Dungeon of the Endless Review

Dungeon of the Endless Review Screen 1

Dungeon of the Endless is a Rogue-Like, Indie, Strategy, 2D Tower Defence Game developed by French based company Amplitude Studios which brought us Endless Legend and Endless Space both receiving really high MetaCritic scores, although the game sounds like a weird mix of genres all crammed into an expansive 8bit world it is actually an exceptionally good game.

The games layout is basic but functional, there are options for New Game which states the obvious, an Album that once in-game allows you to find/earn concept art, a Journal for your all time best scores and the Credits.

The games 8bit intro sees a prison ship being engaged by hostiles until an Escape Pod is launched, this is where your journey begins. You get to select two hero’s out of an initial list of four. The two characters I chose were Gork ‘Butcher’ Koroser who is a Jonny Bravo looking gun totting thug and also Max O’ Kane a bearded opportunist.

Dungeon of the Endless Review Screen 3

The real action starts in the smouldering remnants of the escape pod, as the tutorial rolls your told the most important thing is saving The Crystal, the only surviving system of the crash with the tag line “Staying put will not help”. You don’t directly control the hero as they are programmed to know what to do in each room, right clicking sends them through an air locked door as a small wave of enemy’s are met with gunfire. There are four main resources in the game, Industry to build modules that are placed in receptacles on the floor, Science to research new modules, Food to hire, improve and heal your hero’s and lastly Dust to power up rooms. It is a very simple design but one that will take a fair few hours to master and perfect.

As you slowly move forward opening doors, powering up the rooms and placing defence mods to help fight off the enemy and stopping them spawning you become aware of a very steep learning curve. The juggling act between exploration, powering up certain rooms, levelling up your characters and placing mods down to protect you is met with a very unwanted gift of death. Sadly you will die a lot but it’s not a real issue to begin with, it’s all part of the learning curve and eventually you will get to love it (not dying, the game). It is a truly great and very addictive game that pushes you to get better as hours of gameplay flick past.

Dungeon of the Endless Review Screen 2

The levels are randomly generated so games are never the same, so you can’t learn a pathway as your main objective is getting The Crystal to the Exit. A task that isn’t as easy as it sounds, once you’ve explored to level up, grabbed some loot and placed defences to cover your escape all hell will break loose. The second you pick up The Crystal, waves of enemy’s descend from what seems like everywhere, running to the exit is the only option and the part of the game you will die the most. Getting this bit of the game perfected is what will carry you through the levels, the levels however get longer and the enemy’s ever harder.

Another great aspect of this game is after a few runs in single player you can jump into some multiplayer action. Playing with a group of friends to work together or a random group of unknowns, who you’ll learn are every man or woman for themselves. Saying that, the furthest I have ever got (room/level 7) was with a group of unknowns.

I really enjoy playing this game and will happily give this game 9/10, it’s one of those game that has everything to offer like many of these new and upcoming indie games, download it now and you won’t be disappointed.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Get the latest game reviews, news, features, and more straight to your inbox