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► AUDIOVISUALS are typical of an asset flip. Representative at least, but very basic. The few sound-effects sound lightweight and/or flat. Animations are little better, somewhat clumsy looking. Spell effects are better and come with some variety. Snippets of soundtrack are okay, but the abruptly cut-off between tracks is irritating.

► The GAMELOOP is unimaginative with basic phases of: prepare for dungeon, clear dungeon and then use gold earned to prepare for the next dungeon. Characters must move through dungeons eliminating a set number of enemies, find reward chests and regularly use potions to keep them alive to exit the level.

► LEVELS of procedurally generated dungeons appear labyrinthine in nature. They are too identical in terms of content and size. Smaller maps would have been a better way to ease the grind. Enemy numbers do not change, but types do, getting harder. Portals, traps, health and stamina recharge points are also located within. Along with a traders store. More variety is needed to make this appeal more.

► NAVIGATION of maps can be a headache to traverse. Its awful in first person. Barely acceptable in third person. Mostly due to keyboard controls that give movement a wonky quality. There is a widget that alleviates this, but for a PC game keyboard or controller should be enough.

► Reaching STRAGGLERS at the end of a run is almost never a trivial exercise due to the labyrinthine structure. Movement issues and portal functions cause frustration and become unnecessarily time consuming when the majority of the enemies have been dealt with.

► COMBAT is too simplistic. A consequence of the auto-battler format. It can be pretty dull when damage feels nerfed. Which remains a problem without the right abilities to keep pace with the harder enemies. Becomes a very repetitive chore as once initiated combat strikes are automated until the target goes down giving it a clicker feel. Unlocking abilities provide a semblance of tactical options to reduce the formulaic dynamic of spamming potions when outmatched by opponents. A frequent occurrence. Spells do not register at some ranges. Nor are their limits demonstrated on the UI. Dungeon traps do not affect enemies.

► The hatful of tactical ABILITIES and combat upgrades would work rather well if they were not so one dimensional and tied into a fixed level grind. The various strikes, buffs, and specials like traps or bombs do not keep up with upgraded enemies. so much be replaced every level or so. The lack of an upgrade feature means these need to be superseded by new abilities, as enemies become tougher with progression. Otherwise PROGRESSION becomes unnecessarily grindy.

► CHARACTER BUILDS are limited. There are only x3 classes to play; a warrior, ranger and mage. All have access to similar melee or ranged combat attacks. Store abilities remain consistent to as the warrior has access to melee unlocks. The ranger a mix of melee and ranged attacks. The mage, spell abilities. The mage with their spells is the most fun to play, though maintaining distant against melee enemies is nigh on impossible. Something that also affects the ranger.

► Older SAVEGAMES can lead to potential problems if characters are deleted. They do not always load with the complete state of the previous session with gold or unlocked abilities not appearing.

► ENEMIES have plentiful variety as they change through each level, but their behaviours remain constant depending on the class. AI is functional, even if appears chaotic much of the time. Patrolling enemies often retrace their steps on the map. Though sometimes these become rerouted if a melee is ensuing nearby.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3307639864
🔶 ACCESSIBILITY - It is a simple game. A single screen of instruction when a map loads explains the minimum amount of info. Tooltips for shop upgrades are devoid of any description while within a dungeon.
🔶 DIFFICULTY - The game would be casual were it not for the steeper difficulty curve at the start. The result of very limited character creation at the start and fixed levelling thereafter.
🔶 BALANCE - Very grindy at the start, but the status quo between enemies and the character is maintained by restricting which abilities and items can be unlocked to when characters reach a certain level.
🔶 PACE - Dungeons are packed with enemies so combat is intense at the start, but thins out with progress. Fighting with the wrong abilities can slow the game down, to become very laborious.
🔶 SCALING - Starting with unpowered gear, makes initial dungeons painful. With progression stronger abilities and inventory become available but these tend to be a variation upon a theme. These scale almost ad verbatim with enemies.

🟨 REPLAY VALUE - Dungeons are virtually identical and scale the same every time. So this is rather limited.
🟨 LONGEVITY - There are no achievements. Nor are there any specific difficulties. The bulk of long term play comes from completing the game with each of the x3 classes.

🟣 QUALITY - Has a few bugs such as clickable sweet spots in the UI, but mainly lacks in QoL. Has a touch of polish. There are potential issues involving the mismatch of deleted characters and savegames.
🟣 STABILITY - No issues experienced.
🟣 OPTIMISATION - Runs at around 60 FPS throughout. Shutting down takes an age.


https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3307638793

Thank you for reading. | Click to follow my curator THE IRREGULAR GAMER.

