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The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians, a surprisingly great dungeon crawler

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If you like first-person dungeon crawling, I seriously suggest you take a look at The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians.

Some thoughts
I was told about it a while ago from a user here, but I didn't get time to ask the developer for a key. Luckily, the developer sent us one in anyway so I was happy to check it out.

I do love dungeon crawlers, as I started playing them many years ago on the Amiga, so I have a pretty good history with them and understand them. They aren't my favourite genre, but I do enjoy playing the different variations of them.

There's a fair few people comparing it to Grimrock which isn't surprising, as it's one of the newer games in the dungeon crawler genre, but I've been enjoying this game a lot more. I think my enjoyment is better in The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians as it has a better emphasis on the combat of the game.

The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians combat system is actually rather good, it's real-time with pausing which allows you to queue up spells and do whatever else you need. You will really need to use it too, as your "tank" character can end up taking quite a beating.

I decided to go as a mage for my own character, and you can customize the characters your are placed with, but I decided to go with the default. This turned out to be a reasonable choice, as I had a damage and a healing mage, and tank to take a bunch of damage and another general fighter. So, I think I ended up with a pretty balanced squad. You get to unlock more skills later on, so the combat will become a bit more varied too!

What I am also surprised at is the performance, with everything cranked up to max it's screaming along at well over 100FPS. That's excellent, and from and Indie team that's quite brilliant. I get that it's easier to have a good FPS when you're in smaller spaces like this, but it's very smooth so I'm still impressed.

The one thing missing from it is voice acting, if they managed to get that in I would probably like it even more. It's not a deal breaker though, as the dialogue is usually quite short to allow you to keep moving on.

Final thoughts: Really liking it. The combat is great and intense and it really stands on its own in the genre.

About the game
The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians is an RPG Dungeon Crawler game, in First Person View, inspired by classics like Dungeon Master™ and Might & Magic®, but featuring a modern combat system based on the triptych “tank/damage dealer/healer” mechanism.

You’re a newly employed guard of a prison deep inside a dungeon. The night of your arrival, strange things happen and when you wake up in the morning, all prisoners have escaped amidst chaos. The warden wisely decides to leave the dungeon as quickly as possible, while tasking you to run after the escaping prisoners. You then assemble your team and venture into the mysterious dungeon.

Enter a big, massive dungeon, full of danger, mystery and secrets.
Fight your way through hordes of enemies and powerful creatures.
Explore intricate corridors, underground palaces, mines fallen into oblivion and evil crypts.
Solve puzzles, avoid deadly traps, uncover hidden passages, and keep your bearing through mazes & hallways.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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21 comments
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Keizgon Dec 5, 2015
I actually was scouting around and found this game earlier (put on wishlist). Considering Legend of Grimrock 2 isn't going to arrive (developers show no enthusiasm) and it is claimed to be different / improved on, might be a nice successor.


Last edited by Keizgon on 5 December 2015 at 10:30 pm UTC
Plintslîcho Dec 6, 2015
Wow, never heard about the game before. Looks very nice indeed.
Reminds me a lot of Grimrock. But the possibility to pause the game in combat makes it much more interesting to me.

I'll keep an eye on this and may pick the game up when it becomes available in other stores such as GOG.com as well.
Julius Dec 6, 2015
Have been playing this the last couple of days. The performance is very good indeed.

It feels much more "old-school" than Legend of Grimrock, in the sense that you really have to do micro-micro management of the combat already at medium difficulty levels and that there are quite frustrating difficulty spikes with the boss enemies (but you can lower difficulty the in the menu).

And while it is relatively light on story, it's kind of tongue in cheek and has a dry humor to it :)


Last edited by Julius on 6 December 2015 at 2:38 am UTC
adolson Dec 6, 2015
Yeah, I love this game! The dev is very responsive, and keeps patching fixes and features. Several of my own requests were even added, such as the ability to increase the font and to leave the GUI up when picking up items (to allow quick equipping). He also fixed a bug I had and is currently investigating another (edit: just got word he found the problem and the fix will be in the next update!). I bought the game at full price, and don't regret it one cent!

I also put together a Steam Controller config for the game, which I think works extremely well. It's shared to the community, and I put the full details here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/409450/discussions/0/496881136910319016/


Last edited by adolson on 6 December 2015 at 4:36 am UTC
neowiz73 Dec 6, 2015
yeah, i have this in my top 5 on my wish list. pretty certain I will end up grabbing it in the next few days.
Pit Dec 6, 2015
Quoting: PlintslchoI'll keep an eye on this and may pick the game up when it becomes available in other stores such as GOG.com as well.

On the Game website you can buy it from the developers for direct download, w/o needing Steam :D
drarem Dec 6, 2015
Saw a stock unity asset the flying eyeball. Haha
inlinuxdude Dec 6, 2015
Quoting: GuestThis game looks good, good but not as awesome as Wizardry 8, which I would consider the god of oldschool dungeon crawlers. (I mean it's the last official title in the series that officially inspired the JRPG genre, one of if not the very first turn-based combat RPG, I really wish Sirtech was still aruond, I'd love me some Wizardry 9)

In college, I bought a Wizardry I-VI bundle, that my friends and I immediately set into finishing... Yah, that pretty much ruined my first attempt at college. We'd play for days straight at times (classes? classes? what are those?)... Good stuff.
Nezchan Dec 6, 2015
QuoteThere's a fair few people comparing it to Grimrock which isn't surprising, as it's one of the newer games in the dungeon crawler genre, but I've been enjoying this game a lot more.

I'd personally compare it to Grimrock because the environments look almost exactly like Grimrock in quite a few places. Hell, that one bit at 0:46 where they press a hidden switch could easily be lifted directly from the earlier game. Other environments and how the camera moves look so similar that I thought from the start that this was just a mod of the original Grimrock with a few tweaks in how the party is handled.
sigz Dec 6, 2015
Combats are still a bit confusing, not easy to monitor skills cooldown while keeping an eye on enemies casts... That's pretty difficult.
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