that keep producing minions until you destroy them. Your character gains levels and gets stat points to distribute, and you can level up "arts" (magic) the same way. You find huge amounts of equipment, mostly dropped by enemies, though only a fraction of it can be used by your character without an expensive reworking by the town blacksmith (usually not worth it), so most of it gets sold or fed to your robot.
Oh, yeah, in the single-player game you get a robot companion to help you. It's a magic robot that shoots magic lasers, because this is a fantasy setting, doncha know. The problem with the robot is while it's really useful in dealing with mooks as you work your way through the dungeon, it tends to be particularly stupid while fighting bosses, and if it gets destroyed, you have to pay to replace it. (And you can't just "turn it off" for the duration of the boss fight, either.)
The graphics are uninspiring and kinda problematic (they have the "real is brown" problem, which makes monsters difficult to see when you're not targetting them). But the minimap is very helpful and the dungeon layouts aren't terribly complex--getting lost was never an issue for me.
I played through as an archer, which means the game takes on a very "run and gun" sort of atmosphere. (I basically circle-strafed a goblin king to death.) The problem is, the ideal way to play as an archer is to stay back, use cover, and flee when necessary, but many of the rooms pretty much force you into melee-range combat. I spent the first half of the game putting all of my stat points into strength and dexterity (to increase my attack and allow me to equip better weapons) and the second half pouring points into vitality (in a desperate attempt to get my defense and HP up high enough to survive). The difficulty ramp is such that you start out cautious, then get careless, then need to get cautious again.
You can use most items--particularly healing items--from the menu screen, which is key, because the active item-selection system is a pain and leaves you totally vulnerable to attack while you're trying to change items.
Each dungeon takes about 15-20 minutes, which is a good amount of play time for a portable game. The later dungeons get longer, but include sensible "break points" where you can teleport back to town and then resume where you left off.
The part I didn't finish was the pyramid, which is apparently primarily intended for multiplayer. It's a pretty standard zillion-floor dungeon where the best items can be found, but the enemies are much nastier than in story mode. To tackle it alone, you really need to play through story mode a second time on Hard difficult first, to get the best items and high enough levels to handle it.
Overall, it took me about eight hours to finish story mode once, and I feel little pressing need to go through again on hard mode or with a different character. The setting is clever and the framing story is cute, but there's relatively little of it and no characterization to speak of. And much of the mythology that the game presents doesn't actually matter to the plot.
This wasn't my most efficient game buy, but it wasn't too bad, either. If anyone else ends up with a copy, I'd love to try the multiplayer mode at some point.
The game is similar to Gauntlet in a lot of respects, but with more RPG elements. The dungeons are set, not randomly generated, and there's a combination of monsters that are "set" and monster generators that keep producing minions until you destroy them. Your character gains levels and gets stat points to distribute, and you can level up "arts" (magic) the same way. You find huge amounts of equipment, mostly dropped by enemies, though only a fraction of it can be used by your character without an expensive reworking by the town blacksmith (usually not worth it), so most of it gets sold or fed to your robot.
Oh, yeah, in the single-player game you get a robot companion to help you. It's a magic robot that shoots magic lasers, because this is a fantasy setting, doncha know. The problem with the robot is while it's really useful in dealing with mooks as you work your way through the dungeon, it tends to be particularly stupid while fighting bosses, and if it gets destroyed, you have to pay to replace it. (And you can't just "turn it off" for the duration of the boss fight, either.)
The graphics are uninspiring and kinda problematic (they have the "real is brown" problem, which makes monsters difficult to see when you're not targetting them). But the minimap is very helpful and the dungeon layouts aren't terribly complex--getting lost was never an issue for me.
I played through as an archer, which means the game takes on a very "run and gun" sort of atmosphere. (I basically circle-strafed a goblin king to death.) The problem is, the ideal way to play as an archer is to stay back, use cover, and flee when necessary, but many of the rooms pretty much force you into melee-range combat. I spent the first half of the game putting all of my stat points into strength and dexterity (to increase my attack and allow me to equip better weapons) and the second half pouring points into vitality (in a desperate attempt to get my defense and HP up high enough to survive). The difficulty ramp is such that you start out cautious, then get careless, then need to get cautious again.
You can use most items--particularly healing items--from the menu screen, which is key, because the active item-selection system is a pain and leaves you totally vulnerable to attack while you're trying to change items.
Each dungeon takes about 15-20 minutes, which is a good amount of play time for a portable game. The later dungeons get longer, but include sensible "break points" where you can teleport back to town and then resume where you left off.
The part I didn't finish was the pyramid, which is apparently primarily intended for multiplayer. It's a pretty standard zillion-floor dungeon where the best items can be found, but the enemies are much nastier than in story mode. To tackle it alone, you really need to play through story mode a second time on Hard difficult first, to get the best items and high enough levels to handle it.
Overall, it took me about eight hours to finish story mode once, and I feel little pressing need to go through again on hard mode or with a different character. The setting is clever and the framing story is cute, but there's relatively little of it and no characterization to speak of. And much of the mythology that the game presents doesn't actually matter to the plot.
This wasn't my most efficient game buy, but it wasn't too bad, either. If anyone else ends up with a copy, I'd love to try the multiplayer mode at some point.
