I'm writing this review after about 5 hours of play time.
This game has received a fair amount of negative criticism. I read the criticism before buying Ourboros Dungeon. Much of the criticism is well deserved, but I'm still giving the game a thumbs up as I still enjoyed it and think it has potential if the Saulo expands on the game a bit.
Before I get into what I like about the game I want to echo some of the criticisms mentioned:
Space God mentions "Unfinished...None of the traps or other map features do anything." Not being able to break objects is a bummer. At one point I got "stuck" in the middle of a broken table (broken already in the game) and wasn't able to break my way out (I found a way, but it took a bit of movement, and I never ended up in a table after). There are what appear to be traps (the spikes coming out of the floor), but they're already activated and you just go around the other side where it looks like spikes might shoot up (but they never do). Several areas have rooms where it looks like you might be able to jump across onto a grate to go elsewhere, but this isn't possible in the current game.
bdN mentions "I didn't feel a sense that I was getting more skilled at fighting, only that I was selecting my gear better and knowing which enemies to avoid." This is also exactly my experience after levelling up to level 36.
About 5 minutes after starting the game I was tempted to quit and just get a refund. While I agree with everything above the biggest problem this game has is that there's no explanation of what keys do what. I walked around for 5 minutes trying to click on things to pick them up. I tried a bunch of keyboard keys, but somehow missed that the "E" key is used to pick objects up. After browsing the forums I figured it out, but I don't think any game should just assume players will know all the keys. I feel like the Controls menu option should let you remap the keyboard keys, and if not, there should at the very least be something in the menu that indicates all the keys (controller options) that can be used in the game:
WASD - movement
E - pick up objects
TAB - inventory (which is just shown, you can't actually do anything with it)
right mouse button - attack
Also it shouldn't be assumed players will play with a controller.
One more thing I want to point out is that the great graphics in this game are as Rirey points out in his review of Pipocation Games' other game Titan Nebula, an "asset flip." The graphics are an asset pack in the Unity game engine asset store. This doesn't matter to me as long as I enjoy the game, but it may matter to some.
Now for the positive stuff:
I felt the game improved after I reached level 20. I used wands for most of the game, and around level 20 some of the wands that dropped added the ability for my attack to bounce from one monster to the next, letting me do damage to several monsters at once. This wasn't an automatic attribute on every wand after level 20. Some wands had the ability for the attack to bounce to one other monster, others to several other monsters.
After the wizard enemies started to appear I noticed that healing hearts also occasionally appear, but there doesn't seem to be a pattern to exactly when they drop. The healing hearts were an unexpected surprise because I'd played so long without any sign of a healing mechanism. I can understand early players rage quitting since there's no early healing mechanic.
I think someone mentioned in a discussion post about the "green blobs" that sometimes spawn on top of you. The slimes/blobs are the first monsters I encountered in the game. I found they didn't spawn on top of me until level 20+ and they seem to only do this when a wizard is right around the corner. In other words, the wizard spawns the blobs in addition to the wizard's ability to shoot fireballs (the same effect as the dragon). I noticed this, but I can see how someone might think it's a random event since often the wizard can be in a different room close to the player and spawn the slimes/blobs on top of the player. Again, this is where there could be some sort of menu option in the main menu that explains some of the monsters... though even if it was explained in some long discussion post it would be helpful.
I appreciate the fact that Saulo is a solo indie developer working on this game in his spare time, and that the price of the game is low (I got it 35% off on the Steam summer sale, but felt that I still would have paid the full price). While I'm a bit concerned that he might just keep doing asset flips, given that Titan Nebula was released 9 days after, my hope is that both games see a bit more development.
I also appreciate that Saulo didn't just make this a "Windows" only game. While I could run this using Proton I'm adding a +1 for releasing the SteamOS/Linux version. One minor difference I noticed playing under Xubuntu (vs playing under Proton on Xubuntu) is that the sword cursor appears to be double the size of what it is under Windows/Proton. It doesn't make much of a differences as I ignored it through most of the game play.
Another mechanic I like is the fact that when you die, you can re-spawn, but you lose the progress towards your next level. So if you're level 19 and you die, the experience you gained on the way to level 20 is lost when you re-spawn. When you re-spawn you start in the same room you started in at the start of the game. Some might see this as a negative, but I like the fact that I don't re-spawn right where I died. I'm glad 10 monsters are not bearing down on me after I'm revived, but I can see some might feel this is a shortcoming.
The options that are available in the main menu are well implemented.
I ran into a small technical glitch in that if I brought up the inventory then quit to the main menu my inventory appeared on the main menu (and tab does not work on the main menu to get rid of the inventory).
I like this game, but yes, I can see how a lot of people would feel it needs more work.
