Dungeon Souls
Release Date: December 2, 2016
Arcade, roguelike, RPG elements, dungeon crawler, indie games, singleplayer
OpenCritic
Steam
Action roguelike dungeon crawler game produced by two small teams - Lamina Studios and Mike Studios. During the game we play as daredevils (barbarian, knight, archer and thief among others) traversing the dungeons inhabited by various monsters and haunted by a powerful being called Redeemer. Our goal on each level is to activate a portal through which we get further. The task is not easy, because all locations are generated randomly.
Dungeon Souls is an arcade action-adventure game developed in the convention of a roguelike dungeon crawler. The title was developed by two independent studios - Lamina Studios and Mike Studios. The publisher was Black Shell Media, which has worked on a number of other indie projects.
Mechanics
Gameplay in Dungeon Souls was inspired by projects such as Nuclear Throne and Risk of Rain. At the beginning of the game, the players choose one of the difficulty levels and a character. Several of them have been prepared - there is an archer, a barbarian, a magician and a few others. Each of them has unique weapons, and specializes in dfifferent style of combat, ranged, melee, etc. Not all heroes are available at the start, because some of them have to be unlocked during the game.
Our goal is to complete subsequent levels, in which we have to unlock a special portal and escape from the Redeemer. The problem is that each approach to the game looks different due to randomly generated rooms and different types of enemies. As a result, we never really know what is waiting for us, so we die very often during our adventure. Over time we learn the behavior of individual opponents and get to know more and more about the mechanics that govern the combat. Moreover, the devs do not leave our protege at the mercy of fate.
During the exploration, we find or buy various items. These can be, for example, special shoes, increasing the speed of movement of the character. In other cases, we get an item that enables us to inflict more damage or a healing potion, etc. In total, we can find more than fifty such items. Apart from them we also gain experience points, which we can spend on improving heroes' statics (better accuracy, stamina, etc.). Of course, as it happens in a roguelike, after a death we lose practically everything and we have to start over again.
Technical aspects
Dungeon Souls is an indie game, and due to their small budget, developers of such games often use the so-called pixel art, a graphic style imitating old video games. The same applies in this case. The title has its own charm but also does not stand out when it comes to visuals.
Last updated on March 25, 2020
Videos and Screens
Hardcore Gamer: 4 / 5 by James Cunningham
Dungeon Souls is an action-packed roguelike featuring plenty of characters with a good variety of skills, all sorts of monsters to use those abilities on appearing in large numbers, and an upgrade path that keeps on climbing.
Destructoid: 6 / 10
Dungeon Souls proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve (and its Steam Store description), a mishmash of inspirations that takes a step backwards even as it steps forward. Yet, despite that, it still manages to create a tiny universe of its own, full of engaging heroes and tenacious foes. It's a fun title, but when you have so many standout games that you can combine them to create something like Dungeon Souls, it's hard not to recommend those instead.
Corecade: 8.5 / 10 by Cory B.
Dungeon Souls is a brilliant game, which deserves your time and attention. The developers have put a lot of time and love into this game and it shows.
Dungeon Souls Summary
Platforms:
PC Windows
Developer: Lamina Studios
Publisher: Black Shell Media
Age restrictions: none
