Developer: Gambrinous
Publisher: Versus Evil
Rrp: £10.99 (Gog.com), £10.99 (Steam), £10.99 (Humblebundle)
Released: 14th July 2015
Available on: Gog.com, Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
This is the Guild of Dungeoneering
On our quest we’re never veering
Oh to be a Dungeoneer
Swimming in pools of gold
Welcome to The Guild of Dungeoneering, a game of turn based dungeon delving where you have no real control over the hero and instead build the dungeon around them.
For all intents and purposes this game is actually a digital board/card game, because of this I’m expanding on my usual ‘if this appeals’ bit to including a separate part suggesting a few real life board and card games.
You build the dungeon as you go, placing rooms, monsters and treasures. Now you may think ‘In that case I’ll place only treasure and no monsters.’ Well, my friend, you have failed to realise that monsters drop loot and give you vital experience which makes actually leaving the dungeon alive much much easier.
The dungeon is created through tiles that fit together using certain logical rules, like no walkways leading to a wall (unless its a deliberate dead end). This mechanic is similar to several board games such as Betrayal at House on the Hill and Zombies!!! It gives the dungeons something of a randomly generated feel without having to actually do random generation.
As I mentioned previously, in this game you have no direct control over your dungeoneer, you can’t dictate which monster they’re to fight or which direction they’ll go. That being said, you can influence it, a dungeoneer will head toward whatever the largest denomination of money is (within a certain distance) or failing that the nearest unexplored room or monster. There are exceptions though, a dungeoneer of the barbarian class will head toward the nearest and highest level monster before going for money. Blue footprints indicate the dungeoneers decision on direction they’re planning on going toward.
Each time your dungeoneer enters a dungeon they always start at level one and with no equipment. It’s through the act of going through the dungeon and
defeating monsters that the dungeoneer gains the equipment they’ll need to ultimately succeed. This isn’t to say there’s no progression with the dungeoneers that you use. The progression comes in the form of ‘battlescars’ that are given when a dungeon is completed, not all of these battlescars are beneficial though.
As was mentioned earlier, you are the one who decides what monsters are placed, if any and it may seem tempting to only place low level monsters for your dungeoneer to fight but doing so will mean that they don’t level up and will only get low level equipment.
Once a dungeon is completed it becomes locked off and can’t be repeated. However, once you’ve completed a region you can choose to take a gamble and fight one of the boss stages again. Note that; I said gamble. As in you have no choice over which boss stage you get, its luck of the draw.
As you complete quests and earn money you expand your guildhall with more rooms. This opens up more classes and equipment allowing a more tactical approach to be taken with the missions you have available.
Like the rest of the game the combat plays out like a board-game. Both the monster and yourself start out with three cards each (unless they or you have a talent or effect that says otherwise). The monster picks first and then you get to pick a card that would take effect after the monsters (again unless you have an talent or effect that states otherwise). Attacks come in two basic forms; physical, which are red and magical, which are blue. These attacks can be blocked by using a card that has a shield that matches the attacks colour and one point of damage is blocked for each shield icon represented. That’s just the basics though there’s more to it than that, fast attacks, unblockable attacks, attacks that force the opponent to discard etc all make an appearance. This causes the combat to become quite dynamic and seem more like a puzzle than a simple fight. Of course, luck still has a role in all this, you can do all the scheming in the world but sometimes the cards you need just don’t appear.
With each expansion of the guild, successful or failed mission you get to hear a short rhyme from the bard, most of which are… not that good, in a deliberate way. Although, as much as I like the bard (the narrator/singer who comments on every event) he does become a little repetitive after a while. Thankfully you can disable him in the options menu.
I really like the art style of this game, it uses a cross hatched pen style that makes it look like a doodled tabletop game. This is especially true when you notice that the background you play on isn’t actually white but is graph paper. This ‘hand made’ look continues throughout the whole game, defeated enemies tear with the sound of paper being ripped and new rooms are drawn in with sound of scratching pens for accompaniment.
I suppose it should be expected but there is an element of randomness in both the combat and dungeon creation that can be (and frequently is) infuriating. You can have an amazing run on a dungeon only to trip at the last hurdle because a card you needed just didn’t appear.
There is also another issue that becomes very apparent once you reach the later dungeons. This issue is the fact that you quite often have to sacrifice dungeoneers (preferably Chumps) to build up enough money for upgrades for your guild so you can effectively complete them. This can get really repetitive really quickly.
I actually think this is actually very good and well worth the £10.99 price tag or rather I would think that except the game is now available for mobile devices for as little as £4.59 as well and I must say it works really well (if not better) as a mobile game. So this time its an unusual recommendation because I say get it but get it on mobile.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Darkest Dungeon
Hand of Fate
Forced Showdown
Maybe try some of these board-games too;
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Munchkin
Zombies!!!
