Dungeon Royale is an interesting mix of a classic Dungeoncrawler and a Battle Royale Game. The gameplay perspective and Dungeon design immediately reminded me of the classic Legend of Zelda games.
Players have to travel through various room, defeat all enemies and collect as much loot as possible. So far so good, but the twist is that the Dungeon Crawler experience is placed within a Battle Royale match. Other players spawn in the same Dungeon complex and can fight against each other, if they happen to walk to into each other in one of the many rooms of the Dungeons. The match will end when there is only one player left, and he activates a portal in a special room to enter a final Boss Fight. If he slays that Boss too, he will be crowned the winner of the match. Equivalent to the Zones of other Battle Royale games, the playable area of the dungeons shrinks over time and players in rooms outside of the safe area will receive damage till they cease to exist. Not all rooms have exits to all sides, so you can certainly get lost outside of the zone while trying to find your way into it. As far as I can tell the Dungeons and the room placement get randomized each match.
One of the twists of Dungeon Royale is, that defeated players are not gone for good, like in all other BR games. Instead they will respawn as enemies in the rooms of living players. New players will just spawn as weak slime enemies, which can barely move around and won't do much damage. The more players level their account (through playing the game) the more powerful enemy models they will unlock, who attack and move faster (different enemy models are not only cosmetic changes, but alter the gameplay). The second to last player will also incorporate the Boss enemy in the ultimate combat with the final living player. The Boss can also win the match in his own way, if he manages to slay the last player. This idea of playing as one of the enemies after your demise is pretty cool, but I dislike, that the starting enemy models feel so much weaker in comparison to those on higher levels. This is, in my opinion, showing a clear lack of balancing and a big advantage for the most experienced players.
Killing mobs (or other defeated players who take their place) generates Gold coins, which can be used to purchase stat increases (more life or stronger attacks), different weapons or some items, which grant you a bonus effect or an active ability (temporary invisibility or a fire attack for example). There are also some Minibosses in the game, which can't be incorporated by real players, and they have different attack schemes than the Bosses and regular foes.
My biggest problem with Dungeon Royale, aside from balancing, is the controls/movement. Regardless of input method, moving your character around and attacking always feels clunky. It takes around a second after pressing the attack button for the first stroke till it is performed (subsequent attacks perform noticeably faster till the chain breaks). At first I thought it might have been an issue with the server region, but I experienced the attack delay in both EU and NA. Attacking just feels too delayed to be very enjoyable. Movement is also not a strong suit of the game. While your movement is actually pretty quick in this game, I got stuck on objects all the time or slightly missed doors and objects. I never had such issues for example while playing the original Legend of Zelda on NES, which uses a rather similar gameplay style. Playing with a gamepad definitely felt more accurate than with Mouse and Keyboard, but the control issues still remained, just slightly toned down.
The pixel visual style fits the game well and reminds me of some older 8-Bit games. It definitely fits the game and I like it. The soundtrack was also pretty decent, even though it definitely lacks some variety.
The small and unsteady playerbase can be another hassle. The game requires at least 3 players to start a match, which can be an issue depending on the time of day. There are usually between 0-10 players online, but those get divided into two different server regions (EU+NA), which makes it more difficult to start matches. At the moment you can still get into matches well during prime times, but that may change in the future. It is an issue already nonetheless.
Pro:
- Dungeoncrawler meets Battle Royale
- Defeated players can respawn as enemies
- Variety of objects and weapons
- Nice Pixel Visuals
Contra:
- Attacks feel delayed
- Movement is clunky (Controller and M/K)
- Severe Disadvantages for new players (Lack of Balance)
- Small playerbase and server region divide
Result:
The idea of Dungeon Royale is great, but the execution is sadly only of mixed quality. Combining Dungeoncrawling and Battle Royale into a sort of competitive Dungeoncrawler works well and giving defeated players the chance to get revenge on the other players is very engaging. The Pixel Visuals fit the game well and the different findable/purchasable objects and weapons give a nice incentive to grind Mobs, but the most important part probably remains the gameplay and that is quite flawed in Dungeon Royale. Stiff, delayed attacks and imprecise movement take a lot from the otherwise enjoyable formula of the game. The lack of playerbase and Balancing issues might be the factors, which will ultimately lead to the games demise. Till then however, I do recommend at least checking the game out, if you are interested in competitive Dungeoncrawlers or a different sort of BR experience.
5.5/10
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