Quick Review: Quest of Dungeons

“Hey! It’s not a reconnaissance mission if you aren’t following me in there! Screw you guys, I’m going home.”

Remembers: Warriors linear, wizards quadratic.

Quest of Dungeons is a game by David Amador and was released on March 25th, 2014. Four RPG adventurers – a warrior, a wizard, an assassin and a shaman – must rescue someone or retrieve some item from some dark overlord… or something. The plot matters very little here, so minimal effort is given to it on purpose. Pick your character, then the game starts with the four adventurers around a campfire… with the other three sending your guy on his own into the dangerous dungeon, the bastards. Where’s my respect?

If I survive and come back, I'm
gonna slaughter you all.

Dungeons in this game are procedurally generated. No counting on knowledge of the map to move around. You can move with the arrows (and attack enemies by walking into them) or can click a square in the visible area to go there. I’ve found that the first means of moving was more practical because the character will keep moving until they get to their destination if you use the mouse, limiting you from doing anything else until movement is over.

My field of vision is limited, but I've got that
trusty mini-map up there.

Skills! Make sure to use them!

Since the dungeon is procedurally generated, so are the enemies, items, and everything else you can encounter. You never know what will appear in the next room: Could be nothing, could be a shop, could be a barrage of enemies, or it could be a boss… Some doors might be locked, and since you get keys at random, you also might not be able to open them. Often, you’ll stumble on a quest stone with a quest that you can complete. The quest is at least nice enough to indicate in which area of the current map said quest can be completed. Your other focus? To gain levels, as quickly as possible, as things get more dangerous the lower you go. Plus, like I said, you never know when you might stumble on a boss.

There's only two types of quests: "Find item X"
or "kill new spawn boss Y".

Each character class has its own set of abilities, skills and equipment, which you can improve from random drops. You can even learn skills through books you can find. You can use items and trigger skills using the mouse on the screen, which is a tad awkward at times. Need to replenish your health with a chicken leg? Need to use that special power, like, right now? Hope you can select it in time while assaulted by enemies left and right. Oh, and sometimes, said enemies will drag you around the screen.

As usual for a roguelike, part of the interest is in learning the game and working with whatever you find in order to progress through the dungeon, all the way to the end. The game has four difficulties: Easy, Medium, Hard and Hell. It also has four dungeons, and you unlock a new one after beating the previous.

Maybe if I'm not so lucky with the warrior,
I'll try the wizard- aaaaaaaand ded.

Maybe with the shaman... no! Don't all gang
up on him! Me and my luck, we don't fare
well in roguelikes.

The 16-bit graphics and music help give it a retro-like feel. The various mechanics add a slight tabletop feel to the dungeon crawling as well, from secret stashes of items, portals, to each of your moves mattering as you explore (especially once ranged attackers and spell casters begin appearing). It’s nice that you can do everything with the mouse, though it makes moving kinda bothersome (though I assume it’s to make the game playable on mobile, as it’s also available on app stores). If you decide to move with the arrows, you still need to select items and skills with the mouse and it makes things a bit wonky when dealing with multiple opponents at once. The tone is a bit on the jokey side… whenever there’s dialogue, anyway, since the plot doesn't really matter. All in all, a pretty cool idea, though it doesn’t offer much to make itself feel unique like the more popular roguelikes out there.

Quest of Dungeons is available on Steam for 4.99$ USD.