Buy The Dungeoning

This game is very, very fun. It's like a Castlevania game with roguelike elements. I've only played a bit but I am currenty enjoying it. It is a difficult game, which I am personally a fan of, (though I know many others get frustarted easily and may be annoyed by the difficulty), and I feel a lot of the games fun comes from good gameplay and difficult levels. This is an early access game, so obviously many things will be added to the game in time. But there are a few things I would like to see added to the game. First, some bosses. While I found each level to be a challenge, I was dissapointed to see no big bosses. So I look forward to that hopefully being implemented. Also, some sort of stats for wepons in item descriptions would be nice. Maybe even add some new characters with different starting stats and weapons like dark souls? I look forward to each new update and seeing what's added to this awesome game!

Overall, I would recommend The Dungeoning. It's addicting, however there's currently not a whole lot present to keep you interested for very long. If you're in to these types of games, then I would recommend you at least consider The Dungeoning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjoS9BsHoo
Above is my early look into the Dungeoning. It was recorded before it was on Steam, but the info should still be pretty accurate.

The dungeoning features rock hard difficulty, fluid feeling controls, and simple graphics. This is one of my personal favorite rogue-like/lite games. I love how easy it is to get into, but difficult to master. I've already finished the game once, and currently working on game+.

Overall it's a fun light romp, that could have you coming back for more.

Positives:
- Easy to understand mechanics
- Fluid feeling controls
- Will challenge the player
- Multiple "Game+" for replay

Negatives:
- Might be too simple looking for some
- Might be too hard for some
- Could use more options and features

This is Dark Souls through a Legend of Dungeon filter. Deep combat, tight controls, beutifully-colorful pixel art with dynamic lighting, and item-borne lore. A roguelike whose charming aesthetic does not come off as gimmicky as many others of its ilk. The difficulty is relentless but fair, and the music and sound effects are expectedly old-school and immersive. If you enjoy Risk of Rain and Legend of Dungeon, but wish they were more "Souls-y", The Dungeoning should already be in your library.

Reading the reviews which give this game a thumbs up, it seemed like it would be right up my alley. Randomly generated dungeon? Difficult but fair gameplay? Inspiration from the 'Souls' series? A liking to Legend of Dungeon? Take my money!

But don't let any of these fool you. What you get is an overpriced, bare-bones, sleep-inducing and repetitive game. This really needs to be labeled as Early Access because there's nothing to this game for the price-tag. I'm sure the developer has plenty more to add in the future but as of the time of this review, this game has nothing to keep you interested for more than 3 hours, max.

The dungeon itself is very uninspired. The weapons all function exactly the same. Every sword, every bow, every staff... exactly the same. You cannot sell nor even DROP any of your weapons, so prepare to be battling with scrolling through your weapons the whole way through. There's no armor drops, so zero customization there, and the stats are boring and should probably just automatically upgrade instead of making you pause the game, go into your menu, and add one point into a stat which doesn't make you feel any cooler, stronger, or tougher.

There is some enemy variety, but it takes way too long before you encounter the next new mob. A lot of the mobs, especially early on, are too boring to fight. Unless you think fighting a bunch of plants that can't move or attack is fun.

This game needs a lot more time to be fleshed out, and then it might be a decent amount of fun. Right now, however, I would recommend you save your hard-earned money.

Spelunky Souls

Very fun game! But Needs work.

So far i've only done one run and it was a blast, very unforgiving but if you have the instinct to explore you will be fine. If you're a fan of some hardcore platformers and the Souls series, you'll find something to like here. I hope the developer sticks with the project long enough for maybe a graphical upgrade, and maybe souls style multiplayer? Exploring a dungeon and seeing enemy players challenging you for your weapons/gold would be exciting.

Improvements that the game needs

-Smoother UI,
The menu system feels very dated, I'm not sure if this was on purpose but I thought it was just frustrating. there's not even a way to use your cursor when playing with a keyboard.

-Proper Controller Support
The game advertises controller support but this does not seem to be the case, the game would crash if I even moved my anaglog stick which seems to be a problem many players are having.


To the developer I hope you stick with the game and make it the best it can possibly be. You're on to something special here.

The Dungeoning is pixely. It is brutal. There doesn't appear to be any after death progression like in Rogue Legacy, however this game doesn't really need a feature like that.

The nostalgia is definitely there. The gameplay too. Played this on a 360 with the fancy dpad, works very well.

Initial impressions are bleak.

Tight controlls are essential in a game like this, and the dungeoning does them well. The only thing keeping me from doing a proper pogo stick kill from above is my reflexes.

However, the enemies are identical for two levels, after which the difficulty shoots up. Seriously, I went from bats and green slimes to GIANT SLIME EYEBALL MONSTERS WITH A HUGE HEALTH BAR. There's no sense of ramping up at all.

Leveling and progression is classic RPG, STR, VIT, INT, DEX, items seemed fairly basic. I've only gotten 2 or 3 levels in, but I find myself wondering why I am not instead playing Rogue Legacy.

If there's any sense of long-term progression in this game, I'm missing it, which is not good for a roguelike.

It's not that I dislike the game. I just don't not-like it, I guess? It's mediocre, the music is pretty low-par, the generated details are minimal, every room looks identical.


Save your money, get rogue legacy. Sorry the dungeoning, you do too little to keep my attention.

