Dungeon Of The Endless: Review

This is a game that lies to you. Before you even begin, it asks you to select a difficulty. Your choices: easy or too easy. This is a lie. When it isn't lulling you into a false sense of security, it’s trying to conceal itself. Part roguelike, part tower defence, part turn based strategy, it contains subtle nuances that can take hours to come to light.

Here are the basics. you are trapped at the bottom of a twelve-floor dungeon. you can select two heroes at the start of a campaign, with the potential to hire two more along the way. If a hero dies, there’s no bringing them back. and they will die.

Through the keyhole
Each floor contains multiple rooms. Open the door to a new room, and you start a new turn. Dungeon Of The Endless is all about the anticipation of what’s hiding behind these doors. It could be an item, a merchant or a research station. alternatively, it could be a wave of enemies that spawn from every unlit room. To light rooms you need Dust, one of the game’s four collectible resources. When a room is powered, you can build on the nodes it contains. Large nodes generate additional resources, while small ones hold turrets and supportive buffs. These are essential for thinning out enemy waves before they reach your crystal the power source that rests at the start of each level.

Eventually, you'll uncover the exit to that floor. It’s not enough to just reach the exit, you have to pick up the crystal and carry it out. Do so and all hell breaks loose, as every door opens, and enemies flood out of the unlit rooms. More than anything, each level is about preparing yourself for that one insane moment.

Dungeon Of The Endless is fascinating and tense, and its strategies are gratifyingly complex. as a bizarre genre mash-up it really shouldn't work, but every system functions in harmony, and each armed us with a greater understanding of the whole. For that alone, it’s an impressive achievement.

It’s also relentless. While other new-wave roguelikes, such as Spelunky, boast brief but demanding campaigns, DOTE never lets up. Taken a few floors at a time, and accepting any progress as a victory, it’s a welcome challenge.

8/10