[h3]RANKING:[/h3] [table] [tr] [td] [h3][strike]AVOID[/strike] | [b]LACKING[/b] | [strike]MAYBE | WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE [/strike] [/h3] [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th][b]ASSESSMENT:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] Fantasy Dungeon is little more than a typically barebones asset flip. Whatever small core of good ideas it has are thrown under the bus with underdeveloped systems. Combat could have been okay, but too few classes and a lack of mechanics only provide formulaic gameplay. At times navigation through its labyrinthine dungeons is laborious, especially chasing down the last few critters. Purposely nerfed damaged makes the first few levels rather dull. Even beyond its self-explanatory looks much of its execution is fraught with a lack of QoL and polish. While the logic behind profiles and loading save games can be broken to cause a multitude of issues. There just isn't enough to recommend a game that remains [b]LACKING[/b] in many areas. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td] [td]Fully released, but be in no doubt the game should still be in Early Access. Has the basis to be a fun casual action/auto-battler hybrid but needs more work [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]APPEAL:[/b][/td] [td]Limited to players who can look past its range of faults [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]VALUE:[/b][/td] [td]Too expensive for the quality of content [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Key provided by the developer through curator [url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/32732116-IndieGems/][b]INDIE GEMS[/b] [/url] | Click to follow and receive updates for similar reviews[/quote] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3307634967 [h3]OBSERVATIONS:[/h3] ► AUDIOVISUALS are typical of an asset flip. Representative at least, but very basic. The few sound-effects sound lightweight and/or flat. Animations are little better, somewhat clumsy looking. Spell effects are better and come with some variety. Snippets of soundtrack are okay, but the abruptly cut-off between tracks is irritating. ► The GAMELOOP is unimaginative with basic phases of: prepare for dungeon, clear dungeon and then use gold earned to prepare for the next dungeon. Characters must move through dungeons eliminating a set number of enemies, find reward chests and regularly use potions to keep them alive to exit the level. ► LEVELS of procedurally generated dungeons appear labyrinthine in nature. They are too identical in terms of content and size. Smaller maps would have been a better way to ease the grind. Enemy numbers do not change, but types do, getting harder. Portals, traps, health and stamina recharge points are also located within. Along with a traders store. More variety is needed to make this appeal more. ► NAVIGATION of maps can be a headache to traverse. Its awful in first person. Barely acceptable in third person. Mostly due to keyboard controls that give movement a wonky quality. There is a widget that alleviates this, but for a PC game keyboard or controller should be enough. ► Reaching STRAGGLERS at the end of a run is almost never a trivial exercise due to the labyrinthine structure. Movement issues and portal functions cause frustration and become unnecessarily time consuming when the majority of the enemies have been dealt with. ► COMBAT is too simplistic. A consequence of the auto-battler format. It can be pretty dull when damage feels nerfed. Which remains a problem without the right abilities to keep pace with the harder enemies. Becomes a very repetitive chore as once initiated combat strikes are automated until the target goes down giving it a clicker feel. Unlocking abilities provide a semblance of tactical options to reduce the formulaic dynamic of spamming potions when outmatched by opponents. A frequent occurrence. Spells do not register at some ranges. Nor are their limits demonstrated on the UI. Dungeon traps do not affect enemies. ► The hatful of tactical ABILITIES and combat upgrades would work rather well if they were not so one dimensional and tied into a fixed level grind. The various strikes, buffs, and specials like traps or bombs do not keep up with upgraded enemies. so much be replaced every level or so. The lack of an upgrade feature means these need to be superseded by new abilities, as enemies become tougher with progression. Otherwise PROGRESSION becomes unnecessarily grindy. ► CHARACTER BUILDS are limited. There are only x3 classes to play; a warrior, ranger and mage. All have access to similar melee or ranged combat attacks. Store abilities remain consistent to as the warrior has access to melee unlocks. The ranger a mix of melee and ranged attacks. The mage, spell abilities. The mage with their spells is the most fun to play, though maintaining distant against melee enemies is nigh on impossible. Something that also affects the ranger. ► Older SAVEGAMES can lead to potential problems if characters are deleted. They do not always load with the complete state of the previous session with gold or unlocked abilities not appearing. ► ENEMIES have plentiful variety as they change through each level, but their behaviours remain constant depending on the class. AI is functional, even if appears chaotic much of the time. Patrolling enemies often retrace their steps on the map. Though sometimes these become rerouted if a melee is ensuing nearby. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3307639864 [h3]COMPLEXITY:[/h3] 🔶 ACCESSIBILITY - It is a simple game. A single screen of instruction when a map loads explains the minimum amount of info. Tooltips for shop upgrades are devoid of any description while within a dungeon. 🔶 DIFFICULTY - The game would be casual were it not for the steeper difficulty curve at the start. The result of very limited character creation at the start and fixed levelling thereafter. 🔶 BALANCE - Very grindy at the start, but the status quo between enemies and the character is maintained by restricting which abilities and items can be unlocked to when characters reach a certain level. 🔶 PACE - Dungeons are packed with enemies so combat is intense at the start, but thins out with progress. Fighting with the wrong abilities can slow the game down, to become very laborious. 🔶 SCALING - Starting with unpowered gear, makes initial dungeons painful. With progression stronger abilities and inventory become available but these tend to be a variation upon a theme. These scale almost ad verbatim with enemies. [h3]STAYING POWER:[/h3] 🟨 REPLAY VALUE - Dungeons are virtually identical and scale the same every time. So this is rather limited. 🟨 LONGEVITY - There are no achievements. Nor are there any specific difficulties. The bulk of long term play comes from completing the game with each of the x3 classes. [h3]PRODUCTION:[/h3] 🟣 QUALITY - Has a few bugs such as clickable sweet spots in the UI, but mainly lacks in QoL. Has a touch of polish. There are potential issues involving the mismatch of deleted characters and savegames. 🟣 STABILITY - No issues experienced. 🟣 OPTIMISATION - Runs at around 60 FPS throughout. Shutting down takes an age. [table][tr] [td]Click for:[/td] [td][h1][url=https://steamproxy.net/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/4514381493111598025/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td] [/tr][/table] https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3307638793 [table] [tr] [td][b]REVIEWED WITH:[/b][/td] [td]Build v11 INTEL i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 @ 1GB 1920x1080 fullscreen, EVO850 SSD [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td]Click for:[/td] [td][b][h1][url=https://steamproxy.net/id/nourl1/screenshots/?appid=2684390&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=grid]MORE SCREENSHOTS[/url][/h1][/b][/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Thank you for reading. | Click to follow my curator[url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] THE IRREGULAR GAMER[/url].[/quote]