Dungeon of the Damned review (iPod/iPhone)

January 9, 2012

♫ “I never thought it would turn out like this
Another case of hit or miss”

10 word description: Old school dungeon exploration adventure. Puzzles, secrets & enemies.

It's surprising how much atmosphere can be evoked with relatively sparse graphics

10 word review: Tough, brain-stretching retro maze game without a map. Be warned!

Various notes and messages can be found; some helpful, some cryptic

You will like this if you enjoy: Dungeon Master, although it has as many differences as similarities with that game.

A door. They mostly need the correct key

The good news: Atmospheric, challenging and quite different from the currently trendy iOS games. Graphics aren’t astonishing but they suit the game. Performance is good, loading delays aren’t too intrusive.

The bad news: A whole bunch of people (you can call them casual gamers if you like, but I think it’s a wider group than that for this game) just won’t get it due to the fact that you have to dynamically map it in your own head while you’re playing, or on a big sheet of graph paper like we used to do in the Victorian age of videogaming called the eighties. And it’s hard, and you will get lost. And your health slowly runs out while you’re wandering around. So, yeah, you’ve been warned.

At least they're friendly

Arcadelife verdict: Games like this come along on the iPhone and it’s like a bucket of cold water in the face. Or a kick in the nuts. Entirely depends on your perspective and whether or not you go for extreme old school dungeon exploring (without a map). My only real gripe: I’d like some kind of visual feedback from the buttons to confirm which one I just pressed. Make it flash briefly, maybe, as I often found myself wondering whether I had taken a step forward or rotated. It’s probably just me, but I thought I’d mention it.

What does this do? I'm serious, I just pulled it a few times and I have no idea what happened, if anything...

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