Dungeon Clawler

played Dungeon Clawler way before 1.0 release I wish I could recommend this game, but the balancing is so lacking there are a lot of items you will never use, no matter which character you get (which is a huge downside for a roguelike) another big problem, more personal, not with the game itself but with the development choices: as a completionist, with each update adding like 2 new characters or even completely changing the difficulty system sometimes, it felt like a chore to relearn a game that changed so much we can't use what we learnt before, just to get all the achievements done and when a game feels like a chore, that means it's not a good game p.s.: what do you need a supporter pack for? it's not a free game + there's already an OG Soundtrack DLC damn.

Even though I only played for a little over 4 hours, I still feel entitled to say that this game could be so much more than it is – and I'm already playing after the 1.0.6 release. It still kinda feels unfinished and needs way more refinement and polishing. It really feels more like a $2 Google Play Store game than what the good music and nice artsy comic design portrays this game to be. If you completely turn off the music of all the video trailers and just watch what you see on the screen, that's it. That's the game. You just move the grappler left to right, stop, press space bar, rinse and repeat, that's the game in a nutshell. And even though there are plenty of weapons in the game, as you can see in the trailers, the animations of enemies being hit by different weapons is not different, it's always the same. Nothing special, nothing really captivating. The only good thing is the music and comic art design. The gaming dynamics lack dynamic depth and visual integration. No oomph, no weapon-based individual impact, no real sense of active participation. It's a claw machine simulator, that after 4 hours probably won't make me wanna play this game any longer, because I've pretty much already seen everything the game had to offer. If you compare this game to Brotato, Dungeon Crawler also has 20 stages, with an additional endless mode afterwards, exactly like Brotato. So there are definitely similarities in those two games. The real dealbreaker for me though is just the lengthiness of the playtime in general. It just feels way too lengthy in what you have to do for what you get out of it. The little over 4 hours I played felt more like 6 hours, with around 1 hour being perceived as real in-game satisfaction. Just not enough satisfying stuff happening for the time passing because of the boring repetitiveness of items just being trapped in bubbles, moving through a tunnel over and over again. I bought it for $10 on sale. But it's just worth $5 max for me. I don't expect it to be the next Elder Scrolls, but I hammered 336 hours into Brotato. Comparing that to 4 hours, only lets me assume something is missing, despite the game dynamic differences. It's still a cool game. It's just not worth getting into that deep, because like in Brotato, the depth comes from the difficulty level, which requires more strategic thinking and carefulness. But even with more difficulty, it lacks participation and visual integration. And without those important factors in check, it just feels tedious, repetitive, and lengthy. For example, Brotato really delivers on the feel of accumulation somehow. Acquired items really feel like a trophy you are proud of, because you really own them forever. But in Dungeon Crawler, the acquired items feel more like something that was already there, so that you don't feel it even matters, because the discovery of new items does not equate to the new integration of new items like in Brotato. Instead, they just resemble what you found, that was already integrated. And as a beginner, your senses will be overwhelmed with many items that feel unimportant. Brotato gave beginners the feeling that each and every item is something you wanna have, when in fact later on you realize you should be way more selective. Dungeon Crawler shoots over that sweet spot, or even worse, gives a sense of uncomfortable annoyance for many items, especially with the selection panel only offering a selection of 3 items every round, not 4 like in Brotato. Also, Brotato delivers a combination between skill points AND items. In Dungeon Crawler, you can only choose items. And because this dynamic play between skills and items is completely missing, the only thing you perceive these items to be capable of is attacking. No matter if they have attributes like fire or frost, they still feel the same. Yes, there are items that give bonuses for X-amount of fire or frost stacks on enemies, that make these additional attributes useful, but because there is no skill involved, it's rather a long-term lottery if or when these strategic ideas will play out as a useful individual playstyle, because the feedback loop between item strategy and enemy application relevance is just not closely tied enough together. These are just some, but not all of the many critique points that kill it for me. I won't ask for a refund, because I already played for four hours and hope the developers do something about it. I love the idea behind this game. The framework of this game is perfect, music and comic design are on point, it's just that the practical gameplay design itself is lacking in practical and visual variety and the lack of motivation to strive for something long term. It's not an idle game, doesn't really feel like an action game. But it has strategic elements on higher difficulty levels that still won't satisfy my thirst for a sense of achievement. Idle games give a sense of growth over time – if time passes, it's not a big deal, because something is growing that I won't lose. Action games give a sense of immediate achievement based on the gamer's perceived skill growth. But what is Dungeon Crawler intending to give me? Well, that's where we are at. As of right now, not much. A little strategic reward for way too much time, plus a little visual play around and good music. I mean, for whom that's enough, go for it. But my brain works too fast for how much entertainment this game is able to give me. And I say that as a hobby critical thinker with most of my Steam library consisting of puzzle games. It was a nice but tedious 4 hours, with huge favorites but also major negatives. Just watching the trailers and pictures over and over again for 30 minutes would have done the same job, tbh. Again, it's an amazing framework. But please, this is only a half finished game. You guys can do WAY better! We need a 2.0 release asap, there is still so much work to do. It COULD be the next biggest hit worth over $20, with an enormous fan base. It's just sad to see so much potential being framed as a 1.0 release.