Dark Gates

I originally purchased this game as part of a bundle and am thrilled to see it on Steam with achievements, the games has evolved quite nicely since I last played it and feels a lot more polished. The game is a turn based dungeon crawler focused on encounters, if you've played something more recent like knights of pen and paper the encounters feel a similar vein to that. The art is hand drawn and suits the indie, crafted feel. Combat is reasonably tactical, formation and abilities are in play and there is enough depth here to keep it interesting, it feels like an interactive board game and yet simple enough to make sure playing is quite relaxing to sink a few hours into at the start of the weekend. You play exclusively using the keyboard, mostly directions and the enter key - initially this felt strange but now especially playing on a laptop I find it quite well suited to the dungeon traversal and nice not to have to constantly switch modality between mouse and keyboard. If you are a fan of turn based dungeon crawlers with tactical combat encounters then make sure to give this a second look.

Dark Gates simulates old-school board games like "DeathMaze." It's a minimalist idea, to be sure, but one that it does very well. The player selects 6 characters to form a party (many are multi-class and can use both melee and ranged weapons, as well as offensive and defensive magic). Once they breach the front entrance of the labyrinth (there's a back story that explains its existence, but it's typical fare), movement tiles are revealed in a similar fashion to "Dungeon Quest" in order to simulate the Fog of War. There are doors that may or may not be trapped, events to find, chests to open, and, of course, encounters. Each game is randomly generated. Party members can be replaced or swapped at will, and they can be upgraded as their exp increases. The usual stat increases are here, but there are also Masteries that can be raised (such as the bonus they get to their melee weapon) and Skills (such as a bonus to successfully navigating Traps). This may not be the popular opinion, but I actually like this game. I've been playing the DRM-free version for the last six months (as I write this review, Dark Gates has been on Steam less than a week), and I appreciate that it feels like an old-school board game. I don't even have a problem with hitting Enter (a common complaint is that the mouse is not used, although it should be noted that the game does claim full gamepad support), because rolling dice would take just as long, if not longer. It's not supposed to be Skyrim; it's a board game. The description even states that it "tries to capture classic tabletop RPG experience," and it easily achieves this goal. Does it have amazing hi-rez ultra smooth graphics with Oculus support? No, but why would it? The graphics are perfectly serviceable for what it is. (EDIT: The developer has recently addressed the complaint of hitting Enter too often, by automating this process somewhat. ) Dark gates is a simple game with simple rules. It might be too slow-moving for some, and I'll admit that the sound gets old very quickly. But, in my opinion, the very things that irritate some players are what make the game work for me. Gameplay isn't overly convoluted, which makes it easy to pick up and play in 5 minute increments or for an hour. The Fog of War keeps things interesting, as does the opportunity to try to settle encounters either through force or diplomatically (by Negotiating or Bribing). Different monsters have different abilities to keep things tense (for example, spiders cast webs over random party members, making them unable to fight). That said, I do believe that $10 US is too much for what this game is. I'd recommend it, but at a price half that, as it really feels more like an iOS game than something designed for PC. Dark Gates is a lite, board game-inspired time waster. There is nothing particularly deep or strategic about it; this isn't an RTS by any means. Those players who are looking for something simple to pass the time will enjoy it. All others should steer clear. For me, it's a fun and interesting diversion when I don't want to think too hard or button mash. Recommended, but make sure you know what you're getting before pulling the trigger. [One quick aside: There is misinformation around that states the game doesn't tell you what the controls are, which kind of baffles me. Every time the screen changes, the keys that are usable on that screen are displayed as icons. You can see this in the game's screen shots if this is a concern.] (Edited for purposes of clarification)

Sadly the game is not very good even for the price. The controls are keyboard only, movement and combat is slow, there is no gear to find or level up your party (undermining the dungeon crawl aspect), and the magic system is easily exploitable for infinite healing. It feels like a simple, cheap flash game. Wander around the dungeon until you find one of your objectives, and then smash it. Your characters aren't leveling up almost at all, no gear, so it is very repetitive quickly. The artwork and animations I thought were endearing for the style. The music and sound effects were not great. Sadly, not a good entry in the dungeon crawling genre.

