Dungeon Fray is a fast paced roguelike game for Windows and Linux. The game features three playable classes, randomly generated levels, turn based combat and unlockable achievements and perks.
Game Information:
Name: Dungeon Fray
Released: March 10th 2013
Developer: Nitesh of UbuntuVibes
Rating: 7/10
Hardware Specifications:
Processor: AMD A10-5800K
Video Card: Nvidia 650ti
Memory: 8GB DDR3
System Specifications:
Distribution: Ubuntu 12.10 64bit
Graphics Driver: Latest stable
Desktop Environment: Cinnamon with compositing
Dungeon Fray is described as a fast paced roguelike game for Windows and Linux so it's time to put it to the GOL test. For this review I chose the Fighter class since it's what i generally go for in most forms of RPG's as I just like to get in close to the action!
The start of the game reminds me a bit of Dungeons of Dredmor with it's perks system but it's done in a different way. In Dungeon Fray you unlock perks with score gained in game so to start with you can't actually pick any - sounds like a good idea and I like games where I can unlock things rather than being spoon fed so this appeals to me greatly. The perks themselves seem quite decent as well with the most useful being "Revive" where you can come back to life once.
The game itself for me is a little different than others I have played in the genre, for starters you don't go around finding ways to get to other floors, to be able to get to other sections of the map you need to actually kill all the monsters in the current area which makes sense.
When you get properly into the game the first screen is just a little starters guide and all very straight forward, Left click to move and attack or use WASD/Arrow Keys to move.
Graphics
The graphics in the game itself are very flat (which isn't a bad thing) and pleasant to look at. As we all know gameplay > graphics so I will talk about the actual gameplay more since it's more important.
Performance
The performance was perfect, not surprising though considering it's a very simple 2D graphics system so no issues their at all!
Gameplay
The game itself is very very simple due in part to the fact that you are the only thing that moves, all monsters are static which to me initially removed part of the fun of it sadly since there's no chance of "oh crap i've been cornered!".
I spoke to Nitesh previously when I tested an older build of the game to ask about the monsters and he said it's part of the point, the game is designed to be much more chilled out than others in the same genre. With that in mind I did enjoy it a bit more since I sat back and relaxed while playing.
When you level up it's a pretty standard thing for an RPG, you get coins, more health and your health resets which was quite useful when I was attacking with low health.
The game itself isn't actually that easy even on the first level I was close to death, although I think that's because I thought I could take on a level 4 monster while being level 2...
After playing some more of the game I found it to actually be quite difficult even on the first area, although after a while I did really impress myself by killing a monster with 1 HP on my character and to my excitement I unlocked an achievement by doing that, cool!
The main problem I find with the game earl on is it for me doesn't seem possible to get past the first area without perks, since a good 3rd of the monsters are too high a level and deal too much damage. Luckily that achievement I got earlier gave me a boat load of points to unlock a perk to make me stronger, this enabled me to kick ass on the first area and get to the second!
Overall I give the game a 7/10 as I did find it quite enjoyable but it didn't blow me away. With that in mind it's price of $6.99 seems reasonable but for around $5.20 you can get Dungeons of Dredmor which includes much more content so when comparing it to that it does seem a little steep. Although you should pay for the enjoyement not to compare it to other games so the choice is yours.
Considering the game is still early on in it's life, I expect it will gradually get more and more awesome over time.
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