Great game but they really need to put in an online version so that you can play with your friends like over skype and stuff because none of my friends live near me but we all enjoy this game.

The Recipe for Crawl goes something like this:
• a dash of inverted D&D (one player, three DMs)
• a sprinkle of Tag
• a cup of Legend of Zelda
• three tablespoons Altered Beast
• 20 pounds of arcade nostalgia

The goal is simple: kill the final boss and regain your humanity. However, there's only one soul to have and four greedy dead paws trying to grab it. Who has the humanity now? Everybody gang up and kill him. Killing blow takes the soul. This pattern repeats itself until somebody becomes powerful enough to face the final boss. Whether they succeed or not depends on the skill of all involved.

This is some of the best couch entertainment I've seen in a while. It tickles my heart with its presentation, seeming so serious but hinting at its self-awareness.

Excellent game, I hope it gets online multiplayer soon!

I am just LOVING the renaissance of couch coop. Just two years ago I thought it was dead. In the last two years tons of games have come out exclusively for couch coop. I heard about this game awhile back and had yet to pull the trigger, well I finally did. I can safely say it doesn't dissapoint. TBH I have yet to actually play couch coop with somone I have just played against bots. I will revise my review once I have played it with buds. Everything about the game is brimming with style, from the flashy menu, to the incredible pixel art, tight controls, unique gameplay, and the intense chiptune soundtrack. Early access gets alot of flak but this is done right. The Game is released in an EXTREMELY playable state with a very large update looming ahead. Grab some buds and Crawl, I know I will be soon!

This game is seriously awesome. The developers are very active in creating more and more content, and it’s already packed full of coolness. While the art is pixilated, the movement does not have an “old” feel to it, but a smooth fast paced action feel. The game changes each time you play in regards to maps and which enemy characters each person chooses, and the player choices during the game. It seriously keeps things fresh.

PROS:
* Insanely fun game play
* Original concepts with a 1 VS 3 game of dungeons and dragons where it’s 1 hero against 3 dungeon masters
* Controller Support for 4 players local
* Fast paced action that feels fresh each time due to the roguelike aspects of each level
* You can choose how you progress as an anti-hero depending on which enemy path you choose to use each game
* Great balancing mechanics that can bring an underdog back into the fray where no one feels as if there is no hope

CONS:
* No save function - you may need a break after an hour of button mashing
* No online multiplayer (yet?)
* Bots are easy to anticipate since their strategy is pretty linear

This game, even in Early Access, is an absolute BUY NOW.
If you have a friend who can come over to play, you will be more than happy with this game and it will become a “go to” in your Steam Library.

It is already one of the best couch (semi-)coop games you can get imo, even though it’s in early access. The game offers a whole new experience: in-game friends turn to enemies and the other way round.
Also it never felt like a beta, it seemed very well thought-out from the get-go and now they are adding new content and balance it a bit more, a flagship early access game if you ask me.

At our first session we’ve played the game 6 hours straight without noticing the time going by. It is definitely already one of the best invested 10€ ever.

The graphics are great, if you like pixel art and the sound/music really fit the game well.

But before you buy it, you have got to have at least 2 friends who are willing to play it with you (offline ofc). And I’m saying this, because the graphics really put off some people and the start of the game can be a little hard, because eventhough the game uses only to buttons aside from the stick, it can really get confusing. So I’d suggest you’d play it with “gamers”. But if your friends are hooked they are hooked for good and will be as excited about the game as I am.
Aside from that It’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long time. I’ve played it 13h by now and it would have been much longer if I had more people to play it with.

Go try it out! :)

Beholder Bit me and my character went insane.
10/10

Honestly if you want to destroy friendships, families, and even your own psyche then look no further. This game is all about competition and the love of the sport. This game causes hour long screaming fests and broken hearts. It feeds on negative energy and spits out a boss fight for you to beat the piss out of. If you have second thoughts on this game then don't. Buy it! Seriously this could be GOTYEY.

It's The Legend of Zelda if your one ♥♥♥♥ friend had control of the monsters.

Most of the time when I find a game based on such a fantastic idea it falls flat of my expectations. Crawl was not one of these games. I bought Crawl because I was looking for a game I could play a local multiplayer game with my friends but I wasn't expecting to have such a great time. Hour after hour we killed each other and every game played out differently. I am excited for the future of this game and can't wait to sahre this gem with all of my friends.

