Dungeon of the ENDLESS™

[b]Do not buy this game in 2026.[/b] This used to be one of my favorite games of all time. It's addicting, has unlocks, and can be played in microsessions if you're short on time. Gameplay wise, it's a fantastic game. But the devs completely abandoned this game in favor of the not-nearly-as-good "Endless Dungeon" game. They have not released a 64-bit client for the game, and with more and more game platforms and OSes dropping 32-bit app support, it's only a matter of time before this game will no longer be playable on modern hardware. If you have a machine that you plan to keep around and run games on and never ever update, yeah, buy this game. It's a real delight. But if you have a modern mac, for instance, or are worried about what new things Microsoft will disable in some random upcoming Windows OS release, don't bother until the devs finally get off their butts and release a 64-bit update.

You know what's funny about this game? It's like that perfect first date where everything clicks - absolutely brilliant at first glance, promising something spectacular. Then by date four, you realize they tell the same three stories on loop and their personality is as deep as a puddle. That's exactly what Dungeon of the Endless is like, and I'm not even joking. The graphics? They're proper retro, like my first haircut – all pixels and rough edges. The mechanics are clever, the resource management is fresh, and there are even some puns that'll make you exhale slightly harder through your nose. For the first few hours, you'll feel like you've discovered the next big thing in gaming. But here's where it all goes wrong, like a house of cards during an ill-timed sneeze. You keep diving deeper into the dungeon, and it's the same song and dance, just with beefier monsters. It's like watching your favorite movie too many times - eventually, you start mouthing all the dialogue and wondering if there's anything good on the other channels. The game's got more issues than a celebrity weekly magazine. The map - sorry, "tactical overview" (because apparently "map" wasn't fancy enough) - is about as clear as a foggy morning in London. You can't see where the important bits are, and the debuffs? They're like those warning labels on furniture - you know they're important, but nobody can tell you exactly why or for how long. And don't get me started on the operating mechanics. It's like trying to carry a full cup of tea across a newly polished floor - one wrong move and your carefully planned strategy goes completely to pieces. One misclick and everything you've worked for vanishes faster than free food at an office party. Should you buy it? Well, that depends. If you're the type who likes to try new things and doesn't mind a brief fling with a game, go for it. It's like speed dating - fun for a bit, but you wouldn't want to make it your whole evening. But if you're looking for a long-term relationship with a game that'll keep you coming back for more? Save your money and buy a goldfish instead - at least it'll react when you tap on the glass. [i]This review was written while contemplating why we keep playing games that make us question our entertainment choices.[/i]

Unfortunately, since what appears to be the last official update of 2023, the game tends to randomly crash between levels, invalidating the "silent" saved game, thus preventing you from "continuing" when relaunching the game. This renders the entire game frustrating, to say the least, especially taking into account that these crashes happen on ALL platforms. Many messages seem to have been sent to the devs, but no response has come to this day. I do love the game and have spent 300+ hours in it, but today I'm afraid it's not a good choice to invest in, unless the devs finally make a move. :(

One night we decided three of us would play and man, we had a blast. It was just the right amount of strategy and action and fun.... Then the entire thing crashed, and we lost HOURS of progress. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER EVER AGAIN. I can STILL hear the disappointment in my friends voices. No save, nothing, just game over because something happened between the connections. So no, save your money.

