Dungeonland Review

It's always a little ominous when the lowest difficulty setting available in a game is 'Hard'! Don't be fooled; this isn't just a subtle tweaking of expectations by renaming a relatively easy mode - Dungeonland will make you suffer. But then Dungeonland wasn't designed to be easy; nor was it intended to be played alone.

Cast a glance over the screenshots below and you may come to the impression that Dungeonland is your run of the mill third-person dungeon crawler riding on the coattails of DiabloIII / Torchlight 2et al. Whilst basic gameplay follows the norms of the genre, Dungeon Maestro mode is what really sets the game apart (but more on that later).

Cast aside any pretence of a plot as the game - the first from Brazilian developers Crucial Studios - throws you into the titular Dungeonland; a theme park filled with a variety of creeps and traps. Players take control of one of a party of three heroes battling through the park for riches/glory/miscellaneous other unspecified reasons. Should you find yourself short of friends to make up the numbers, any unfilled slots will be taken up by AI companions, although you wouldn't want to rely on them.

Players can choose from three classes, true to the action RPG mold; warrior, rogue and mage. Ideally parties will be made up of one of each class, but it's possible to double up if you're feeling extra daring, meaning no-one is forced to play a class because the other two players got there first.

Each class has a primary attack - melee in the case of the warrior, ranged for the rogue and mage - and a secondary ability. For example, the rogue has a particularly handy insta-kill backstab, whereas the mage can turn one of his colleagues temporarily invincible. In addition, the classes have unique potions; the warrior's basic potion will taunt nearby enemies whilst rendering him invulnerable but also unable to attack.

Characters themselves are not persistent; there are no levels to earn or loot to collect. Enemies will drop the occasional health boost or potion, but on the whole, it will be mostly gold coins that fall alongside the corpses of vanquished foes. The only upgrading options come via these coins, which allow you to purchase alternative potions, offensive or defensive buffs, and even unlock different specialisations for the classes.

Changing a class specialisation doesn't radically change how the classes behave, but can be useful to adjust the character towards your preferred play style. Case in point, the Gunner Rogue hits harder but slower than the starting Assassin Rogue, whilst unsurprisingly, the Ice Mage applies a chilling effect with all his attacks compared to the burning effect of the Fire Mage.

Most of your gold (along with the majority of the enjoyment) will be plowed into the aforementioned Dungeon Maestro mode, whereby a fourth player takes the role of Dungeonland's nefarious owner. Stylized to represent a traditional tabletop RPG, the DM selects a number of monster and trap cards prior to the start of the level; these are then drawn from a deck during the game and played in an attempt to thwart the heroes' progress. Any available gold can be used to unlock different cards to fill your hand.

Cards are drawn from the deck at timed intervals, so knowing when to pace yourself is vital to ensure the heroes don't get an easy ride. Find the heroes are dispatching your minions without too much trouble and you can opt to take control of one of your monsters to try the more direct approach. Every time you damage or kill a hero, your Evil meter will top up a little more; completely fill the bar and you will get the choice of releasing a large swarm of monsters, or a mini-boss in the form of a larger incarnation of one of your regular creeps.

Lastly, but by absolutely no means least, is the most devastating weapon in the Dungeon Maestro's arsenal - the Evil Laugh button! Sometimes the psychological warfare is just as important as the physical aspect.

The variety of monsters that populate the park is plentiful, ranging from staples such as spiders and imps to deranged ducks and rabbits that throw their litter at you. This quirky styling extends to the design of the levels themselves; it's just a shame that there isn't many of them.

The game ships with just three levels, each split into two stages with a boss at the end of the second. Two of these levels are predetermined, with just the monster spawns varying per playthrough, whilst the third, also used for DM mode, is semi-randomised and comprised of a series of tiled board pieces to fit with the tabletop theme. A fourth map is teased on the level select screen, but there is no indication as to whether this will be added via a patch or DLC.

Despite the map selection being somewhat limited, there is still scope for longevity. If you opt to stick with the standard, non-DM mode, you can augment the already ludicrous difficulty levels by selecting to play with up to 3 'Challenges'. Randomly selected from a predefined pool of modifiers, Challenges swing the balance even further from your favour by increasing monster damage or removing health pickups or potions, for instance.

As a game to play as a purely single-player experience (not that it was ever intended to be one), it's probably one to miss; but get a group of friends on comms, trading insults back and forth in Dungeon Maestro mode and you've got one of the best examples of asymmetric multiplayer we've seen in recent years.