The Deep Paths: Labyrinth of Andokost review - An old fashioned dungeon crawl that doesn't mind that tag

Sometimes, you just need to jump into a dungeon with your friends and smash a bunch of stuff in the face, solve some puzzles, and grab a bunch of loot.

And that's exactly what you can do in The Deep Paths: Labyrinth of Andokost. It's a polished, old school first person trawl through the titular underground maze.

Surprisingly enough there's monsters, buttons, trapdoors, and plenty of other things that are trying to kill or slow you down. And you need to use your team and your skills to work past them.

Going deeper underground

The game starts with you creating a team of four different characters. You can choose whether they're male or female, and the role that they're going to play once you get under the earth.

There are warriors, rogues, and mages. You pick their stats with rolls of invisible dice, and you can re-roll them multiple times in order to make sure you've got the best combination before you head out.

When you walk into the labyrinth you'll find your team basically naked and without any weapons. Which, quite frankly, does seem a bit of an oversight for a group of hardy adventurers.

But you'll find bits and bobs as you turn the corners of the maze. Knives, arrows, bows, axes, shields, wands, and all manner of bits of equipment.

You navigate the world with a series of buttons in the bottom left of the screen. When you find an enemy to fight you need to tap the weapons in the character portraits along the top of the screen.

Basically there's a lot of Legend of Grimrock here. An awful lot. From the look and feel of the game, to the mix of nostalgia and more modern presentation.

And if you liked Legend of Grimrock then you're going to like this. That dingy undercurrent of D&D violence is here, and it's familiar and challenging all at once.

But by the same token if you're a fan of games with more action, then you're going to have the same problems with the pacing of this one as well.

Grimly rocking

First person RPGs are pretty rare on the App Store, and there are going to be plenty of people who'll jump at the chance to delve into a different dungeon for a change.

And they're going to find a well put together and engaging experience. It won't be to everyone's taste, and it might not be the best fit for mobile, but it's worth smashing through its dungeons all the same.

The Deep Paths: Labyrinth of Andokost review - An old fashioned dungeon crawl that doesn't mind that tag

There's a lot to like here, and if you're a fan of gaming's past then you're going to lose a lot of your time in The Deep Paths
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.