Type of Game:

2D Action Platformer with PDL elements

Version Played:

PC version through Steam

Similar Games:

Rogue Legacy, Spelunky, Legend of Dungeon and to a lesser degree Dark Souls

The Good:

- Randomly generated dungeons that contain secret rooms, vendors, enemies and treasure
- The strategic gameplay consists of a careful balance between offense (swordplay, archery, and magic) and defense (shield blocking, player positioning, and enemy avoidance)
- This gameplay structure really supports the similarities between it and Demon/Dark Souls
- The pixelated graphical design of the game is quite enjoyable and shares similar lighting effects with Legend of Dungeon
- A plethora of items await the player on their quest such as swords, bows, rings, potions, wands, etc…
- A progression system that boosts the player’s strength, vitality, defense, and magic though some are more beneficial than others (See The Bad)
-Scrolls can be looted, which also level up these stats
- The a fore-mentioned rings can add unique tweaks to the gameplay, such as sacrificing speed to increase strength

The Bad:

- The length of the game is entirely too short to be considered a contender in the growing Steam catalogue of PDLs and roguelikes
- Just when I was starting to feel as though I was getting into a rhythm with the game, it abruptly ended with limited fanfare
- Due to the lack of variety in level design, weapon-type options, and character choices: a player would have a tough time being compelled to continue playing The Dungeoning after their brief first run
- It doesn’t help that there are no achievements or unlocks as the player progresses in the game (outside of NewGame+, which is more of the same)
- While the player is given four different areas to increase at each level-up, strength appears to be the only one worth sticking points into as the increased health can greatly improve the player’s chances of success
- The difficulty level is not as hard as advertised
- While the player will die during their first dungeon run attempts, this is primarily due to the mild learning curve
- Once the player has figured out the controls of the game, it is quite easy to plod deliberately through to the end
- While story sometimes takes a backseat in PDLs, the complete absence of one in The Dungeoning doesn’t help its longevity factor

Can you play it while the children are awake?:

Yes. The pixelated violence does not overdo it with gore and the damage indicator is an old school flash instead of a blood animation.

Did I make time to complete it?

Yes, but simply because it was so short to do so. My winning play-through took me an hour and a half to complete. There are evidently numerous new game plus iterations, but I never felt compelled to progress farther than NewGame+.

Recommended Purchase Price:

The Dungeoning was a fun game to play, but over far too quickly. While I like the unique strategic combat elements a lot, its lack of depth and replay-ability really don’t help it stand out among the crowded genre of roguelikes or PDLs. I would recommend picking this up on a Steam sale for $4.99

or

42% of current retail value of $11.99

A Quick Look at those Games You Might Buy
http://www.gamersglance.com

An old-school roguelike through and through, The Dungeoning is a hardcore platformer that shows little to no mercy to the player. Beneath the simplistic appearance of this game lies a great deal of genuine depth, and a great deal of genuine fun (well, once you get past the whole "dying in the first few minutes thing"). Be warned, though; this game is more than happy to beat the living hell out of you, and you are going to have to work at it in order to succeed.

I would say it's a 50/50 call.
The play action is good, the level gen has decent variety, and it provides smooth bug free game play.
But it's a little quick to feel some rinse repete from play to play.
And any rouge like game, that lacks a save and quit fetaure, really should be sure that a play through can happen in a decently short amount of time.
If a game's average play to end time extends past 45min, it should have the save and quit function.
I'll give it a thuumbs up, mostly for haviung decent game action and no obvious bugs.
But i can't say i would generically recommend this to just anyone.

This game is pretty awesome. I enjoy these rogue-lite genre games, and this is a pretty decent one. The controls are (for the most part) rock solid and the gameplay is fantastic. The art style is enjoyable, and I LOVE the music. Two marks against it are inventory management, and a lack of rebindable movement keys. The invintory tends to clutter up with old useless tat that I can't seem to get rid of. All of the other keyboard keys CAN be rebound, but not the movement ones. I hate using the arrow keys, so I had to resort to autohotkey (binding of isaac method much?) to reconfigure my keys. Beisdes those two small issues, I find this game to be a keeper.

This game is pretty great, looks good and plays very well, it's hard, but in a good way. Just needs this controller deal figured out and it'll be that much better

Fun game, I got it on sale for $6 but sadly I would not recommend it for the full $12. TBH, I'm sort of regretting that $6 cost considering what $6 can get you on Steam summer sales. The game is fun but if you're any good you'll probably beat it pretty quickly. I gather that it's a work in progress even if it says it isn't. I noticed a lot of features have been added at request of the community so I thought I'd ad my bug report to this review. Don't drop an item that is equipped. It will remain equiped but picking it up will not give you the same item object so you can't unequip it. I only have one ring slot this run now. :/

I made a video review to show off some of the features and gameplay of this game!
http://youtu.be/Segt2pxYHAg
I hope you enjoy!
Martyr

Incredibly boring, it feels like the game has no soul at all. Everything is overly stiff.

I beat this game on my first try... Fun game, but feels unfinished. I don't think t's not worth the asking price.

Slayed hordes of slimes and ghosts to be defeated by a bush. 10/10

I picked this game up because I read so many (oddly placed) comparisons to Dark Souls. I'm a picky gamer, I like old-school platformers. You'll find this game is perfect if you're like me.