The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians – A Quick Look

I have not finished The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians yet, so this won’t be a proper review. I have a feeling it’s going to take me a long while to do so, but I already want to give my thoughts / praise for the game. I have made it halfway through so far, and it has been a blast. It’s also incredibly brutal occasionally. I can easily say that I overvalued my abilities of succeeding in old-school RPGs (going by the mechanics). I started on “hard”, with me quickly being put in my place. However, it’s in no way impossible, and it’s actually not that advanced – it’s just a good challenge. 

The prison
There isn’t too much to the story, even if it’s there. Your team of newly hired guards for a massive prison get a hell of a first night on the job, that will be hard to forget. You see, all the prisoners escaped while you were resting after arriving to the depth. It’s up to you and crew to work yourself up from the bottom of the dungeon to the surface to recapture (well, kill) the escapees.

The team
The dungeon crawling team of four you create yourself, with the holy trinity of tank, healer & damage dealer. With that in mind, it’s essential to follow this model, as tanking with anything other than a warrior with talents in protection will end in tears (and a very short game). I went with two warriors in front, Vomol & Bortaz, one protector to absorb damage, and one damage dealer with focus on two-handed weapons – for slow, massive damage! Then in the back, I picked a druid, Nix, for healing, and a mage named Cassandra for elemental magic. It’s important to note that all classes come with three specializations, and when you level up you can pick from the other talent pools, besides what you picked for the character initially. However, I have not done so, since I want to keep my guys “pure”. It’s there, though, for those that want to experiment. 

The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians is grid-based, like many others when it comes to this genre. Two of the more famous games being Legend of Grimrock, and Legend of Grimrock 2. The main difference is how much you need to move around in those two in real-time to avoid damage, compared to The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians. The gameplay of moving, and dodging to avoid getting your head cut off is not entirely bad, but I never got around to making it enjoyable. I’m more of a stand & fight type of guy, preferably in a turn-based system. Now, The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians is not turn-based, but what it does have is an active pause mechanic that lets you pause the game at will.

When paused, you can lean back and give out orders with no overhanging stress of finding the right button to press for that fireball spell before the mage takes a spear to the stomach. It’s great, and the active dodge mechanics that are the bread and butter of the Legend of Grimrock games is not of importance here. You can dodge out of the way, if you want, or run away for that matter if you need to. Yet, it’s not required. You can stand and fight if that is what you want. I very much enjoyed this aspect. It made the fighting a lot more fun to me, than constantly having to worry about moving back and forth to avoid killing blows.

Not a cakewalk
That’s not to say it’s easy, though. It has mechanics that makes it survivable, for example no permadeath for characters. If someone gets knocked out, they will be right back up after the skirmish. However, if the tank goes down, you might as well wave goodbye already, unless the creature you are fighting is about to die. The things you will fight in the dungeon hits damn hard, especially if it involves any form of magic. I recommend saving all haste equipment, and mana potions for the healer, because he or she will have plenty to do and runs out of mana quickly. The damage dealers can’t go all out, either, as the game keeps an aggro-meter. You must balance your damage, and while it might be tempting to throw all the cool heavy mage spells at the start of a fight, it usually does not pay off. Seeing as she will be dead five seconds into the battle.

There is a nice balance to the brawls, and so far it hasn’t become boring or mundane (I’m on floor 8). Lots of tactics are involved in the battles: what to use, when to use, what is important to interrupt, and then keeping an eye on the aggro. I have managed to survive most stuff, even if I had to take a hit to my pride, going down from “warrior” to “soldier” in the difficulty. Yet, the bosses! Some bosses & mini-bosses are not that hard, and it is merely a good challenge, but the undead dragon… I had no idea how to beat him fair and square. I had to go down to journalist mode for that one, to my great shame. I can only try so many times before going dungeon crazy myself. The bosses usually got some kind of special mechanic, and when you get the hang of what that is, they are defeatable, but still tough as nails. I highly recommend saving potions for these dudes!

Dungeon loot
There is also loot to collect that will improve a lot of different stats, making you able to build your own little dungeon crew to your heart’s content. On the tank, I focus everything armor, and stuff that gives “parry” and more health. On my damage dealer, I try to get as much critical strike as possible, because when he hits, I want it to hurt a lot. I have been giving my druid gear with haste, so she can spam heal when needed. However, I also focus on crits, since through her talents, she can get critical heal on ticking heals. Very powerful, even if left to the RNG gods. On my mage, I have focused mostly on gear that keeps her mana intact throughout the fight – to keep her damage consistent. I tried with crit equipment on her first, but she pulled so much aggro that she often got taken out early in the fight. It’s not good for the druid to have to keep two alive, either. 

Map
The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians has an auto-map, thank the Lord, even if drawing your own can be charming. The thing is, though: you need to find it first. Some floors had me utterly confused until I located the map. Which translates to finding the map being the best feeling ever, second to beating a tough boss. I’m glad the devs went this way, because when you have it, you more or less follow it to the exit. While without, it’s a mad scramble through the dark with a big focus on memory and exploration. It’s very enjoyable, even when finding the map, since the relief is so great. It’s a nice balance.

What would a dungeon be without puzzles and secrets? Pretty stale, I say, so there are a lot of them too. While I wouldn’t say the puzzles have been that hard so far, the secrets are all very random and scattered. That’s not to say this is a bad thing. It’s just that they can pop up whenever. Usually, there are some hints. If a corridor without an exit looks suspect, it probably is. One wall I came across was even illusionary, and just by pure chance I traveled through it after noticing I couldn’t touch the wall with the pointer. The game has very satisfying secrets. In other words: they always reward your curiosity. One secret even gave me the map to the dungeon floor. Lucky me, I guess!

Conclusion
Unless the game seriously craps out later on, which I doubt, I will give The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians a strong recommendation. It’s that fun, and if you love dungeon adventures, this will most likely be to your liking. Now, I must state again, this is not a full-blown review, but after twelve hours I don’t see much changing. So polish your sword, and dive in while the Steam sale is on!

Thanks for reading, and happy new year!

/Thomas