The Darkness Below

Memory lane stuff

Tentative recommendation for now. It certainly has something to it that got me hooked. It also has plenty of bugs and questionable design choices (e.g. ranged weapons need to be reloaded at vendor, you can't just buy ammo for them). Check demo if you have doubts, just keep in mind that there's no ending to it, it's just to show what to expect.

If you're a fan of Might & Magic, Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, etc... this game was made for YOU! I started the game not really taking it too seriously because I honestly thought it was going to be another poor soulless attempt at making a CRPG... This game is oozing with spirit and you can feel the love. This game just took me back to the early/mid 90s... without the frustration. Very intuitive gameplay, easy to jump in and start questing. I enjoyed the character creation... although it could use a bit more masculine Knight, Barbarian and Paladin portraits. Some of the portraits are good and some of them look very stock. Overall I was amazed by the world the developer(s) have created. I didn't play too much but what I played I loved and I can't wait to come back to it. I missed the Sale but bought it anyway... I feel like $16.99 is still a bit much but I'm glad I bought the game. It's totally worth it if you're of big fan of the genre and want to play a New CRPG that's something like the classics. I play some of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLSh370oV2Q&t=1s

Sehr gut das Game gefällt mir danke :) !!

I rarely post reviews but as an old-school gamer (been playing pc games since the early 80s) this game scratches an itch that the 90s teen in me has been missing. There are a few quality-of-life components that could be better (such as inventory management) but honestly, the game is a fun, nostalgic romp.

Edit: I really enjoyed the game, but finding out that the art was made by AI left a sour taste. I have artist friends and it would be really disrespectful to recommend this game now. I am 50+ hours in and there's STILL content, plus the dev just sent out an exciting update this morning with new feats! This game is addictive and a rare gem to play these days, get it! The dungeons are fun to explore, the gear fun to update though would love some variety. And oh how I wish somewhere early in the game they would have mentioned that my giant-race tank needed to invest in Short Blade before he could pick up the mightier weapons like Long Sword and Halberd?! Or that BEFORE you can wear the heavier armours, you need to level up Leather Armour first?? Hello I wasted so much figuring this out, I just don't have the patience to wade through 2 million pages of the (helpfully provided) manual to find this info. BUT. My god, it is so fun for my party to go from weaksauce to GUD when you finally figure out the skills. You need to hunt down the important trainers and make note of where they are, or mark an X on the map. I don't mean to complain so much, I find this game so much more fun than Grimrock because the puzzles are varied and don't require you to have the hand-eye coordination of a god, and the UI (while could be improved with a Loot All button) is designed well for modern sensibilities. The story is simplistic but has some interesting lore. I actually dread finishing this so am taking my time getting all my maps to 100%. 50+ hours of gaming for 17 bucks? That's value right there

This is a very fun romp in the realm of old school grid-based Dungeon Crawlers / RPGs :). If you liked the original Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, or Wizardry series, you'll probably like this. There's also a very strong dash of Bard's Tale in here with the towns.. I got 6-7 hours out of this, and enjoyed it all. While I don't feel the urge to finish the game, it was fun ratcheting up stats and specs during this time, and combating different monsters. The main "let down" for this game is that the difficulty scaling is kinda weird - in my playthrough I just became OP after the first 5 character levels or so. The game definitely favors strong fighter builds over magic, thievery, and other techniques -- so I'd say it's more of a "Basic" RPG than some other games. The magic is also standard D&D which is OK but not as engaging as the Dungeon Master system of symbols. The art work is fun in this -- paintings on walls, small shops, etc, and the music is alright for this type of game. Anyway, I enjoyed it, happy to have bought it to support the developer, and if you like crawlers, definitely buy this!

Enjoying this - scratching the itch for traditional rpg games (I played a lot of bard's tale, eye of the beholder, might and magic etc. when I was young) Only been at it a few days but great to see changes have been made recently in response to player feedback.

"The Darkness Below" is a love nod to old games like "Eye of the Behold", "The Black Eye" and thelike. It provides the right amount of nostalgia while also providing hours of fun. Good, old classic: "Go into the dungon, kill the monsters, loot the treasures". For me: definitely worth the money. Nontheless, there are some things I wish will be changes. Enemy respawn. Right now, dungeons and maps seem to stay empty once I have killed everything, This make it harder to gain xp and gold. Gold can get an issue when, for some unlucky events a dragon is eating someone, you need to ressurect. Controller support. While the game is playable on a steam deck or Legion Go, I need to use the touch screen for certain things. This breaks the immersion a bit. These and perhaps some QoL improvements and I would not hesitate to even by buy a "The Darkness Below 2".

Enjoyable retro dungeon crawl rpg