PGC NEWS

In the current gaming landscape dominated by high-fidelity graphics and cutting-edge technology, smaller game studios often face an uphill battle. One effective strategy for these studios is to prioritize innovative gameplay and compelling storytelling, delivering a high-quality experience without exorbitant development costs. Desktop Dungeons, a roguelike RPG, embraces this approach, offering a unique blend of familiar and novel elements for both veteran gamers and newcomers.

Exploring a dungeon in Desktop Dungeons

Simple Yet Engaging Gameplay

Desktop Dungeons strips away the complexities of traditional turn-based RPGs, presenting players with a streamlined experience. The objective is simple: guide your chosen hero through a grid-based dungeon and defeat the final boss. This involves strategic movement, resource management, and tactical combat. Players must prioritize weaker enemies to level up efficiently, carefully choosing their battles to avoid early demise.

Character selection screen in Desktop Dungeons

The game’s leveling system rewards strategic play, allowing players to overcome higher-level enemies with clever use of skills and items. This strategic depth allows for satisfying victories against seemingly insurmountable odds. Starting with a simple Human Fighter, new players can easily grasp the basics before experimenting with other races and classes as the game progresses. However, they’ll soon discover that brute force alone won’t suffice against every foe.

Combat in Desktop Dungeons

Kingdom Management: A Strategic Layer

To prevent dungeon crawling from becoming monotonous, Desktop Dungeons incorporates kingdom management. As a migrant fleeing disaster, players must build their own kingdom from the ground up. This mechanic cleverly introduces new classes and upgrades, gradually expanding the player’s options. The initial dungeons serve as tutorials, laying the foundation for the kingdom’s future development. Players are encouraged to focus their resources on a specific class branch, as spreading resources too thin can hinder progress.

Kingdom management screen in Desktop Dungeons

A Narrative Shortcoming

Despite its engaging gameplay, Desktop Dungeons falters in its narrative. The storyline feels underdeveloped and the delivery lacks impact. The lack of exposition leaves players wondering about the reasons behind their migration, the nature of the disaster, and the identity of their enemies. The introductory cutscenes, consisting primarily of text, fail to establish a compelling narrative or provide context for the player’s actions. The tutorial sections, interspersed with bland humor, do little to enhance the story.

A scene from Desktop Dungeons

Another scene from Desktop Dungeons

Repetitive Gameplay Loop

One of the biggest challenges for low-budget games is creating gameplay that remains engaging over time. While Desktop Dungeons initially captivates with its simple yet strategic gameplay, it eventually falls into repetition. Despite the variety of classes and heroes, the differences between them feel superficial, blurring the lines between magic and physical combat. The limited strategic options mean that most battles, regardless of the tools available, end in a similar fashion.

Exploring the dungeon in Desktop Dungeons

Another dungeon scene from Desktop Dungeons

The core gameplay loop involves moving across the grid, collecting items, comparing stats, defeating weaker enemies, and eventually confronting the boss. While unlocking new classes and exploring their abilities provides some initial excitement, the repetitive nature of the dungeons eventually becomes apparent. Once the kingdom reaches a certain level of development, players face a grind of structurally similar dungeons to unlock further upgrades.

Combat in Desktop Dungeons

Final scene from Desktop Dungeons

Conclusion

Desktop Dungeons offers a unique and engaging roguelike experience with its simplified gameplay and kingdom management mechanics. However, its weak narrative and repetitive gameplay loop prevent it from reaching its full potential. Despite these shortcomings, the game’s accessible nature and strategic depth make it a worthwhile experience, especially for fans of the genre looking for a quick, bite-sized adventure.