The Scrungeon Depths

[h1] For student project it may be. For actual game that you have to pay it's quite lackluster to say at least... [/h1]

[h1]Introduction[/h1] The Scrungeon Depths is a fast-moving action dungeon crawler with rogue-like elements, and the debut title from indie developers, When's Lunch? Games. You play a little pixelated dude. You begin the game dropped into a room with some old furniture and a stone staircase leading downwards. Dusting yourself off you wander about the room and collect the weapon, helmet, and armour that some thoughtful person has left you, and maybe browse the bestiary sitting in the far corner. Not having anything else to do, you venture down the stairs. [h1]Presentation[/h1] The Scrungeon Depths follows along with many other recent action dungeon crawlers and renders everything in large pixel graphics. These aren't the best I've seen -- they look pretty blocky in full-screen HD resolutions and picking out objects or enemies is often difficult given the organic 'litter' that quickly covers the dungeon floors -- but they're also not the worst. They do a reasonable job. The game is played from a top-down view, with character sprites drawn side-on, which is common for the genre. The protagonist graphic changes depending on equipment, which is a nice touch. There's not a whole lot of enemy variation -- I think the bestiary has 11 enemies, with two reskin-style variations -- but each enemy type is easily identifiable. There are four (I think) dungeon types, each with 10 levels, and each tile set has a distinct flavour to it. The enemies mostly stay the same between levels. The music is surprising. It's mostly guitars and has a sort of eastern feel to it. It's not at all what I expected, but it works very well for the game and I really enjoyed it. There are a few different tracks, but they all have a very similar feel. Sound effects are fairly weak, with explosions sounding distorted even at low volume. There's a single voice actor, but he only seems to be there to announce combo ratings. Mostly he sounds pretty good, though. There are only the standard Unity launcher graphics options: a single-detail-level setting, from Fastest to Fantastic, a resolution drop-down, and a full screen / windowed mode toggle. The game suffers from some performance issues when a lot is going on; I think it's more the animations than the dead bodies slowing it down, as once you've killed everything it speeds up again, but it did surprise me a bit. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The Scrungeon Depths is a real-time action dungeon crawler. It's sort of like a simplified cross between Dungeon Souls and The Binding of Isaac, though it doesn't have the same depth as either game. There are no character classes, levels, skills, or anything like that. Instead you have four equipment slots -- weapon, helmet, armour, and relic -- and four attributes -- health, attack, defence, and speed -- and you rely on lucky item drops to increase your stats, one of each equipment type. As well as the items that can be equipped there are also some drops that provide you Binding-of-Isaac-like abilities, such as robot eyes that blast your enemies and devil balls (!) that rotate around you, causing damage to anything they hit. When you find these it's not immediately clear whether they'll replace your currently equipped relic or not, but after a bit of experimentation you find out what works and what doesn't. Combat is in real time and enemies seem to know where you are implicitly, regardless of walls or other obstructions. Each level includes a number of Gauntlet-style 'nests', which infinitely spawn enemies of a particular type. Once you've destroyed all the nests on a level the exit materialises next to you with a large explosion. Pro Tip: if there are bombs about make sure that you move out of their range -- I've been killed by them. The game's gimmick is that, when they die, enemies' bodies remain on screen and become physics objects, getting in your way and slowing you down. This works well and makes for some darkly funny scenes of your little pixel guy wading through dead monsters. After you've died a couple of times from being slowed down that way, you'll be much better at accommodating it. There's also a combo meter that increases with each enemy kill and resets when the timer expires without you killing anything. I haven't worked out if this has any in-game effect or if it's simply for bragging rights. Loot is procedurally generated in the rogue-like style, but it has crazy names. You'll see references to genitals and other body parts as well as foodstuffs and other oddities. I think the highlight in my games might have been "Ripping Farty Vagina's Sword of Burping", but it's hard to say for sure. Unfortunately they all become very samey after a short time, as they all simply adjust your basic attributes, with no other abilities or modifiers, so you just end up comparing stats and picking the higher numbers. There is permanent improvement available from shops by purchasing attribute increases with gold, but other than that each game plays essentially the same as the last, albeit on a different procedurally generated map. And that's basically it. There are no ranged weapons save for the automatically firing relics/items, and there are only a dozen or so enemy types, including some reskins, as well as a boss monster at the end of each level. Defeating the bosses grants you a special ability, but I don't normally bother with them until I've killed the third boss and gained the healing ability. Keyboard and gamepad controls are both a bit annoying, requiring the use of a mouse to navigate menu screens, but the undocumented keyboard and mouse mode, using the LMB for attack and RMB for picking up items works better than the other options. The game has a few big problems. First, it seems to be buggy in the worst possible way: waiting until you're near the end of a great run and then exhibiting a game-breaking bug. In my case I completed Level 36 and the game loaded up a blank level: no enemies, no walls, no floor, no exit. All I could do was quit. I haven't bothered playing again since then. I've noticed another video in the Steam Discussions for the game that shows a level with an unreachable exit. These bugs need to be fixed. There also seems to be no way to quit; I had to alt-tab each time and kill it from the task bar. And it gets very repetitive very quickly. With limited enemy types and items that only add to your base attributes or provide one of very few benefits, each game ends up playing out like the last, regardless of the procedural generation. You very quickly find the best items you're going to find, and choose your relic to best suit your play style, and after that it's just grinding through the levels one after another, fighting the same enemies over and over, until you stuff up or you get bored -- or the game breaks. [h1]Pros and Cons[/h1] Pros: + Fun for a while + Good sense of humour + Steam Achievements Cons: - Game-breaking bugs - Not enough content; very repetitive [h1]Verdict[/h1] Dungeon crawlers with rogue-like elements are some of my favourite games. In fact, add rogue-like elements to pretty much anything and I'm in. But even procedural level and loot generation can't hide the fact that The Scrungeon Depths needs more content, and it needs to have its game-breaking bugs fixed. If, like me, you love this sort of game, then keep your eye on it; watch the news, read the forums, and wait to see if it improves. But as it stands right now, I'm very sorry to say that I can't recommend it. A S L [h1]Pause[/h1] Q R https://youtu.be/8bve3BR3nws [code]For more game reviews, visit [url=http://saveorquit.com/]Save or Quit[/url].[/code]