I've never been much of an online multiplayer kind of guy, in my household we couch co-op and that's just always been our tradition. Playing side by side with friends and family, bulky plastic controllers in hand is a lost art and one that deserves a lot more attention. We've seen many titles try and bring back this passion for a more human gaming experience in the living room recently with successful titles like Nidhogg and TowerFall Ascension reminding us of that feeling of intense person-to-person competition and friendly rivalry we were able to get with console games in the past. With the rising popularity of online PC gaming where does this close and personal human interaction go, is there still room for the local multiplayer experience?

Crawl thinks so, and it answers the call by pitting man against monster, friend against friend, in the darkest and nethermost of dungeons of the most replayable player on player brawler to date. You will die many times by the hands of your most trusted acquaintances but as Bram Stoker once wrote, "We learn from failure, not from success!”

The heavy, ominous chip melody evokes a feeling of terror and haste as the monsters swarm about the mortal player for their own chance at sweet humanity, and must tear it from the cold dead hands of their cohort before losing the chance to turn the tables. All sound direction is incredibly fitting, with voice samples sounding as if straight out of an authentic 80's pinball machine or arcade cabinet. Suspenseful horror aesthetics and the doom-impending tone of the music compliment the tension, chaos and madness of the multiplayer struggle for supremacy all too well.

You begin by choosing one of the Gods of unspeakable horrors, determining which set of ghastly familiars you will be taking control of and leveling up throughout your mad grab for humanity. Blood is gained as you spill it from your human target to be exchanged for gold and used at merchants to buy an array of varied equipment and skills, ranging anywhere from double-daggers with fast speed but short reach to floating glyphs that fire lasers on your command. This puts a lot of motivation on the monster players to bleed the human as much as possible, in order to better prepare themselves with loot once stealing back humanity.

Monsters themselves add one of the deepest layers of the game, each with branching sets of evolution trees to play around with. Evolving your monsters is dependent on Vitae which is acquired through enemy humans leveling up, and keeps the playing field between the two more or less balanced. Honestly, though, I don't think anyone is capable of explaining the mechanics as well as the trailer does.

Before even getting a chance to sink my teeth into Crawls' gritty and visceral gameplay I couldn't stop watching the trailer, it sent chills down the spine. It's really the most captivating I'd seen in awhile and the narration nails the urgency of your doom-ridden quest. I had to know how such an effective voice actor was acquired.

After questioning the developers on the subject, it turns out that the narration wasn't hired or professional help at all, but the contributions of a close friend they had previously worked with and this fact just fortified in my mind the strong bonds behind the creation of the game and it's origin of a personal and human nature. According to Dave, "The voice actor from the trailer is a friend of ours, Adrian Vaughan. He’s a 3d artist who we met at the first game studio that Barney and I worked at together. He’s one of those guy’s who’s always putting on funny accents and I got him to do some voices for an adventure game I made for a competition (called The Unicated)."

Apparently they weren't expecting the trailer to gain as much attention and praise as it did for the game, as Dave goes on, "We were incredibly pleased with how the trailer went, we had no idea if it would be received well or not while we were working on it. We thought it might be too long, or wordy, and it was difficult getting a balance of the tone and the explanation of the game. We’re so glad we did it that way now though."

Crawl clearly has some heavy retro arcade influences, and upon discussing the game with the developers the sources of inspiration were confirmed. "For Barney, two big inspirations were Bomberman and Gauntlet, and they shine through in the gameplay most of all." and with it's blend of the dungeon delving hack'n'slash action of Gauntlet and the rage-inducing competitive aspect of Bomberman, I'm inclined to agree that both of these examples shine through. He continues to explain, "We’ve grabbed inspiration from tonnes of games though really, old RPGs like Legend of Zelda, the gothic tone of the first Diablo, and a bit of Dark Souls’ brutality to name a few." All being perfect representations of where Crawl takes its grim and savage direction.

This is a game that will bring together the most unsuspecting of players, serious-minded people who don't even game will forget themselves and get caught up in the blood-boiling clash for mortality. Not only does it bring friends together but it tests the limits of your friendship, edging you closer to feelings of vengeance on your once trusted peer. Similar to the feeling of having the excitement of 1st place in Mario Kart swiftly crushed and ripped from you by a friend lucky enough to get that one Blue Shell and take your place of glory, leaving you with nothing but the desire to track them down and kick their ♥♥♥.

