Dungeon of the Endless Slog

Time Played: 7 Hours

The third game of the Endless series (Developer, Amplitude Studio), which includes Endless Space and Endless Legend, Dungeon of the Endless pits the survivors of a catastrophe aboard a prison spaceship, against the dangers of an unknown, and deadly, planet. Having managed escape death by activating an escape pod, this awkward mixture of ex-cons and prison guards must locate the elevator on the floor they are on (Are they in a building, or a mine?) No matter. Once located, they have to transport their escape pod's power crystal to the elevator (why is there an elevator?), and then repeat, by finding the next elevator. All right, that's it: what idiot builds thirteen elevators, but each of them only travel between two floors, and none are anywhere remotely close to each other! And why are they carrying the power core of their escape pod from floor to floor?

Needless to say, the story is absurd, but there isn't any story beyond this, and what there is can be ignored as irrelevant. Though the characters have descriptive backgrounds.

Dungeon is a rogue-like (-like?), a member of the genre that features randomized levels and perma-death. These attributes lend to simplicity of design: how complex can a game afford to become if a completion only requires an two or three hours (and most games end before the conclusion)? One of the most successful and recent (oh my god, 2012?) sci-fi rouge-likes, FTL, incorporated graduated simplicity, with four tiers for most systems, in which each additional tier beyond the first produced reasonable improvements. Instead of creating variety through depth, FTL embraced breadth, by including up to seventeen different systems.

Unfortunately, Dungeon overcompensates in simplicity. In this design choice, it under-develops, by denying the player access to details. A player begins with two characters (former prison wardens, former prisoners, and/or natives of the deadly planet). The opening screen, where the player chooses their starting heroes, is so devoid of information, it's pointless. Aside the picture of each hero are four bars, whose length are determined by the hero's skill in four categories (total health, movement speed, dps, and operation skill). The screen also includes which weapon type the hero uses. Yet, once the player selects two heroes and the game begins, so much more information becomes available: passive abilities, active abilities, health regeneration, wit, armor, attack power, and attack speed. The heroes are a diverse cast, but Dungeon isn't willing to provide any information in the opening screen.

The enemies suffer from the same issue, only there's no solution. How different are they? It's hard to know. In Dungeon, the two (or more) heroes begin in a room, with up to four doors leading out. Opening a new room has the opportunity to spawn monsters. Monsters appear creative, and distinct, but the game offers no means to discover their stats (one has to search online). With careful observation, one can infer certain characteristics: for instance each monster type has a different attack priority. Some foes run past heroes to attack the crystal. But determining abilities, or quantifying attack strength is difficult. Despite a difference in appearance, they all feel the same, some weaker and some stronger, but either way they do damage, and take damage.

At this point, one might assume Dungeon is a light-RPG (like less serious versions of Rogue, Moria, or Angband), but at its core, it's actually a resource management/ tower defense game. There are three normal resources (Industry, Science, and Food) and one unique resource, Dust. The normal resources are generated each turn, but Dust has to be found by chance. In Dungeon, a turn occurs every time a door is opened. Once opened, they remain open. Each room, in addition to possible monsters, and other special events, is likely to have four minor platforms and a major platform. Using Industry resources, the player improve their resource production by building the appropriate construction on a major platform. On minor platforms, the player can construct various stationary weapons and defensive mechanisms. The player unlocks these modules by spending Science points. Or one can focus on producing Food which is used to upgrade heroes. Yet while heroes can at least be differentiated by their activated abilities, offensive and defensive modules feel remarkably blah. Sure the Tesla module does more damage than the prisoner prod, but it didn't feel significant.

Returning to the turn aspect, this is the strongest mechanic of Dungeon. The player can reorganize without fearing an enemy attack, as long as they don't open a new door. This involves Dust. Dust is the power by which everything functions. Each level, the player begins with twenty Dust, regardless of how much they had the previous level. To power a room requires ten Dust, but the Dust is not consumed. When a new room is opened, all unpowered rooms spawn enemies. So the player must use Dust, minor modules, and heroes to craft strategies which keep Major modules, heroes, and (ultimately) the crystal core protected.

But though Dungeon has some success, it is marred (further) by informational issues. At the top of the screen is a bar which indicates how much of each resource the player has, and how much of each they will receive next turn. But there is no way to determine the sources of the resources. And while the activated abilities of the heroes are what set them apart, there is no visual effect when they are in fact, activated, leaving the player underwhelmed. Then there's the mini-map. Considering, levels can include over twenty rooms, and those rooms will have weapons, resource structures, heroes, and invading monsters, it is strange the mini-map keeps track of the latter two, but forgoes indicating the structures the player spent valuable resources constructing. It ends up being almost entirely blank.

After searching long enough, the player is bound to locate the elevator to the next floor (where are these people?). One hero must carry the crystal, slowing their movement and preventing them from attacking, while monsters swarm from every dark corner. Once the crystal has been brought to the elevator, the player can advance, but beware, only heroes in the elevator room will survive. Any that haven't arrived will be left behind.

While Dungeon tries to replicate the success of FTL, while implementing a style reminiscent of Gods Will Be Watching, it's absurd plot, and lack of significant details, made it seem like the endless repetitive grind it's declared itself to be.

In its own way, Dungeon of the Endless is redolent of its sibling Endless Legend, which I played very briefly before discarding it. Both are shadowy, bland, detailess copies of more popular games, constructed to take advantage of popular genres.

In short, forget Dungeon, go play FTL instead.