On the occasion of the release of 0.9.2 of the game, I had the opportunity to test Dungeon Rushers, a game created by spanish speakers based in Luxembourg and Strasbourg that we had discovered a while ago at the occasion of IGP 4 in Lille.
When I launch the game for the very first time, I don't have much of a choice! So I start the campaign mode with playful music and, immediately, the first dialogue prepares me for the offbeat tone of the title. I'm not going to talk about it each time and go into detail on the tasty exchanges between the characters, but there are really pearls. The developers have fun playing around the stereotypes of role-playing games, with the bard speaking in chastened language, the dwarf pleading to advance, the disturbed monsters in the middle of the game and the disturbing witches selling items around a corner of a hallway. .
A quick tutorial explains how it works, based on a principle of tiles. The character moves forward square after square, each time having the surprise of discovering something: watches, a treasure, a trap, a random event (bonus or penalty), a switch, a hidden door ...
There is a choice and everything is randomly generated for even more discovery. Abilities can be launched by characters during this exploration phase, such as discovering adjacent squares or regenerating mana.
If this goes wrong, and the tile turns out to be occupied, a fight is started. There is possibly a dialogue between the enemies and the characters, a table displays the details of the villains, also allowing to possibly cast spells before the attack phase (like the bard who can try to sleep). Then the screen changes:
The fights are resolved in turn, at the top right, it is possible to see the order of passage of each, it is currently the skeleton's turn (enemy) to play on the capture on the right. In the turn of a member of our team, a click on his head allows to choose a spell, then a click on the target launches it. There's a good choice of abilities, melee or ranged, damage or support, magic or poisons, silence or stun. Each character has an equipment management, skills and talents, enough to adapt the characters to his style of play.
Fairly quickly unlocks the craft to create objects useful for characters, equipment or potions. The principle is simple, based on a list of recipes requiring to combine two resources to create an object. To recover components, you must either collect them as loot in the dungeons, or buy them from the witch in the stall.
Each dungeon has an indefinite number of pieces, monsters, traps and crunchy events of all kinds, but the end is always triggered by the discovery of the treasure, whether it happens after 2 tiles or 50 (if you have not really bad luck). Knowing that it is possible to continue exploring the dungeon even after finding the treasure in order to explore everything.
The dungeons are linked, embarking us in a fairly simple story, the whole being presented on a map of the world. Knowing that each dungeon can be explored in normal mode then in heroic mode if you have completed all the challenges (do not use potions, no KOs, kill all enemies ...), adding an important gameplay to the whole game for players looking for challenges and optimization.
In addition, the game integrates a PvP principle with arenas with matchmaking and ranking.
As well as an absolutely awesome building mode where you can create your own dungeon and then share it via Steam Workshop. Over a hundred dungeons have already been created by users, adding even more content to discover!
Truly complete, Dungeon Rushers is an excellent dungeon exploration game in a crazy world that has everything you would expect from a title of this type, although the game has not yet left the status of early access. The only thing that could bother me personally is the graphics, not being a particular fan of pixel art mode. One detail, which did not prevent me from having a great time with Elian, the archer and leader of the group, Thorgrim, the barbarian dwarf and Pod, the sensitive bard. When we know that in addition the title was created by a small team of 3 developers, it would be a shame not to support this project by giving them a chance!