Crawl is a game made by friends, for friends. A multiplayer experience unlike anything seen since the 90's. A game made by two close compatriots who wanted to rediscover and reinvent what gathered them around the tube so many years ago. The kind of entertainment we've lost sight of after so many years of growing into adults, getting jobs and families, and in general forgetting what made us really have fun as kids.

Despite being its best around warm-bodied experiences I can still wholeheartedly recommend the game even for those who might be too busy or too far from friends to partake in the multi-person mayhem. With bots and their adjustable difficulty, I was still kept on the edge of my seat during every attempt to steal the victory from the intelligent computer opponents. With even more balancing on the horizon as well as constant updates to content, and a serious community involvement from the developers on forums there is pure determination shown in shaping the game how players want and proves that Crawl is already one of the shining examples of Early Access done right.

For the longest time now publishers and devs have decided that gamers no longer have friends in real life... our social gaming lives exist solely online. This has lead to the downfall of “couch co-op,” with many multiplayer games being released completely lacking any local multiplayer feature. It's time we say enough is enough! I still have buds over to play video games, real ones that stay too late and often drink too much (Hey Will! Sure, what kind of party would it be if you didn't vomit everywhere?).

The devs of “Crawl” remember the yesteryear of “couch co-op” and they hear our cries. Like silent, brooding Batman-y types they're the heroes local multiplayer deserves; and they're paying an homage to classic, “Gauntlet” type dungeon crawlers. The concept is simple: you and up to three friends select a god to represent (you can also use bots that are HIGHLY competent). Each god represents different creatures you'll take the form of during battle so choose wisely. Then you're dropped into the first level of the dungeon. One player is the hero, the rest of you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ specters of death who's sole purpose is to thwart the crawler with traps and dark symbols through which you become corporeal monsters. First player to kill the crawler becomes one themselves, and the cycle continues. Be warned: “Crawl” has friendship killing potential the likes of which haven't been seen since “Mario Party,” “Mario Kart,” and the little-known “Mario ♥♥♥♥s Your Friend's Mother.”

Throughout each dungeon you'll gather gold to spend on upgrades and weapons. As you clear each section you'll use vitae gathered to “evolve” your monsters, branching off into more powerful ranged, magic, and warrior types. Each level also features an ominous Stonehenge-like monument pulsating with blue magicka that unlocks the final boss once you or one of your former pals reach level 10. At that point you can choose to face the big baddie. You'll get a cool battle strategy hint in the boss fountain room before entering the arena. Each of your friends (and bots) will possess the boss, working in tandem to stop you from winning by using a variety of attacks. Assuming you win it's game over, you won! Assuming you lose another friend gets a shot. But each time you face the boss you do damage to the monument and if no one wins you will all game over.

“Crawl” is beautiful, stylish, and a blast to play. The monsters are really cool, the music is most excellently retro, and when playing against three friends (or AI bots with the difficulty increased) it is a challenge. The devs (now famously) sent out a cool apology gif when they had to delay “Crawl” briefly – which to me is a good indicator that they will work with the community to continue expanding and polishing an already excellent core game.

ALAS, I have one major gripe. It isn't a deal breaker, not for me anyway. But at the moment there is no ONLINE multiplayer. Now I know what I said earlier. I miss the bygone days of local mutliplayer and I'm happy to see it as an option. But I still have lots of friends I want to play this with online, ones that live far away in mythical places like California and Canada. I want to live in a world where I don't have to choose. I want both, perhaps greedily. Hopefully we'll see it implemented. Otherwise keep in mind this is Early Access. At the moment there appears to be one final boss and only three deities to choose from. But what is there is highly polished and very fun. They'll be adding more end bosses and deities throughout development. I also hope to see more variety in the dungeon layouts and color schemes. But as it is this is an excellent title. For ten bucks I easily, heartily recommend this.

Reviewer's Note: “Mario ♥♥♥♥s Your Friend's Mother” probably doesn't exist. Probably.

