Through eleven wonderful days, we’ve been blessed with the opportunity to have a glimpse of what’s in store, but alas, all good things come to an end, and such is the case for ENDLESS Dungeon’s Closed Beta Phase.
Kinix, Puppeht, and yours truly were fortunate enough to get a hold of the game from a reviewer’s standpoint, and here’s what we have to say about ENDLESS Dungeon’s Closed Beta.
Cerebro’s Thoughts
When I started playing ENDLESS Dungeon, I was expecting the usual roguelite trope of being weak at the beginning of your run, then you get a couple of powerups and new weapons, then eventually you’ll kick major arse, and while that did happen in a way, you’re still not off the hook because you need to consider protecting the Crystal Bot that does not scale with your power level, and that is a good thing!
I LOVE the strategic aspect of the game, one that we rarely find in action roguelites. From choosing which resource you want to use, to where you place your towers for maximum protection, to even which doors to open. The game isn’t your ordinary action roguelite where you can simply win by being insanely strong. It challenges you both physically and mentally, and people are in for a wonderful treat with this game!
By the way, playing ENDLESS Dungeon with friends is exponentially better than playing it solo.
Kinix’s Thoughts
Endless Dungeon takes most of the core from the first game and tries to turn it into a real-time twin-stick shooter. I think some things work well and some don’t. Playing solo was a slog and I didn’t feel like I had the level of positional control I’m used to from the first game. Multiplayer felt a lot better though, the game is clearly designed with co-op at the forefront, and that’s where it plays best. Otherwise, the transition to real-time feels sloppy.
I think the dust resource isn’t needed anymore since enemies primarily spawn from designated spawners. I wish the time spent traveling between rooms was lessened, and the run length overall is super long at over half an hour for the first floor. The real-time combat is serviceable but unimpressive and downright boring in single-player. There’s a lot of other nitpicks to be had but it mostly comes down to the formula not working nearly as well in a real-time shooter format.
Puppeht’s Thoughts
I wasn’t immediately impressed by Endless Dungeon, but after playing co-op with Cerebro and Kinix, I started to understand the appeal. The tactical options expand when you have other people to boss around. Resource management becomes harder, and the game moves a bit faster; I found solo play a bit slow. In solo, you control multiple characters and can swap between them, which is a bit difficult to manage. But in co-op, you each control one character which is a lot more fun.
Overall, I think this game will be great for playing with friends, and for those who really like spending a lot of time planning out solo runs, but not as much for the casual solo player. The art style and graphics were impressive (particularly the lighting) and everything flowed quite smoothly. Sounds were good too. I never played the first so I don’t have much reference but it seems like quite a large shift at least aesthetically.