A cold gust of wind rushes alongside your chissled chin, stirring you from your restless slumber. A pounding starts thrumming at the back of your skull as if it got hit by a blunt object. In the distance you can hear a soft gutteral laughter, but no light shines here in these dark and moist halls. You pick yourself up, finding your broadsword which was laying next to you. Flicking your tongue around your mouth, a loose tooth is detached from damaged gums and spit upon moss covered rocks. Grinning to yourself, you reveal a row of broken and gnarled teeth and mutter “Heck, it’s dungeoneering time…” Yes ladies and gentlemen! Devious dungeon 2 has been released. I snatched this one away before Rafael even had the chance to pick this one up! Where he was enthusiastic over the first Devious Dungeon, I was more skeptical. It cannot be, I thought, that a dungeon crawling game like this would or could be good. I had to see for myself. So after donning on my Dungeoneering hat, and sharpening my blade, I went into this dark castle. And I was NOT prepared for what I found here next… Want to find out what it was? Then read on my dearest readers. READ ON AND SPREAD THE WORD!
- Soundtrack-ish: I’ve got to say, one of the best parts of Devious Dungeon 2 lies in its thematic soundtrack. On each dungeon floor, you’ll be greeted with a different theme and song. Sure it’s always the same song, but the fact that it’s actually good, not annoying and doesn’t sound too repetitive is really an art to accomplish. Furthermore, none of the sound effects feel tacky or not in its place. Sure you could say that it does get kind of repetitive after a while, but that’s only when you binged it for like 4 hours straight… Of which I am totally guilty of (damn you addicting piece of sh…)
- Graphically pleasing: Man I love me some good old fashioned graphics. And Devious Dungeon 2 delivers splendidly. The look, the colors, it all feels fresh and doesn’t look washed out. A lot of love was clearly put into this game and it shows through the smoothness of the gameplay. Almost every enemy type that you’ll encounter looks as he/she or it belongs there. Okay, some enemies get repeated over multiple floors, but hey… you’ll be glad to see some easier targets to kill, further down the line as the difficulty scaling is quite harsh…
- Way too addicting: Mhm… I’ve been known to be very critical over Ratalaika published games. Hell, even when one of my fellow editors (Rafael) said that he really liked the first one, I was quite skeptical. I am proud to admit that I ate my foot after playing Devious Dungeon 2, not only is it intricately put together, but the fun factor is so amazing that I started to play the game around 7 pm, and when I looked up again, it was nearly midnight. Time flies when playing this game, and for that, I really got to applaud it. It kept me away from my current addiction, which is Borderlands 2.
- Customization: A lot of these indie games which have customization abilities for increased stats, like armor or weaponry, have basic visual styles. Sure a little trinket or so might change, but that’s about it. Here?? Each class and upgrade that you buy will visually change your character. One moment you can be running around, looking like a total badass crusader, the other you look like Jason…!
- Glitching: Sadly enough, Devious Dungeon isn’t perfect. There are a few glitches here that make the game more difficult to play. Swords that would hit you even though you were nowhere near anything that COULD hit you. Fireballs that would clip through unclipable surfaces, hitting you in the process. Things like that. I wouldn’t of mind if this happened once in a while, but the swords were an almost constant sure hit. These were swords on a swinging pattern which were attached to blocks. You have to traverse them but you’ll always get hit, no matter how quick that you are. It’s like their invisible hitbox was bigger then what you could see.
- Grindy: People should be warned, there’s an increase in difficulty at a certain point. Before that, I had a few upgrades and was able to run through all of the levels without dying. The moment however that you reach this critical point, progress slows down to a crawl and multiple upgrades will be needed before you’ll be able to proceed. Though you’ll be getting gold quite easily, the amount of items that you’ll be buying to be able to proceed is quite a bit. This, for me, sucked a bit of the fun out of the game. Though it didn’t stop me from playing it!
- Floaty jumping: Are you on the moon? If yes, then the floaty jumping would be normal. Sadly enough, you are NOT on the moon, rather you are on earth where gravity is a thing! Use gravity! At times your jumps will feel like you’re floating further then you were aiming at to land. It isn’t something that always happens, but when it does, you’ll notice it immediately.
- Frame drops: Wauw, if anything you wouldn’t be expecting to see happening in a low-end graphics game, then it would be frame dropping! And unfortunately, they happen quite often. Most often when a lot of particles were appearing on the screen, or when you were hitting multiple enemies at the same time, when their sprites were stacked upon each other. And these result in awkward deaths or hits that you couldn’t see. Also, the screen shaking is just that bit too much over the top! Stop it!
★ Score: 78% Devious Dungeon 2, although not a perfect game, is a sure recommendation to anyone who enjoys these kinds of old-school dungeon crawling games. Though it might be a bit of a stretch for those who have played the first one as well. But I got to say, with cool looking graphics like these and a kicking soundtrack that accompanies this little marvel, dungeoneering won’t feel like a do-over. Even when it does look quite a lot like Devious Dungeon 1.
Developer: Woblyware Oy Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Played on: Xbox One X Also available on: PS4 – Switch
Alexis spent 6 hours exploring the deepest depths of the dark castle
Achievement difficulty for 1000 Gamerscore: 10 hours if you’re lucky
Perfect for: Dungeoneers, old-school action game fanatics.
Xbox Game Store link: Click here