Endless Dungeon Review

Despite making some risky and substantial changes to an existing formula, the unique blend of tower defence, roguelite, twin stick shooter and strategy is very addicting.

ENDLESS FUN

Endless Dungeon is extremely easy to get into: open doors and shoot guns, but before you know it, the depth of the mechanics and systems from multiple genres overlap to create something that is incredibly rewarding to master and addicting to play.

There are three major differences between Endless Dungeon and Dungeon of the Endless. Obviously, the most polarizing change is moving away from the pixel art visuals, the change to being a twin stick shooter, and less of a reliance on dust. Dust is even more rare than before with only a few per level, which makes the decision to use them even more difficult.

However, Endless Dungeon is still loaded with atmosphere thanks to the the new art style, great lighting, audio direction that gives the weapons a hefty crunch and the station a soul, topped of with an amazing soundtrack that perfectly captures the feeling of isolation and being lost in space with a band of misfits.

The modern influence of the game expands past just the art style as the soundtrack features some songs with Lera Lynn could easily be placed on the weekly top 40 countdown. Not only do they sound fantastic, but the lyrics are beautifully tied into the story of the game, which is something that you don’t see very often.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Most people are opposed to the rogue genre due to how much you get penalized, in Endless Dungeon, the only thing that happens is you just have to go back to the start. You get to keep at the resources you find, any keys you might have found, but the best thing is that you get to keep your knowledge and that is easily the most important resource.

With the many genres that are blended into Endless Dungeon, the learning is….Endless. There is squad dynamics, resource management, what turrets you should be using including the proper placement of them, what character upgrades to purchase, the timing to use specials and ultimate abilities, learning the weaknesses of each enemy type, what path to the core makes the most sense and what starting floor creates the best foundation for success are just some of the important things you need to get a grasp on.

Endless Dungeon is basically a turn based strategy dressed in twin stick shooter clothes. Every door you open gains your team resources, which is then used to either upgrade, build or research. There is a risk/reward scenario as opening doors raises the danger level and which direction the waves can come, so sometimes despite needed the resources, it makes more sense to leave certain doors shut.

The objective of each floor is simple: get the crystal bot, who holds the key to your success to the end of the level and ultimately to the core of the endless time prison you are trapped in. The issue is that anytime you need your crystal bot to mine crystal, unlock doors or open the elevator, waves of enemies get thrown at you, in addition to the timed waves that send hundreds of enemies looking for you, all of which put your defences to the test. If your bot dies, you get sent back to the saloon, and the loops starts at the beginning .

LOST IN SPACE

The biggest issue is the story or lack thereof. You and a group of galaxy traveling misfits get stuck in some type of Bermuda Space Triangle Prison and the way to get out is to get your crystal bot to the core. There is one cutscene at the start, one at the end and the rest of the cutscenes are unlocked by finding collectibles around the map, but even then, you still need to go into the journal back in the saloon to play them. Story is typically the crux of the genre as few have done it like Hades.

The game is available in three player co-op, but you can also play solo with two AI controlled teammates that can switch between at any point in time. Endless Dungeon works great in solo, but the issue is that the friendly AI doesn’t work as well as they should. Each character has unique abilities, but they rarely use it. One character has mines that work great to slow down enemies, especially if you can predict which corridor the waves will come through and another character has a healing bubble that gives health to everyone inside of it. These are essential abilities that drastically impact the game, but are either used extremely infrequently by the AI or never.

One of the other issues tied to this is how each character has passive, special and ultimate abilities. All of the icons for abilities are stars and lightning bolts, so when you need to hot swap between characters to use the healing bubble because the AI won’t do it, it would be helpful if the icons for the abilities were more representative of what they were. When things get hectic and a 45 minute run depends on you switching to the right character and using the healing bubble, but you hit the wrong button because you aren’t familiar with the character, this becomes a run ending issue that is easily fixed.

There are also a few other minor issues including a vendor that felt lacklustre, to the point that I never purchased a single item from him. There is also a lack of turret research stations in the game. With a game dependent on using the right tool for the right job, I should have the option to research to get the tools I need. With the levels being procedurally generated, this can sometimes be unfair RNG If I am constantly facing bugs who are weak against poison, I need to be able to research a poison turret. The other fix for this is to be able to select what turret, you start your run with as you can select which path you take and you become familiar with what enemies are in what areas. Guns are fun to use with a great sound and weight, but I wish there was more upgrades as opposed to most just having only two.

VERDICT

With a more meaningful story incorporated into the main gameplay and a few quality of life changes, Endless Dungeon could have been one of the best games of the year, but instead will have to settle for being one of the best rogue-lites of 2023. Although it does seem somewhat unfair to put a label on Endless Dungeon because it is just as much of a tower defence as it is a dungeon crawler, turn based strategy or even a top down shooter. The blending of all of these genres into a formula that was unique and addicting in 2014 is still fresh and addicting today.

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