Review: Desktop Dungeons (PC)

"The best things in life are "free" rings true with Desktop Dungeons."

Whether one is commuting to work, on a break or just looking to kill a few minutes in general, the number of video games available to trim down that downtime are numerous. While some of us might take a stab at one mission in Monster Hunter while on the train to the city, others find equal solace in the puzzling perplexities of Tetris. For those wanting a quick distraction from their current PC work, the options become limitless. Built in games such as Minesweeper and Solitaire freely establish themselves as a throwaway title with more emphasis on a quick bite to eat rather than a five course meal. What if I pointed you towards the direction of a free to download, free to play PC title with the minimalist approach in its visuals like Final Fantasy, with an RPG feel and surprising complexity that can be played in both short bursts or marathon sessions?

Desktop Dungeons (DD), from indie developer QCF Design, is what I like to call the true “turbo RPG.” Selecting one of several available classes and races, you venture forward in a very visually limited, completely randomized dungeon. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the level ten boss of the dungeon, but in order for the player to complete this task, the players avatar needs to level up, as well as acquire a number of spell based attacks around the stage, as well as the chance to purchase items from treasure chests labeled with their own beneficial pieces.

While the description is an elementary one, the complexities throughout DD will be noticed right out of the bat. The tutorial provided goes into enough details to ease any newcomers into the experience. It’s wholeheartedly recommended that every single first time player takes a stroll through this tutorial, or else the overall experience will seem a lot more unfair then it really is. Within this tutorial, the offered classes are explained, as well as the magical attacks found throughout the dungeons. Furthermore, dispatching of enemies will be explained, which in of its self, is a layer of difficulty that even after hours of investment, will crumble the souls of those that are brave enough to accept the challenge.

Throughout each dungeon will be enemies ranging from levels one through nine. Each enemy will have their own strengths and weaknesses. While the goblins might have an inherited First Strike ability (enabling them to always attack you before you land your attack – a perk that can prove quite deadly when both characters are on their last few hit points), the Warlock will have a stronger magical attack, yet less health. An intelligent player will find out which enemies are easily dispatched by the class and race of the character chosen, and take them out quickly, with the ability to occasionally take out that class of enemy at a higher level. However, the more intelligent player will know how to pace themselves throughout the map to ensure they will always have a health and mana replenishment to fall back on.

DD offers a somewhat unorthodox method of regaining lost health and mana. By traveling through the map, any blacked out, previously undsicovered areas will restore a bit of lost health and mana, allowing the player to hold on tight to those valuable, occasionally hard to come by potions to refill both of those lost bars. Discover too much of the map to soon and it will be an uphill, nearly impossible battle to defeat the boss. With enemies spread out throughout each randomly generated map, exploration will be needed in order for players to find the most appropriately leveled advesary. It’s nearly a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario, though the layers of difficulty and complexity in DD blend together so well, thanks in large part to the brevity of each game.

There are also Piety points that players can run into. There are several different ones you can pray to and reap the benefits of, though at a cost. Performing actions favorable to said piety will gain piety points, while actions that fall out of the favor of that piety will lose points. When enough points are accumulated, perks can be purchased. Depending on which piety was chosen, the avatar can either gain more experience per kill, more health at a 10% reduction of damage output, or turning every corpse onscreen into +1 max health. Just be sure the piety chosen was the right one for the battles ahead, or else the combination of piety, class and race will backfire.

Starting up the game, the first thing one will notice is there’s quite a bit of content is locked away, requiring a multitude of expectations from the players in order for them to be revealed. For each victory with each different class and/or character, new characters, races and game types will be opened up to experience. Each of the new classes unlocked play quite a bit different from the last, offering some amazing perks, or some stringent  handicaps. Again, it’s yet another layer of challenge for the player. Default classes are not completely plain Jane; while there are thinly veiled challenges in using each class, the default ones offer only what would be expected. Wizards with low attack ratings, Warriors with extra damage absorption, and so on. Each race provides their own perks as well. Players can boost their attack rating by recycling unwanted spell attacks found throughout the dungeon while playing as a Human, while the Gnome will turn those unnecessary skills into mana vials.

Touching back upon the graphics again, it’s about as bare bones as one would expect. Almost no animation of any sort, the tiny sprites are large enough to discern each tile and enemy from each other, though large enough not to completely blind anyone attempting to play DD. The audio is as bare bones as its visual counterpart, with simplistic, though repetitive sound bytes with sparse musical interludes. Within the first ten seconds of playing DD, it’s easy to notice the care and attention went into the gameplay, relying on the addiction and complexity of the experience to drive any and all positive impressions. Luckily for QCF Design, it was a major triumph not so much for those that worked on the games, but the folks fortunate enough to learn about DD and give it a shot.

In a time where big budgeted, high caliber AAA titles are the norm, where graphics are constantly superseding gameplay, QCF Design brings those unfortunate expectations down to earth and supplies gamers with what makes gaming so enthralling — intelligent gameplay, experimentation with class and race combinations, bite sized segments and five course meals. Desktop Dungeons might borrow gameplay elements from several genres and classic titles, but the mixture is a concoction that few ever make correctly. Head over to http://www.qcfdesign.com then click Games and then select Desktop Dungeons. I have not tracked down any place to leave a donation, but I recommend if you enjoy your experience, message on of them on Twitter to find out how you can make a donation. It’s free to download, but in all honesty, thanks to the fact that each game can last such a short amount of time, as well as containing such an addiction to it, there is a retail value for it. Once I figure out how I can donate, I know that I’ll pass along a little something to them, as they’ve more than earned it.

Rating: 9.0