Chris Kavan's Game Review of Dungeonland

Dungeonland: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
Chris Kavan - wrote on 08/03/16

This is a case of buyer beware - or it used to be. The game is now free but even that's too much to pay for this poorly-maintained Diablo/Gauntlet mashup that fails to deliver in pretty much any way, shape or form. From useless unlockable equipment to braindead AI to massive difficulty spikes - it's everything you want to hate in an action game despite its somewhat interesting approach.

Presentation: The game has got some color, I'll give it that. Vivid and bright as the carnival/amusement setting gives you some vibrant backgrounds. Aside from that, however, the game is a big mess. The character and enemy design is disappointing, the game lacks much definition and the menu is terrible. The music and voices are pretty bland and the animation gets boring after the first level. You won't find anything ground-breaking or even polished - it feels slip-shod and pretty mediocre for this day and age.

Story: The whole point of the game is to take on the role of the Dungeon Maestro and torment your friends. But since that is borked now, you get to play the campaign. Too bad it's paper-thin and dull. The Joker er, Dungeon Maestro, has set up a series of terrible levels for your heroes (typical Warrior, Archer and Mage) to fight through. Don't just kill the monsters, make sure you take out the spawners or they'll just keep coming. What's the goal? To get money! Mostly useless money as any weapons and armor you unlock are strictly for show - they don't change your stats a bit. You can unlock potions and skills as well, but only a handful are useful at all.

Gameplay: This is a hack n slash similar to Diablo but without any loot to speak of. The only thing you can pick up is money and the occasional potion refill and health items (from sheep). Enemies come out of spawners you must destroy and, like Diablo, certain enemies have special attributes (lightning, healing, invisible) and will torment you. On anything but the easiest setting the AI is useless (especially in boss battles). It will often go off on its own (usually to get killed) and is subject to friendly-fire by being stupid. Also, the game is incredibly repetitive in level design and function. The boss battles are at least unique, but, man, do some require teamwork and with a dead-head AI, it's nearly impossible to win. As I said, you can collect money to unlock new character classes, potions and equipment but the equipment only changes your look - none change yours stats, and the rest is minimal gain at best. The whole thing feels pointless. The developers have made online connection a joke - if it works at all - and that is pretty much broken so local three-player is the best you can hope for. Seeing as how the gameplay is so dull, I don't know why you would even try unless you are a glutton for punishment (or really dislike your friends).

Replayability: Unless you enjoy punishing difficulty, there's not much to go back to and make sure you bring along a couple of friends as on anything other than the easiest difficulty the AI will be useless.

Overall: Unless you have three friends willing to suffer along with you locally, Dungeionland is all but unplayable due to the developer essentially abandoning it. What could have been a novel approach withered and died quickly and good riddance I say.

Presentation: 2/5
Story: 1/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Replayability: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 2/5