Game Reviews

Dungelot

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Dungelot
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The roguelike genre is based around some pretty hardcore gaming ideals, including losing everything upon death, and exploring totally random arenas.

Bearing this in mind, it's remarkable how accessible Dungelot is. It's definitely a roguelike, and boasts all the usual traits, but it's streamlined enough to make it ideal entertainment for those moments in-between meetings.

The action takes place on a 6x5 grid dungeon packed with traps, monsters, and items to collect. When your hero enters this area everything is obscured from view. By tapping each tile, you can reveal what lies beneath.

Going underground

The aim of each level is to find the exit, but there are optional quests to complete that offer rewards and bonuses.

How you approach each stage is part of the game's challenge - finding all the monsters and treasures means you could potentially come away with more loot, but it also comes with a big risk. The more monsters you have to fight, the more health you could lose.

Newcomers might assume that tapping every tile is the easiest way to proceed, but in actual fact a methodical and measured strategy is the best way forward. Randomly tapping the screen means you're at risk of falling foul of dangerous traps.

Watch your elf

With a legion of different beasts to face and an impressive selection of items to uncover, there's plenty to see in Dungelot.

There's effectively no end to the game - you're going to die eventually, it's just a matter of when. However, you can unlock other character classes to play as, and this helps extend the game's longevity.

Even so, you'll experience everything Dungelot has to offer within the space of a few days, and once that happens your interest is likely to wane dramatically. While it lasts, though, this is an entertaining and attractive roguelike that should serve as the ideal taster course to the genre.

Dungelot

Dungelot is best described as a causal roguelike, and offers the perfect introduction to the genre for newbies. Just don't expect it to keep you busy for long
Score
Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.