This game by far is the most original game that I have seen ever since before games became re-hashed and ruined by franchise! I saw this game on greenlight awhile ago (love at first sight), and I instantly wanted it. this game totally packs a new kind of competitive gameplay into dungeon crawlers. What is this game? it's multiplayer 1vs3 dungeon crawl, where 3 people can be the dungeon masters and one person will be the player; Here is the twist though: Once you kill the player you "steal" the players humanity and become the player yourself (the killed player becomes a dungeon master); which is totally new compared to the typical co-op experience you get in rogue-like games. The goal of the game is to level up and gear up untill you can face the final boss. Whoever kills the final boss or has the most xp will win. Another cool feature is that you can level up the enemies you can spawn as a dungeon master with a currency called vitae, which is gained by other players leveling up (Very good balancing technique, people who cant kill the player and remain at level 1 will gain more vitae than the others, so they can make their monsters super OP and finally kill the player). You can also collect small brown blobs that charge up the dungeon master's skill, and be able to summon slimes. However this game is not complete, and is still in early access; It also only supports local co-op at the moment (Not LAN co-op, its couch co-op), so For people expecting the multiplayer to be online should wait a little untill the developers can add it. My score for this game is a definite 10/10, and it is completely worth spending $10 on.

How can this game improve?

-ONLINE MULTIPLAYER: in my opinion online multiplayer is this game's key to becoming even better. Even if it is peer-to-peer/Direct IP entry multiplayer, it will still be a major step for this game's future. I know Powerhoof said that multiplayer MAY be added later, but I do not feel comfortable with "may". From what I've seen from powerhoof's website this is their first major release, and pretty much all the other games they released were point and click adventures. It's likely they are unexperienced with networking a game, and I dont blame them (I dont know how to add multiplayer to a game). I wish for the best they can get the help they need to eventually break through this barrier and add the feature this game would be perfected with.
-MORE SPAWNABLE MONSTERS: (maybe make several more monsters with different upgrade trees and have them randomly chosen when you choose which deity you worship).
-MORE SKILLS FOR THE GHOSTS: The dungeon masters/ghosts skill could be different for each deity (current skill just spawns slimes after you gather enough brown orb things). Some examples: Choosing Murkan gives you the ability to summon red crystals and traps, also blocks all the doors in the room, Choosing S'hrim gives you the ability to summon zombies/skeletons that do poison damage, and Choosing Teok gives you the ability to summon slimes/or maybe dwarfs with red cone hats :P .
-MORE BOSSES: (could have them choosen randomly once you enter the boss portal).
Ideas include: Hydra: it lurks in a cave inside of a pool of water. maybe a plant boss of some sort who can roots come out of the ground and stab the player, (it would be in a forest-like cave). Another boss could simulate games where you keep running right (the boss tails right behind you as you run) untill the boss is dead (similiar to the wall of flesh in terraria).
-CAMPAIGN MODE: let the player set the number of floors (10,20,30) before starting. after every 5 to 10 floors a portal will appear that lets you teleport to the boss which will be randomly chosen; after beating a boss in their respective lair a staircase will appear allowing you to continue,at the final floor there will be a giant red door which will lead to the final boss; the final boss will not appear in arcade mode (arcade mode is the original gameplay that you guys can play right now). There would only be 3 tries for each boss (boss is still controlled by the ghosts (dungeon masters). The bosses difficulty scales as you continue going down the floors (more health/damage).
-A POINT SYSTEM: this would be shown on the screen (for campaign mode and arcade mode), to be honest I do not like that the points are completly based on gathering XP which pretty much makes everything you did as a dungeon master pointless (pun-intended). Points Should be added once you get xp and kills. Each XP orb gives (1) points, every time the human player hits a monster he gets (1) point, points should also be given for damaging the human player in any room; this system would be similiar to how the blood currency is distributed - Example: 1st - most damage dealt (75)points, 2nd (50)points, 3rd (25) points, 4th - least damage dealt (0)points), killing a monster gives (25)points.
killing a player gives(100) points, killing a player with a trap gives (150) points, and lastly
killing a boss gives (400) points. This makes it so that even if you didnt kill the boss you can still win first place. The point counter would be shown at the top of the screen, but would be small enough so that it doesn't block any view of the game.
[optional] A message could be displayed under the players point interface, announcing why they got the points.
-DIFFERENT PORTAL MECHANICS: Don't have the portal generate on every floor, and make it so portals dont appear untill floor 5. It's kinda annoying when BOT's fail the boss, and just end up fighting him again on the next floor. Also If a player fights the boss already and loses he should have to wait a certain amount of floors before being able to fight it again (lets say 3) this way it gives the other players a chance to fight it if they are not level 10.
-MORE TYPES OF TRAPS: (Poison darts, mine launcher, spike floor where spikes pop out of the floor when the ghost activates it, and a trap that shoots out acid that remains on the floor for a bit.
-DIFFERENT RED CRYSTAL MECHANICS: A higher chance for red crystals to spawn in a room with traps, and a chance for red crystals to Re-appear in rooms if the player were to enter a room he has been in more than one time. (sometimes BOT's tend to run around FOREVER, and traps don't work well if the player can just run through the room which leads to this situation: The second you posses a trap the player has already left the room).
-MORE ARTISTIC VARIETY: as you go deeper into the depths the floors theme should change. As for what you could do I have a few Ideas. A floor everything is slightly dark and is illuminated by candles (the player and enemies will have a dim glow around them so the players can see where there characters are) The pentograms will also have a red glow. Different themed floors will change the look of the enemies slightly (different colors that match the floors theme).
-MORE DECORATIONS: Pictures, procedurally generated furniture, knight statues, sword racks, etc.
-HERO CUSTOMIZATION: this game could have 3 different hero classes. The customization options (vanity) are unlocked after completing challenges (ie: kill 50 enemies to unlock the beholder mask). You will also be able to choose your class and how your hero will look before choosing which deity to worship (which monsters you will have).

