Diehard-ly Dungeon

Alright!

Even though I have mostly played Star Wars: KotoR this week, the first game I finished is Diehard Dungeon. I played for about an hour and a half in two gaming sessions. This isn't long enough to grasp the finer points for most games, especially rogue-like dungeon crawlers. But I have quite the list to go through so I will deem it enough.

Diehard Dungeon is created by Tricktale and got on Steam via Greenlight. The latest update was on August 6 2014 with version 1.6.5. It's a procedurally generated dungeon crawler with rogue-like elements, meaning if you die you have to start over. You start with a knife and a "hand-cannon" which can be upgraded with various features and stat boosts. You can also find items like a shield which blocks some attacks for a while, but there is no equipment hoarding, unlike Diablo for example.

The gameplay looks as follows; you enter a randomly generated room, find a switch, key or certain enemy that unlocks the next door, and proceed to next room. Along the way a trail of quirky enemies may or may not try to remove the hearts from your chests. You defeat these with a combat feeling like a mix of early Zelda and Binding of Isaac. You will not only encounter lots of enemies, but also lots of treasure. Luckily you are followed by a sentient 'companion chest' which stores all your riches and which powers rise with the amount of gold stored in it. Probably. There lies the problem with Diehard Dungeon. It doesn't explain a whole lot. There is a tutorial in the beginning, but barely any game mechanics are discussed. Every once in a while the chest 'levels up' and changes color, but that's it. After a couple of levels you enter a stairwell and can decide between a 'dungeon' and an 'underground' level. One of which is in red and has a skull next to its name. I have no idea what any of that means, but the game doesn't tell you either. The levels seem similar, with the skull levels being more difficult obviously. Once in a while you encounter a boss room, which has a pumped up enemy with special skills, like teleportation or deploying mines. A health meter would be a good addition here, because on my first encounter I wasn't sure if I did any damage at all or if I had to destroy all lamps on the walls to defeat it. (You don't, just attack until it's dead.)

Despite these problems, I had fun with the game. And not explaining everything and leaving some things for the player to figure him/herself, is actually something I would like to see more. Not necessarily to this degree, but it can be a good thing.

If you like Dungeons of Dredmor, Izuna or other rogue-likes, but would rather not fiddle with equipment, classes and skills, then this game is for you.

Two stars