GGA Game Review: DUNGEON OF THE ENDLESS Struggles on the Nintendo Switch

Julia Roth

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Dungeon of the Endless Cover.

Since Nintendo Switch‘s release in March of 2017, developers and publishers have been pushing to port as many of their games onto the handheld console as possible. Who wouldn’t? So it was no surprise to hear that developer Amplitude Studios with the help of publisher Sega and Playdigious would be porting Dungeon of the Endless. It was originally released via Sega on PC through Steam and the Xbox One in 2014.

So, how well did this tower defense mixed with roguelike play on the Nintendo Switch? Keep reading to find out.

Handheld Mode Will Make You Blind and Docking It Isn’t Much Better

The first thing I realized when booting up Dungeon of the Endless was that this isn’t a game you can play in handheld mode. I struggled with eye stress during the first few runs due to the tiny fonts used. I ended up docking the Nintendo Switch about halfway through my first playthrough. Being able to play a game on the Switch in handheld mode is very important. It is a handheld device first and foremost, after all.

Docking the Switch and playing this on a bigger screen did help a bit. The text is still quite small but more bearable now. Another issue seen in handheld mode and while the Switch was docked was how messy the graphics were. While the pixel art looks cool and fits the game style – it’s a complete mess. Anytime I went against a mass amount of enemies I was left waiting until it was done to figure out what happened.

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Highly Repetitive and Skill Doesn’t Really Matter

In the 6 hours I spent playing Dungeon of the Endless I continuously saw the same things over and over. I had gotten the impression that since the dungeon is endless that each playthrough would look or feel different. Instead what I got was the same rooms and enemies repeatedly. The only thing that ever really changes was the layout of the floor itself.

But it’s the layout where the skill side of gameplay doesn’t really matter. I felt that in some runs I would get a layout that no matter what I did there was no winning. Then, in another it was so beyond easy I thought I had accidentally restarted the game. The idea of RNG in a game is great to help shake up gameplay, but when it can cause such a drastic change it’s better left out.

What Was The Story Again?

Aside from the mix of tower defense and roguelike mechanics that make up Dungeon of the Endless the other thing that caught my interest was the story. A prison ship has crash landed while attempting to reach and colonize the planet Auriga. It’s the player’s job to lead a group of heroes to protect the generator while facing off against waves of enemies and exploring.

However, other than some random lines that characters shout out during the game, the narrative takes a heavy backseat to gameplay. Of course, this isn’t bad – just disappointing. If we had the narrative progression to look forward to it would have made each run more worthwhile. Along with the heavy amount of emphasis they placed on it in the trailers, I just expected much more.

Overall Feelings

Dungeon of the Endless GGA Game Review summary.

Overall, how does Dungeon of the Endless feel? To sum it up in one word: frustrating. It was frustrating to spend so much time clearing levels only to find one that was absolutely unwinnable due to RNG. Had the game relied more heavily on skill rather than luck, maybe it would have been better. But in the end knowing a win was based on good level layout was just as frustrating as losing a level with a bad layout.

Dungeon of the Endless is available now on PC through Steam, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.

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This article was originally published 5/18/20

 

 

Julia Roth
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