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首先，为了帮助由于没有英文而苦于上手的朋友们，咱在本篇评测下方写些关于快速理解游戏机制帮助上手的内容，有需要的可查看完整评测，拉到下方阅读。 ==========↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓========== 测评部分 ==========↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓========== 这是一款制作非常精良的，可单人可支持2-4人联机游玩的，以探索和逃离随机生成地牢为主的，roguelike回合制策略游戏，带有轻角色养成和塔防元素，而且非常具有反复重玩的价值，且联机体验也很好（咱跟好友联机从上手到通关12层没掉线过，steam裸连的），但不建议乃多人游戏世界频道里直接加歪果仁的主机，因为大概率不是被踢就是掉线。 如果大家都时间充足，在理解了游戏基础机制玩法的前提下，一个晚上花几个小时从一层到通关是绝对没有任何问题的。 硬要说游戏的缺点的话，咱觉得有这几条： 1.支持语言太少；2.游戏UI缩放比例太小，导致即便用了汉化也可能由于UI缩放的问题不好显示字体；3.虽然游戏机制很简单，但游戏内开局却几乎没引导，加上是永久死亡性质的，导致很多耐心不足的玩家GG几次后就不想玩了。 ==========↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓========== 下面写些帮助上手的 ==========↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓========== 游戏规则介绍：游戏共12层，每一层出生点均有一颗核心（初始默认飞船是个水晶的样子，在角色出生的那个房间内，可以搬运），要找到该层的出口，并将核心搬运到出口处方可逃离该层进入下一关，切换关卡统计时会自动存档。 关于搬运核心逃离要注意两点，一是在发现该层迷宫出口前，不要搬动核心，搬起来后该角色不能攻击，移速大幅降低，且会不断刷新敌人；二是搬运核心到逃离点撤离前观察队友是否到齐，等到齐了再点撤离，否则没到的队友会被落下，进入下一关时自己的角色会算作逃离失败而导致无角色可用（但不用担心，队内有多的角色时，主机可分配角色给队友，左上角靠右第三个），只有搬运核心的玩家才能下令大家撤离，要等撤离按键变成绿色，显示到齐再撤离。 基础机制介绍：左上角会显示4种资源，橙色齿轮零件、蓝色科研点数、绿色食物、黄色能量币（没错，玩过群星;つД｀)）。 先说最重要的黄色能量：就是电力，只有通电的房间才可以建造模组，同时通电的房间不会刷新敌人，未通电的房间随着回合推进可能会随机刷新敌人；(何谓回合推进？当乃打开一扇门时，可算作推进了1回合，左上角各种资源产能+几的意思表示的都是开门时资源+几，回合制策略要素主要体现在电力分配布置上)。 橙色齿轮：建造各种模组用的，（塔防要素主要体现在此）建造模组以生产各类资源，或者增强自身减弱敌人的各类防御塔。 蓝色科研点：当探索房间遇到升级水晶时，可用积累的科研点挑选随机刷到的模组进行升级，模组升级后可增加各类资源产量、防御塔模组升级增加伤害。 绿色食物：升级自身角色、战斗时紧急治疗角色时用，虽然角色等级很重要，但相较于其它资源来说权重较低。 另外，探索房间时会遇到NPC商人，商人会随机要求乃支付某一种资源来购买装备，可能是齿轮科研点食物，也可能是电量（看着像金币），当支付电量购买装备，会相应扣除乃的最大电量（满10点换算作1格电量，取舍算整数），电量不足时乃最后建造的通电房间会自动断电，这点要注意。 关于操作角色：角色定位各有不同，技能也不相同，但升级都需要食物，搬运核心建议让速度最快的角色来，如果让慢速角色搬运会很容易暴毙。由于游戏角色比较多，关于角色技能和解锁条件这里就稍微提议下好了，不展开说了。 每个角色就俩技能，要升级后才会逐渐解锁技能，等解锁后实际用个几次就知道技能效果了。新角色解锁条件一般都是当局游戏遇到并加入该角色后，完成游戏后该角色会变得可加入。 角色的血量如果足以支撑到当前战斗结束，尽量不要吃食物紧急恢复（快捷键是H）。 联机模式下，多余的装备可通过，按I后，点击上面装备，再点击下面空位，从私人背包移到共享位置，共享后队友可获取装备。 关于安全撤离每一层，通关游戏的窍门： 通过探索合理分配资源，尽可能多的积累富裕电力，最终构建起一条尽可能安全搬运核心到撤离点的通电照亮的通路。 其余的也没什么非常重要的了，当然评测里写这些并不是完整的游戏攻略，仅仅是想帮一些苦于没有中文又想体验上手的朋友，咱第一次和好友联机的时候也是什么都不懂，差不多玩个一小时左右，全灭几次后，就能逐渐上手了。 如果上面写的有哪些看不懂的，建议先玩着游戏，边玩边看，就能理解了。希望大家能有耐心体验下，仅仅是因为游戏没中文就给差评确实欠妥，毕竟这都10多年前的游戏了，个人玩下来感觉还是很有意思的，而且和之前玩过的合作类塔防策略游戏相比确实也很有特色。('ω')ノ祝大家新年快乐、顺利通关~

The game have everything to be awesome, but have two major problems: 1-difficulty scaling: The game is easy, until it isn't. You start gathering resources and building defences holding just fine. So you decide to open one last door, suddenly appears an impossible to defeat wave. So you wasted hours of gameplay just to learn the game (with no progression), wich I'm okay with it, I have played hard games before, but I know this is a turn off for a lot of people. 2-The game don't give you the necessary tools. And here is what made me do this negative review: I learned, now I prepare a decent defense and get the better modules. But in the last floors, the game refuses to give dust, wich is the energy necessary to power the defenses. I won the 10 floor with only 30 dust and the luck of finding the exit quick. And then in the 11 floor, the game don't give me dust, most rooms are useless empty spaces and when I can finally breathe, the game debuffs me and deactivate my only 2 rooms with defense. So I have to defeat hughe waves with only my skills and my nerfed heroes, given that I was already barely holding it. I had 200+ of every other resource, I burned science and food to survive, but there's a limit to that. If the game is a tower defense, give us the damn defenses options. The difficult is so frustating because its easy and then the game decides to give you the middle finger out of nowhere. In case you still want to play the game, get it on a sale. The core gameplay is fun, specially with friends. But as I said, things can go sideways really fast. Even with good decisions, the rng can screw your run so beware.

Вже маю негативний та докладний відгук на іншу гру в серії - ENDLESS™ Legend, тому тут розпишу мінімально, от аж настільки вона мене втомила. Уявіть собі суміш процедурально генерованого підземелля та захисту вежами, де все абсолютно одноманітне, а події (якщо появу торговців та ресурсів можна назвати "подіями") - довільні. Візуально гра гарна, але додайте до одноманітності вище 13 поверхів, які відрізняються приблизно нічим, а пройти треба всі 13, що десь від 2-3 до 6-7 годин. А тепер ще додайте те, що все таке-сяке цікаве в грі (штибу нових членів команди та ядра, яке диктує режим конкретної гри, відкривається через досягнення штибу "пройдіть всі поверхи, жодного разу не поставивши гру на паузу"... Перші кілька годин мені було прикольно, потім я грав просто щоб дограти (збереження тут лише одразу з виходом з гри й перезавантажити його, раптом щось пішло не так, не вийде), на спробі відкрити ще якесь ядро я здався, побачивши вимоги, бо, як і згадана мною інша гра в ції серії (вони типу пов'язані двома реченнями сюжету), Dungeon of the ENDLESS™ абсолютно не береже ваш час. Наскільки я люблю втичити в біганину маленьких людиськ, але навіть на мій смак це просто жуйка для рефлексів, мозок фактично не задіяний.

Do not buy this, game crashes on modern hardware. Huge shame. Devs abandoned the game.