Posted on: May 11, 2025
Wottie
Verified ownerGames: 1331 Reviews: 26
Pretty, pleasurable pixeled puzzler
A solid set of mechanics, some clever surprises, a lot of heart and humor, and just about the right amount of loving popcult references - if you like puzzle games and pixel art, Dungeons of Dreadrock may offer you more value for your money than many AAA titles. The game takes the usual "weights & levers, doors & floors" principle and puts it into 2D fantasy settings (journey into the depth of a mountain full of monsters to kill an undead king and save your little brother), having its tongue firmly planted in its cheek and repeatedly wrecking the 4th wall. The gameplay is polished. Longer, thinking-heavy levels are followed by shorter, timing/action-oriented ones. Some levels are linked together. What you do in one has consequences in the other, and sometimes you have to back to the previous room. Also, some enemies you not only shouldn't kill because only they can do something specific in that level, but sometimes you even have to get them to follow you to the next one. Original and entertaining; my only gripe would be that it's not clear which levels are one-off affairs and which are linked. The story, targeting perhaps mid teenage audiences, is predictable but manages to balance the serious plot and the humor quite well. The graphics are what pixel graphics should be: they have a consistent style and hand-drawn feel to them. The audio is probably the weakest part of the game. The SFX are mediocre and only two short tunes really caught my attention. Being an old-fashioned gamer, I played through the game without using the hint feature, and it took me about 11 hours. Overall, I'd say about 75% of the game are standard, solid puzzles, 5% were frustrating, and about 20% were either really rewarding or I just thought, "Hey, this is nice!" Anyway, when it comes to puzzlers, my verdict is usually determined by one single criterion. And I'm happy to say that throughout the vast majority of the game I simply had fun.
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