I'm little over an hour in and this game is an absolute blast. I'm fairly new to the rougelike genre, but Scrungeon seems basic and really complex all at the sametime. One of my favorite mechanics in the game is the corpse weight that's added while wading through corpses that continue to pile up. If you're looking for your best bang for the buck, I can 100% say this is one of the best games under $10 I've ever bought.

This is a serious dungeon crawler game. You play as a blobby little character with a sword (of farting or some other bodily function), a pair of pants, and a hat. The character appears differently based on the equipment that you pick up in the game, which is an interesting twist to the normal pixel-based dungeon crawlers. You will hack your way through monsters and nests as you progress down the scrungeon. There will be occasional levels that are shops where you can often buy equipment that is worse than the RNG equipment that you find in the scrungeons. One of the most interesting features that this game has to offer is the physics behind slain foes. If you kill off a bunch of baddies, they leave viscera around the floor, which will slow you down--the more chunks of bodies, the slower you move, which can often lead to death. When you die, you can continue where you left off, without the awesome equipment that helped get you there, which often means continued runs will not go nearly as well. The downside -- the monsters are very repetitive, with only a few models that you will encounter. The upside(s) -- The developer is very active, and has already released a pretty big update to the game. It is also one of the most entertaining way to spend 15 minutes and get absolutely pissed off that you died when things were going so well.

The Scrungeon Depths in Depth Review I wanted to put at least 10 hours into this game before I gave it a review and now that I have, here it goes. The Scrungeon Depths is a fantastic randomized dungeon crawler rogue like that thinks outside the box. It has the random level layout, monster spawns, and power ups of Binding of Isaac. It has the epic boss battles of Final Fantasy, and the death penalties of Dark Souls. This is game is a true amalgamation of multiple genres and flows incredibly well. GRAPHICS This game has an amazing 8-bit graphics style that seems almost too good to be true. Gwarmbee, your player character, and his armor are incredibly detailed for such a simplistic style. The enemies are equally detailed and their animations are on point. Bosses are all unique and require strategy to beat even with a great loadout that seems to mow over the pawns of the opposing forces. SOUND The music in this game has a unique vibe, acoustic guitars paired with electric drums that can only be compared to Bastion. Every 9 levels has its own feel, theme, and soundtrack. The way I understand it, this game was entirely made by 1 guy.... yeah 1, including all the music, sound effects, art design, programming, everything. It's astonishing to think that 1 person could be so talented that it makes it that much more enjoyable. He even did the voice overs for when you get on kill streaks as the announcer of the Depths. GAMEPLAY It starts off slow and steady for your feeble warrior, and quickly ramps up the difficulty with bigger baddies and more obstacles in an attempt to ward off the player, but a true warrior will wade through the bodies, literally to achieve victory. Each boss encounter is unique and difficult, even for the most experienced. Constantly finding new gear is fun and beneficial. Everything is completely random, some levels have 3 nests to destroy, some have 9. Even the bosses’ attacks are random, they truly have no pattern, it's as if they have a certain set of moves that they can deploy at any time. One of the bosses I fought 6 times before demolishing his skull and every encounter was different and I like the fact that I must rely on my instincts as opposed to learning a pattern to defeat my opponent. Buckle up because this game is a ride! CONS I really don't have anything bad to say about this game. I personally haven't run into any bugs and I did contact the developer about some bugs I have seen on YouTube and he assured me a fix was in the works for these and the patch was awaiting Steam approval. I had a quick chat with him and he said this game was important to him and he will constantly be on top of the forums, YouTube, and email to fix anything anyone finds and get a patch out as soon as possible. I also own this game on iOS and there have already been several updates to ensure top notch performance and to squash as many bugs as possible. To me this sounds more promising than any other AAA developer out there. CONCLUSION This is a fantastic dungeon crawler with randomized drops and enemies. It is a fun romp that cannot be compared to any other single game on the market. I love this game and can't get enough of it. Even if I am on the run of my life and I die, I take a quick pause and try again. Stuck at a boss? Never give up, never surrender, when you do demolish the foes face the feeling that overcomes you is fantastical and without a doubt this is high on my list for game of the year.

Pretty fun, but the items you have equiped should not disappear when you pick something else up, they should just be dropped instead.

So fun! A great dungeon crawler. The game art and music are fantastic.

IT'S AWESOME. BUY IT NOW.

Very addicting and replayable with a unique tone that sets it apart from other games of the genre. The naming conventions for items are hilarious, the music is excellent, and the boss fights are fun and challenging. Theres nothing more satisfying than watching a horde of monsters explode from a well timed bomb, then pushing your way through the heap of monter parts to collect your spoils and add to your arsenal.

Fun roguelike action game!