Video Game Review: Desktop Dungeons (PC)

I wake up at 3 a.m., my heart racing. In my mind, I have just thought (or perhaps dreamt of) the solution to a particular puzzle that I had no luck on the previous couple of days. While trying to keep my brain focused on this solution, I boot up my laptop, launch Desktop Dungeons, beat that puzzle and then proceed to play it for another 3 hours because I can (and I am already awake anyway).

Desktop Dungeons is a game that I waited far too long to get, and now it is one of my favourite games. Rogue-like in it's delivery, Desktop Dungeons has 2 parts. Similar to games such as X-Com: Enemy Unknown, there is the base building part where you purchase and upgrade structures, and then there is the dungeon raids. The dungeon raids are played on a square-tiled board (similar to chess) where you move your hero around and kill monsters, gain experience, beat the dungeons boss, and escape with gold.

It is in these dungeon raids where Desktop Dungeons really shines. Each and every dungeon can be thought of as a puzzle. At the beginning, you always start with a level 1 hero of a class and race that you have chosen. Your goal is then to collect loot and gain experience until you are at a high enough level to take on and defeat the boss. There are no pathways to take or orders given, and nothing comes free in a raid. For example, you only regenerate health and mana when exploring new areas, but you want to keep areas unexplored to heal from high level monsters and monsters also heal when you are exploring. It is entirely possible to be at the end of a dungeon in a no-win situation with the boss despite having killed everything else in the dungeon due to poor resource management.

The games art-style is also a winner. Every hero is drawn in an overly cartoony way, and this extends to the villains and monsters as well. The dialogue is written very cleverly and with a very tongue-in-cheek attitude. This gives the game a very light-hearted look (which helps when you are on your fifth attempt at a certain dungeon) which hides the complexity of the game a little bit. Like allot of classic games, Desktop Dungeons is easy to learn but very hard to master.

If you doubt this, try playing it for a few (successful) dungeon raids then watch a friend start playing. As all their little mistakes add up to create an unwinnable situation, I challenge you to keep your mouth closed.

5 out of 5 booby-trapped waffles lying on my desktop.