Amplitude Studios brought gamers into a deep, explorative world of the Endless games with Endless Space, Endless Space 2, Dungeon of the Endless and Endless Legend. This award-winning world returned with booms and bangs in this roguelite tactical twin-stick shooter action game: Endless Dungeon. That is a lot of genres it covers, and it worked!
I had a little time with Dungeon of the Endless before previewing Endless Dungeon, so I had some experience with the basic mechanics of this successor game. Between the preview and this near-final build, I was able to see the power of the faithful community. The best parts of Endless Dungeon were its “endless” possibilities, pardon the pun! But it definitely felt true. From its roguelite mechanics, tower defence features, and shooting down enemies with an enormous arsenal of weapons, Endless Dungeon’s premise was quite simple, for the most part.
Players begin by recruiting the first three shipwrecked heroes (Sweeper, Zed and Bunker) and begin to explore the depths of the abandoned space station. Players have the option of playing single-player with an A.I. ally that takes commands, too, or can play with up to two other friends in online multiplayer mode. The end goal is for players to go down to the space station’s core and defeat the final boss at the end.
All of this happens while protecting a crystal robot against endless waves of monsters. Each monster type had a respective spawn colour, elemental weakness and strength; this meant that buying and balancing out weapons was a must. The help of elemental turrets and other support turrets provided additional help for protecting the players’ crystal. There was also a resource management system that involved four resources generated by opening doors when players venture into the abandoned space station: science, industry, food and dust. Each resource has its benefits per run.
“From its roguelite mechanics, tower defence features, and shooting down enemies with an enormous arsenal of weapons, Endless Dungeon’s premise was quite simple, for the most part.”
As for the roguelite elements, well, players can expect to die. They should die…not in a cynical way, no. In a similar manner to games like Hades or The Binding of Isaac, players have the opportunity to buy items and upgrades for their next run in the space dungeon at the Saloon (aka the lobby area that awesomely changes in almost every run). I was quite amazed to see how many purchasable things were available. Some were even just for aesthetics. And yes, there were skins available for each hero—if you are into that!
Speaking of the heroes, Endless Dungeon will have eight heroes in total that will be playable at launch. Each hero has their own unique skills and ultimate abilities that charge up over time and the amount of enemies you kill in each wave. I liked how they gave players the opportunities to find their team synergies with a fairly wide array of heroes to choose from, allowing us to find compositions that work well versus others.
The graphics were very smooth throughout, even with hordes of monsters on the screen. I thought the idea of not having all the monsters on-screen at all times really helped the smooth video quality, which other tower defence games specialize in but can sometimes stutter. I know games like Age of Darkness: Final Stand and They Are Billions are known for their handling of countless enemies on the screen at one time. I would say this game’s handling of hordes, gunfire and animating turrets was superb.
I think where Endless Dungeon needed some work prior to its official launch was its handling of online capabilities. I know they have said they are constantly receiving community feedback as issues arise, too. The worst issue I experienced with my squad was that my whole progress was erased when I was hosting an almost 5 to 6-hour-long session. Imagine all that progress lost because the game crashed and did not save! This was my biggest gripe, and I have seen some nasty saves in Dead Space on the Xbox 360 where you keep spawning about to die. I genuinely hope this was a one-time error.
“Speaking of the heroes, Endless Dungeon will have eight heroes in total that will be playable at launch.”
Another improvement that could be made in the multiplayer co-op mode was its in-game chat. There were a lot of moments of gameplay audio being deafened over the voice chat. For some of us, our voices were cutting in and out, so we just ended up switching to Discord for clearer communication. The only other nitpicky part of the game was that the controls felt a lot easier with a controller versus a keyboard.
Based on the fixes that have been made, I am confident that Amplitude Studios will be able to combat these situations as best as they can when the servers are fully operational. Luckily, the single-player progress has been superfluous and impeccable. To stress how great this game was, it had multi-layered environments throughout each level in the background. This was a nice touch to the metal and clunk in the foregrounds (except Devotion Garden, which had some flora growing through the map).
For a game that is only $29.99, this game offered a ton of entertainment and good chaos. While I have raised a number of concerns that deeply affected my playthrough, I believe that Amplitude Studios will dedicate their time to endlessly work on these bugs or glitches prior to launch and after.
Endless Dungeon is probably going to be my favourite small game for a while. It has been an addictive adventure, and I cannot wait to play it with more of my friends and family. The rich backstory, lore and Easter eggs in the Endless universe tied everything up for me. I hope to see more expansions and DLC, including some proper patches and fixes for the multiplayer mode.
The visuals, music and game mechanics for Endless Dungeon were a magnificent achievement, but the technical aspects should be prioritized before the official release.
