Dungeon Crawling At Its Silliest – Guild Of Dungeoneering Review

<p>Dungeon crawling in video games is one thing I&&num;8217&semi;ve always been a fan of&period; Exploring a dungeon&comma; fighting monsters&comma; finding treasure&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s marvelous&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve never quite seen dungeon crawling taken in the direction <em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> takes it&comma; though&period; <em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> is a game I can&&num;8217&semi;t really place in any specific genre&semi; if I were to do so&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d probably say a mix of strategy and roleplaying&comma; but mostly strategy&period; Unfortunately&comma; that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really begin to describe this goofy little game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> is a game that places you in the role of a disgruntled hero who was just rejected from joining a famous guild of dungeon explorers&period; Looking to get back at the guild&comma; your character decides to found his own guild known as The Guild Of Dungeoneering&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s your goal to build a strong guild and attract powerful dungeoneers to help you gain glory and gold&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first phase of gameplay is the guild screen&period; This is where you can expand your guild to gain new items and dungeoneers&comma; and see what dungeoneers you already have at your disposal&period; With gold&comma; you can buy new items and rooms for your guild&period; Some rooms give you new dungeoneers&comma; which act as classes&period; You can only have one of each type of dungeoneer at the same time&semi; though if one dies&comma; a new one immediately takes its place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;317820&sol;ss&lowbar;a342750dc32c7c1989c0711e410c09f472f308b7&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1436890036" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1282" height&equals;"721" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When you want to go on a quest&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be given a map screen with all of the dungeons currently available to you&period; Each dungeon has a certain number of quests that require you to meet different objectives&period; For example&colon; Some quests have you kill a certain amount of creatures&comma; find a certain amount of treasure&comma; or kill a boss&period; When you enter a dungeon&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll see that <em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> is not your typical dungeon crawler&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The actual &&num;8220&semi;dungeoneering&&num;8221&semi; part of the game is one of the most interesting ideas I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever seen in a tabletop-like rpg&period; Instead of having a randomly generated or pre-built dungeon&comma; you have to build the dungeon with random cards given to you on the fly&period; Each turn you take&comma; you can pick up to three cards to place in the dungeon&semi; these include rooms&comma; gold&comma; and monsters&period; This is what makes the game interesting&colon; You have to strategize how to proceed through a dungeon as each turn comes&period; What makes this more interesting is that you can&&num;8217&semi;t move your dungeoneer&period; They go where they want&comma; so you must entice them into specific rooms with treasure or monsters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fighting monsters is very simple&colon; You draw a few cards&comma; and must pick one that you think is suitable to combat the creature&period; There are no special skills or spells here&comma; so it makes everything very easy&period; You have physical attacks&comma; magical attacks&comma; physical blocks&comma; and magical blocks &&num;8212&semi; That&&num;8217&semi;s it&period; It makes combat so incredibly simple yet so complex at the same time&period; Some cards can block magic and attack with physical&comma; some can draw extra cards if successful&comma; some will hurt you in exchange for massive damage to the enemy&period; The combat really is satisfying&comma; especially when you manage to make good moves and keep the enemy from even touching you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; the battles can also be quite unfair&period; Several times I would encounter an enemy that would pound me with high damage attack after high damage attack&comma; and I would just getting horrible card draws&period; When it comes down to this&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s really nothing you can even do to help yourself&comma; and it becomes frustrating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Defeating monsters gives you loot&period; You can equip loot to give you new cards to use in battle&comma; or increase your health&period; This loot can only be equipped while in the dungeon&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t matter if you survive or not &&num;8212&semi; it leaves you when you leave the dungeon&period; Some loot will even give you useless cards that do nothing&comma; which adds a bit of risk vs&period; reward to the mix&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;317820&sol;ss&lowbar;cf68ade190bba7a031ba91de439d68ff2c4d64d2&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1436890036" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1309" height&equals;"736" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the gameplay in <em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> is quite addicting&comma; it can get very repetitive if you don&&num;8217&semi;t play it in short bursts&period; I could only manage to play the game for about 30-40 minutes before getting burnt out&period; The problem is that there&&num;8217&semi;s no real change in gameplay &&num;8212&semi; You go into a dungeon&comma; you build it around your character&comma; you win or lose&comma; rinse and repeat&period; While the objectives <strong>are<&sol;strong> varied&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re not <strong>that<&sol;strong> varied&period; Not to mention&comma; dying over and over on the same quest is quite frustrating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The humor in <em>Guild of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> is probably its strongest point&colon; Dungeoneer names are absolutely hilarious &lpar;I had a hero named Uhhh at one point&period;&rpar;&comma; items and monsters are just strange&comma; and the use of music is one of the most clever things I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever seen in a game&period; The game doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really have a soundtrack per se&comma; rather it has a bunch of musical cues&period; The game will sing to you about everything &&num;8212&semi; You built a blacksmith&quest; The game will sing you a little 10 second song about how you built a blacksmith&period; Not only is it just clever&comma; but the lyrics to these &&num;8220&semi;songs&&num;8221&semi; are quite funny&comma; and made me chuckle every time without fail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics in <em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> are very nice&period; They have a sort of &&num;8220&semi;I got bored during math class&&num;8221&semi; sketchbook feel to them&comma; with cute&comma; disproportionate characters&period; I do wish the art popped a little more&comma; as the pencil sketckwork does get a little bland after a while&comma; but I don&&num;8217&semi;t think it detracts from gameplay at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Guild Of Dungeoneering<&sol;em> is quite an oddity&comma; but a good oddity at that&period; Its charming&comma; silly nature alone is enough to recommend it&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s also addictive and fun&period; Sure it can get a bit repetitive and frustrating after playing it for a little bit&comma; but those issues are menial enough that you&&num;8217&semi;ll be back for more after too long&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A press copy of Guild Of Dungeoneering was provided by Versus Evil for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;