Well This is about everything I can think of that can be added or improved, I hope you can take my review to heart and add these features in the future even if not all of them.

Amazing gameplay for 4 players, not nearly as fun when playing against only bots so it would be nice to see online multiplayer in the future but for an early-access game this is fantastic and after just 1 match against bots and 1 with friends I have already fallen in love with this game.

A fun, competitive dungeon-crawler that you can play with friends. I look forward to seeing if online multiplayer is being added in the future.

Full First Impressions here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i36N2h4yr9w

Ok, so I've never done any review. Ever.

But this game deserves it. So let's get started.


Like the name suggests, along with the pictures, you might understand that it's your usual dungeon crawler. But it isn't.
It IS a dungeon crawler. But not in the likes of Diablo or Torchlight. It's more of a skilled-hack 'n' slash-dungeon crawler.
And TBH, as a fan of dungeon crawlers, this is the best one I've ever seen.

I might also add that I may have a little bias about it because of the god damned amazing music/teaser trailer. But I digress.

As I've said before, it's not your usual dungeon crawler. And there's also another reason because of that. It's not open world and it's not story driven. It's an arcade game.

And it does it really well. The game, as you may already know if you're reading this review because you want to be sure that the game is nice, is a local co-op/versus game.

"But Baron! I don't have any friends! I'm a god damned loner!"

Well they added some bots which you can play against for "practice while you're waiting for your friends". And they're also going to add multiplayer in the near future. So that's good. Because I'm also a loner.


It's good, 10/potato.

Just kidding. The gameplay is absolutely amazing, but to be played at its best you NEED a controller. Which isn't a problem FOR ME, but might me a problem for the people who can't afford to buy one. Any controller that is supported by steam will do. But personally I prefer to use a PS3 controller with the scarlet crush drivers.

As I've said at the start of this review, the game is part hack 'n' slash. And it's a blast. The controls are responsive and easy to learn. It's literally just two buttons. I've never found myself saying "God damn it, I didn't want to do that!", if I died it was 90% of the times because of the skill of the bots or because I wasn't good enough.

The only problem about it might be that they made the button to attack also the button to "use" stuff. I've found myself sometimes entering the final boss battle by mistake with little health remaining and dying by the hands of the bots controlling the boss.


Well, I really don't know, I don't have eyes to see a god damned PICTURE ON THE STORE PAGE.


Do you like co-op fast paced hack 'n' slash dungeon crawlers games? Then this is for you, I guess, I've never heard of games like this, but whatever, everyone has their own fetish.


KK bb, from a scale from 1 to 10:

Music: 10

Gameplay: 10 [seeing yourself getting ♥♥♥♥♥ to death just to kill the same bot that killed you is an amazing feeling]

Graphics: 10

Overall: 10

On a side note, it runs on my toaster, 10/10

This game is dope as ♥♥♥♥. Get your friends, and grief the ever-loving ♥♥♥♥ out of them as you fight one another to gain the right to defeat the boss alone.

Most fun I´ve ever had with other human beings in the same room. 10/10

This game is the epitome of couch gaming. Winning a round against several friends feels like a gaming accomplishment that I haven't felt in years. The journey feels epic and the ultimate victory or defeat compliments it well.

This game has potential to be perfect. As it is, it's amazing.
Also it involves lots of screaming, both from your dying hero and you.
Buy it.