Release Date: December 2, 2016
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.
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.
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.
Platforms:
PC Windows
Developer: Lamina Studios
Publisher: Black Shell Media
Age restrictions: none
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Game Ratings for Dungeon Souls Video Game.
GameSpew: 7 / 10 by Ruaraidh Dempster
I have the feeling that Lamina Studios were going for a ‘Best of Roguelikes’ with Dungeon Souls, but it ends up as more of a showcase of the best and worst the genre has to offer.
KeenGamer: 7.9 / 10
All in all, Dungeon Souls is the sort of game that fans of the genre will enjoy. It offers a very solid amount of heroes, items, and levels to explore, as well as the novel inclusion of crafting, which helps replay-ability. The game greatly shines with its 'pick up and play', straightforward gameplay that rewards the player each time they come back. The retro style graphics and sound nostalgia juxtapose nicely with the modern style progression system and RPG elements. The game is worth a buy at its budget price and is an absolute must for fans of rogue-likes.
New Game Network: 70 / 100 by Stephen LaGioia
This indie roguelike is nothing revolutionary, but acts as a fun tribute to the action focused dungeon crawlers of yesteryear. Those looking to get a satisfying, adrenaline-inducing dose of hack n' slash nostalgia shouldn't be disappointed.
Average score from votes.
