bit Dungeon+ is an upgraded version of a Flash game (which is also available on mobile devices) from a few years ago. You may have heard of it or perhaps its sequel, bit Dungeon II, which has been on Steam for a while now. So, how does the first game in the series, armed with a fresh new coat of paint fare?
[h1]The Breakdown[/h1]
Clearly, this game is inspired by quite a few popular titles, many of which are also on Steam. Games like The Legend of Zelda, Diablo, The Binding of Isaac, and even perhaps Dark Souls have inspired bit Dungeon. The game plays most closely to Zelda, but elements from the other games I mentioned are definitely present: randomized loot, randomized dungeon layouts, and (somewhat) slow-paced combat along with some giant bosses. bit Dungeon is played from an overhead perspective like most roguelikes out there, but it definitely differs in one major aspect: it feels more like an arcade game than something lengthier that might pop up in Steam's "Rogue-like" tag section.
A standard playthrough consists of the player progressing through a randomized dungeon, killing enemies, using melee weapons or magic (both are viable), and eventually fighting a boss. After defeating it, you'll progress to the next floor of the dungeon. There's also randomized loot to be found all over the place, along with coins that you can use on shops that are hidden behind certain walls.
The game is entirely beatable in less than an hour, yet it's challenging enough to keep you coming back for multiple tries before you can finally manage to beat it. Personally, it took me a decent amount of attempts to even manage to beat it on Easy, which I managed to do with ease once I had acquired some nice gear. Speaking of gear, there's a fair amount of variety in gear types, or at least gear stats and appearance. There's 8 different rarities of gear (based on the color of the item), though unfortunately in reality every weapon and piece of armor feels and plays the same as all the rest. They may cosmetically appear to be different, but none of the items really "feel" different from one another - they just look that way.
The enemies are a bit lacking in variety as well. Sure, they have different designs, but they all generally "feel" the same. They all shoot out a small wave-shaped attack (it's hard to describe) at you, though some of them have ranged attacks while others can only attack you up close. Even if the enemies may all look fairly varied, they all functionally only fit into a few categories: melee, invisible (or rather cloaked) melee and ranged. Sometimes the game randomly spawns giant enemies, which are stronger and thus more challenging, which does admittedly add to the fun. The bosses play similarly to these larger enemies, so they're at least pretty fun even if the generic enemies get a bit repetitive after a while.
Probably my biggest complaint with the game is how unpolished it feels. There's a tutorial, but besides a few helpful tips, like how charging an attack will give you a bit of temporary invulnerability, the game doesn't help you out much. For example, in one situation I was stunned by an enemy while a "PUSH!" message repeatedly popped up above my character. I mashed buttons and moved the joysticks around, but I had no clue how to "PUSH!" so I simply had to restart the game. Another example - items have stats, but some of them are utterly confusing; what's the difference between "armor" and "defend", and what the hell is "proc" or "chop"? The game also doesn't bother to explain what its story is about unless you read the store page, which was a bit amusing to me when I reached the end of the game, only to find my supposed "loved one". It doesn't help that there's a few typos and a decent amount of grammatical errors present as well.
In terms of bugs or glitches, I really only encountered one, and that involved me moving through a door, only for it to glitch out and leave me in the entranceway. There was some rats in the room that then swarmed around me (without damaging me) and pushed me into a corner. I eventually killed them and moved on, but from there onwards the game only showed the bottom half of each room, which was pretty odd.
Despite all these complaints, however, I still enjoyed my time with bit Dungeon+. Is it worth $5? Well, that depends on your personal taste in games and how fine you would be with all the negative aspects of the game that I mentioned earlier. Personally though, for $1-$3 I think that this game would be pretty decent; with some patches (which the developer has frequently been releasing anyway) I think this game has the potential to be really good. The pixel art is lovely, and the enemy designs are pretty creative. The bosses are quite fun to battle, and the game can get fairly difficult at times. I personally died a lot even on easy mode. And hey - the game has co-op support too!
[h1]Pros[/h1]
[list]
[*]Fun, challenging roguelike gameplay with an arcade feel to it (randomized loot, dungeons, and only 1 life to beat the game!)
[*]Local co-op support (I didn't test it so I can't vouch for its quality)
[*]Controller support
[*]Superb pixel art and enemy/boss designs
[*]3 difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, and Hell (along with an extra timed mode)
[*]Character customization to an extent (place items you've found on previous runs on your characters, though they are purely cosmetic)
[*]Multiple endings
[*]Steam achievements
[/list]
[h1]Cons[/h1]
[list]
[*]Pretty short for a complete run - takes about an hour or less.
[*]Weapons function in the same way; no variety whatsoever there.
[*]Enemies are also pretty limited in terms of functional variety (they're either melee, cloaked melee, or use ranged attacks).
[*]The game is extremely lacking in regards to informing the player about a lot of things, whether related to game mechanics or the story itself.
[*]Some typos, grammatical errors, and glitches are present.
[*]The music is generally forgettable and gets pretty repetitive after a while.
[*]The options menu lacks resolution options or volume sliders, though it does have support for rebindable keys and different languages.
[/list]
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
All in all, bit Dungeon+ is somewhat of an unpolished gem. It's covered in dirt and soot, but underneath all that grime is a great game. Sure, it has problems, but the base game is still quite fun, and for that I believe it deserves a recommendation.
[h1][b]Final Verdict: 6/10[/b][/h1]
