Desktop Dungeons Enhanced Edition

Be careful, this game is absolutely not what it seems. If you think you're going to play a turn-by-turn-dungeon crawler/tactical rpg "on your desktop for short coffee sessions" like the trailer and description lets you believe etc... you're going to be extremely disappointed. This is a very taxing puzzle game with the outer form of earlier said games : the games gives you a maze which must be cleaned of its monsters, with a game loop and game economics very tightly calculated. It could be ok but : - Very quickly, you have to play yourself arithmetically, with precise farming loops between bigger and smaller enemies, else you won't have the requested level to finish the maze boss. Very rigid. - the regenerating system, which restores you health / magic only through exploring the fog of war is NOT interesting, it's too much based on luck, too tightly calculated to be fun, and transforms you into a step accountant. Once again : if you explored not cautiously during your first steps, or not luckily, you're f*cked 15 mn later when trying to finish the last monsters. - Very quickly, the games won't let you clean a maze without using the "altars", the gods of which provide you with perks/partial boosts for a cost/partial debilitation of your character. Once again, you become an accountant of each move, each sword strike to see its effects according to the new rules the altar sets. Not funny, because systematic. - problem is the random nature of the playfields, heavily based on an arithmetic dispensing of resources/damage for the player lacks the precise puzzle design that the hand made levels propose. On the whole, it rigid to the point of not being funny.

The first thing to note about Desktop Dungeons is that it is not a dungeon crawler. It's a puzzle game with a dungeon flavor, but it's a very strict game of choices and move order. If you've ever played one of those "mate in X moves" chess puzzles, it's actually similar to to something like that. The basic playthrough of the game is like : you have a hero of limited health, a limited amount of health/mana restoration and a limited amount of enemies. Defeating enemies gains exp and levels, which will strengthen the hero and restore health/mana, but causes the hero to take damage. Finding ways to defeating enemies more powerful than oneself nets more exp, while defeating less powerful enemies isn't as worthwhile. There are spells with specific - some allow greater exp gain, some let the player harm enemies without taking damage. The point of the game is to defeat all enemies in an approximately correct order, without taking enough damage to die, such that the hero gains enough levels and power to defeat the dungeon's boss. The different classes and races largely add more avenues to the game's puzzles, presenting new strengths and weaknesses and styles of play, and the kingdom map is mostly just a hub for unlocking them. Regular games often boil down the same way regardless of class, but the puzzles unique to each are well done enough. It's one of those games where one can lose long before they realize they can't possibly win, so you'll die a lot. In the main quests, even so much as exploring too much or going in the wrong direction (and thus eating up valuable regeneration) can cause a failure down the line - the straightforward puzzle segments are definitely where the game shines. It's a game for someone interested in keen, merciless puzzle challenges - but at the same time it is a very casual experience, and thus it does its replay value very well. All in all, not bad. I'd recommend it, but mostly to those who already have an idea what they're getting into.

I really, really wanted to like this game. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve is so severe, that after several hours in the game, I've had to walk away. My character dies all the time, and frequently I don't know why. I've gotten to the final boss and cleaned out the entire level several times to discover my character is hopelessly under-developed, and can't win... which means all that time I invested is lost. I could tolerate all of this and chalk it up to own need to simply be a smarter player... if it weren't for one absolutely critical flaw. Gold. I'm out, and it's required to buy the basic items needed to play in a dungeon. As far as I can tell, there is literally no way to earn gold in the game other than beating a dungeon... which you can't do if you don't have the gold to enter! What a catch-22. This has rendered the game permanently unplayable, unless I wanted to start all over with a new dungeon... and face the same problem again. If I could only earn more gold, I would at least be able to keep trying. And if there is a way to earn gold, I haven't found it after clicking on everything, and that's a fault of the game as well. Very, very disappointed.

I have had this game on steam for quite sometime now , it is one of my most played games on Steam , I will certainly get it again here on Gog , its that good. Beautifully presented very addictive and a great amount of depth too. One of the best rogue likes out there for sure. Don't hesitate to pick this one up.