This is hardly a game at all. I have no words to even describe how pointless it is. I just can't even...

Game can kill a few hours. It's not a total disaster. You pick 6 characters, enter a Dungeon, do linear turn based fights. Gain experience, up your skills until you hit the Dark gate battle. Break the gates, win. Takes ~2 hours to win. I had no idea what to expect so I did "easy" and won easily. So I did Normal and won easily. So I did hard and won easily. Dislike: Characters ALWAYS go First. Most of the time, the monsters never get a turn to fight. When they do fight they almost always do 1 point of damage . You're equipped with basically infinite Heal spells. Speels cost life to cast. So your backline has Heal and can heal themselves + heal frontline. Basically it is really really really hard to die. Dislike: The "Unnamed" in Hard had 6 HP ! Your front line hits for 2 to 5 each. Your backline will cast Lightning bolts doing 2-6 each. How can you give the boss character for winning on hard 6HP ? Dislike: Perma death - unless of course you managed to locate the resurrect spell The only time a character died was on Normal mode - char with 12 hit points took a 14 damage Magic Strike and I resurrected them one second later. Yawn. Dislike: Have to grind for last achievements. They offer you something like 30 characters to choose from. All of them have to die and not be resurrected to get last achievement. Like: Aside from last achievement, rest are easy/straight forward tied to regular game play. Turn based so I can step away anytime.

Very nice little game :)

Only been playing this game for a while, but I love it. The game is obviously influenced by classic board games like Dungeon Quest, and the developer clearly understands what makes those games so much fun. Great stuff.

6人パーティで迷宮を探索し、迷宮内のどこかにあるDark Gateを閉じるのが目的。パーティは予め登録された26人の中から選択する。キャラメイクはない。 チュートリアル等は一切ないが、操作は至って単純なので困ることはない。見下ろし視点でカーソルキーで移動、戦闘はシンボルエンカウントのターン性バトル。怪しい場所はEキーで探索。Dark Gateを見つけたら破壊する（要Dark Gateスキル）。Dark Gateを破壊したら迷宮が再生成され、新たな迷宮で再スタート。これが全てである。 とにかく単純で、かつ単調。基本的に同じ事の繰り返しで奥深さはなく、キャラ育成やアイテム収集といったやり込み要素もない。例えるなら、少し手の込んだブラウザゲームといったところ。 それでもやってみたいという方のためのアドバイス ・最初のキャラ選択の際、魔法の選択も忘れずに ・おすすめの魔法はHealとMagicStrike ・キャラは死んだらロスト ・レベルアップはパーティ編成画面で可能 ・パーティ編成画面に戻るには、Save&QuitしてからContinue（つまり一度ゲームを抜けてから再スタート） ・与えたダメージ分だけ経験値が入るので、攻撃力を重視した方が圧倒的に効率的

The problem with Dark Gates, which is an old-school retro wannabe RPG, is not the theme, it's the implementation. The game basically doesn't work on modern PCs - there's chronic debilitating overscan if you select any highdef resolution (this may be limited to Windows 10, but if I need to install a different OS to run your game, die in hell). Gameplay is simplistic classic RPG stuff which might have been a refreshing breath of air instead of yet another bloody JRPG or 2D retro platformer, but the fact that the game just doesn't work and the developers haven't tested it on current systems and kept it up to date is a slap in the face. Developers: If you want thumbs up, make sure your game works before asking for money for it on Steam.

ne se joue uniquement au clavier ou à la manette,ergonomie mauvaise,dommage si il s'étais joué à la souris ça aurait été un plus.Sous Linux il ne tourne pas,le jeu ne se lance simplement pas.