Game Reviews

Dungeon Legends – Initially satisfying, but soon frustrating

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| Dungeon Legends
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Dungeon Legends – Initially satisfying, but soon frustrating
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| Dungeon Legends

Unfortunately, Dungeon Legends is as generic as its name. It's a fantasy RTS, with arenas, dungeon crawling, and goblins.

You tap to tell your Viking where to move, what to break, and when to fight. The mostly entertaining combat is, for a while, kept fresh with satisfying special abilities and attacks, accessible from the bar at the bottom of the screen.

However the satisfaction soon wears off, with several more problems also taking away from a game that initially looked so promising.

An arm and a leg-end

Almost everything - gear, moves, and abilities, for example - can be upgraded in Dungeon Legends. However, these upgrades take time, or if you'd prefer, gems.

Gems can be exchanged for real-world money - at a ludicrous exchange rate, of course - and in turn can buy you gold and lives, which are used up every time you enter a match.

But the sparkly green cash capsules - or rather, your lack of them - are shoved in your face too often. You're constantly prompted to train more, upgrade more, spend more, and this soon grates.

Down in the dungeons

Matches come in three main varieties: PvE, 1v1 online multiplayer, and a co-op, wave-based horde mode. There are also clan matches, and the ability to play with friends, though disappointingly I could never get the latter to work.

PvE is strongest, despite the lack of originality in the mission design.

Most tasks involve either clearing a room of enemies, or getting through a level within a time limit - although generous coin rewards encourage you to engage enemies along the way.

Horde mode, however, is less fun. I was frequently matched with allies and enemies of much higher levels than me, resulting in a largely frustrating experience.

This isn't helped by the chaotic screen space of the co-op arena and, more generally, the game's UI.

Thankfully, the less inventive missions and versus mode are, initially at least, carried by the early game's entertaining combat.

However, when lack of originality and variety leads to the combat feeling familiar, frustration soon turns to boredom.

Despite nice art and an adequate soundtrack, the time commitment required to both upgrade any item, and understand the game enough to fully enjoy it is simply too high, especially when the experience so quickly gives rise to irritation and fatigue.

Dungeon Legends – Initially satisfying, but soon frustrating

Involving combat and colourful art do little to disguise a game that feels overbearing in its monetisation, overcomplicated in its presentation, and altogether too familiar
Score
Oscar Dayus
Oscar Dayus
Oscar grew up playing games in the 90s, and as such can't help but jump on any sort of moving platform. He hasn't yet perfected the art of double-jumping in real life, though, so has now turned to writing instead.