Dungeons of Dredmor Review
Dungeons of Dredmor has this almost old school RPG feel to it. You're placed within a randomly generated dungeon and your mission is to buff up your character as well as defeat the ancient evil that has somehow broken the bonds that hold him. You'll have to go through several different types of monsters, survive traps, and learn how to best use what you have at your disposal. If you can do that then perhaps you can save everyone.
Graphically you are not going to be blown away by this game, but in all honesty its not really needed. This game is basically drawn out on a grid system in which each level will be generated randomly the first time you enter the game, with your new character. The enemies you will face will utilize palette swaps to show different types of enemies, and there's plenty of different looking items to keep you interested in the game.
The music in the game can be anywhere from swashbuckling to your average dungeon crawler tunes. It is nice to have those audible reminders of when your health is getting low, but other than that there's minimal talking going on in this game.
The controls, once you've figured out the keyboard layout they are using, is really straight forward. There are a couple off issues with clicking on an enemy, and the game responding as if you wanted to walk into the adjacent square above the enemy, but for the most part the mouse piece doesn't really hurt the overall effect of the game.
I think the reason why I keep going back to this game, even though I've spent most of my time getting annihilated by things that I thought I could take on, but it turns out trying to face off against 6 at the same time, isn't going to work out, is because this game does give you something new each time you play. Sure the end result is going to be the same, but you can always tinker around with the skills that you're able to select from at the beginning of the game, and whatever you choose can definitely change how you play the game. There's also the different items you will find along your journey. One thing I will recommend is that even though you might be getting some sweet material that you can use somewhere down the road, don't hold on to it, sell it, you're going to be much happier with all the money so that you can get that last minute thing that could save your hide. There's also the equipment that you'll be able to use. First off love the fact that I can have a crossbow equipped and a melee weapon equipped at the same time. Then there's the standard affair of helmet, chest, boots, shield, 2 ring slots, and a necklace slot. As any good RPGer would tell you keep an eye on what you pick up because it could be better than what you have.
I don't want to say that the price point of this game on Steam makes the game better, but it definitely allowed me to get the game, and as a result I got into it. I've found myself, whenever I'm sitting on my computer thinking about just trying one more time to see how far down I can go this time, and if the random assortment of skills I have will get me to the ultimate goal. Oh and there is the fact that I play with perma-death on, so if I die, and man have I died way too many times, I've got to start all over again from scratch.
This game is something that will definitely play into nostalgia for some RPGers, and for others its just a fun pick up. This game gets an 8.3 out of 10.
