Delver marries the first-person simplicity of Doom and the randomness of the roguelike in such an admirably straightforward way that I m sorry it doesn t get more praise. I ve championed it before as a cheap n cheerful adventure that ll keep you occupied for a few afternoons. It s a forgettable game, but only because it s so unassuming. That s what I like about it. It sets out to do one thing: spritey, twitchy dungeon diving. And it does that without complaint or distraction.

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The dungeon crawling and doddering daggers of sprite-filled roguelite Delver is good and pure, if you believe my early access impressions. So it s a happy day for all you I ll wait until it s finished types. Delver has left early access and is considered complete by its developers, Priority Interrupt. They ve also doubled the price on Steam, now that it s done. It used to be about a fiver in British quids, but now it s over a tenner (a change from $7.99 to $14.99 for US folks). My instinct when this happens is always “ugh!” But on reflection, no, it’s fine. (more…)

Every Monday, we arm Brendan with a tiny dagger and push him into the early access ruins. This week, the catacombs of retro dungeon-crawler Delver [official site].

I stabbed the green man in a panic, and he hit me back with a big stick. Wow, you don t get that much health to start with, I thought, and kept stabbing. I stabbed until he fell down in a pile of pixelly blood and meat. But something else also fell out of him. It was shining and warbling. That must be loot. I moved to pick it up. The warbling got louder. The warbling increased to a high pitch, the item started to flash rapidly. Huh? I thought, as the piece of loot exploded and killed me. … [visit site to read more]

Joining Steam’s Early Access program is Delver, a first-person roguelike that wants you to go deeper. Into its dungeon. But at this point, is that enough? I’ve had a play.>

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