Dungeon Souls
- December 2, 2016
- Lamina Studios
- 11h median play time
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.
Get on SteamIn the action-adventure roguelike game Dungeon Souls, players must navigate procedurally generated levels filled with challenging enemies and bosses, searching for marks to unlock the escape portal. With 10 unique characters, each with their own abilities, and over 50 passive items to discover, players can experiment with different builds and strategies in their pursuit to survive. Permanent skill upgrades offer deeper character progression, encouraging multiple playthroughs in this Nuclear Throne and Risk of Rain-inspired dungeon crawler.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Great value for money with engaging gameplay.
- Unique character classes and a variety of items enhance replayability.
- Fast-paced action with a mix of roguelike elements makes it addictive.
- Unresolved bugs and frequent crashes hinder the experience.
- Melee classes feel underpowered compared to ranged classes.
- The game can become repetitive and lacks sufficient content.
- gameplay233 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is characterized by its fast-paced, challenging mechanics that blend roguelike elements with dungeon crawling, offering a mix of addictive and frenetic action. While many players appreciate the unique character abilities and engaging visuals, some criticize the gameplay for being repetitive, overly simplistic, or plagued by bugs that detract from the overall experience. Overall, it appeals to fans of retro-style games but may not satisfy those seeking deeper mechanics or a more polished experience.
“I've had more fun with this game than with most games in my Steam library just due to the gameplay and fun mechanics alone.”
“Dungeon Souls is an addictive, chaotic masterpiece that thrives on its breakneck pace, punishing difficulty, and unpredictable gameplay.”
“This game is awesome, the gameplay is varied and fantastic, the devs are putting their full attention to the community, and though it's early access, this game feels like a finished product.”
“As much as I want to recommend this game for its gameplay and design, I find these bugs to be too much to handle to have a good time.”
“$12.99 is too much for this game; there's a lot of annoying bugs, confusing mechanics/features, and an underwhelming amount of content and replayability compared to a ton of recent roguelikes.”
“The game's mechanics are unfairly difficult with little reward to offer in return.”
- graphics120 mentions
- 42 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their vibrant pixel art style and pleasing visuals, which effectively complement the gameplay and music. However, some players note issues with cluttered visuals and occasional graphical bugs, which can hinder gameplay clarity. Overall, while the art style is well-received, there are calls for improvements in quality-of-life features and visual clarity during intense action sequences.
“It's a frenetic action roguelike with familiar, solid mechanics, great visuals and audio, tons of items a la Binding of Isaac, and well-differentiated playable classes.”
“The pixel-based graphics coupled with HD presentation makes for some great eye-candy.”
“This game... what can I say? It's a rogue-like, top-down game with amazing and bright visuals that are eye-catching and with music that is perfectly stunning.”
“Sold as Linux compatible, but serious bugs in sound and graphics.”
“It was 10 hours of fun experience filled with epilepsy-inducing graphics.”
“So - it's another rogue-like hack and slash dungeon crawler with pixel graphics (currently in low quality, that hurts my eyes).”
- music52 mentions
- 46 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its fitting blend of epic and soothing elements, while others criticize it for being repetitive and lacking variety, often featuring only a few sound loops. While some players appreciate the soundtrack as decent and suitable for a dungeon crawler, others find it underwhelming and lacking substance. Overall, the music complements the game's art style, but many feel it could benefit from more quality-of-life updates and a broader range of tracks.
“The music is a strange blend of epic and soothing, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.”
“The art style has a very dark and unique feel to it and to match this is some amazing music!”
“This game...what can I say, it's a rogue-like, top-down game with amazing and bright visuals that are eye-catching and with music that is perfectly stunning.”
“This game is like one of Soulja Boy's songs; it might be catchy, but it is really the beat and the hook, without any substance.”
“- repetitive music (2 sound loops)”
“The game is a black screen with music in the background; so glad I wasted my money on this pile of dung.”
- story52 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The game's story is a mixed bag, with some players finding it enjoyable and well-integrated into the gameplay, while others feel it is weak, obscured, or lacking in depth. There are multiple endings and character progression tied to the narrative, but issues like accidental NPC deaths can hinder progress, leading to frustration. Overall, while the story may not be the main draw, it offers some interesting elements for those willing to engage with it.
“Progression through Merlin's recipes and discovering his story is well thought out.”
“Pretty good story with great music, and to top it all off, a cloud with an adorable face.”
“+ lots of challenging bosses to fight and an interesting story to uncover.”
“The story isn't compelling enough to drive me, and if this mob-clearing repetition is all I have to look forward to for grinding new items and passives, I'm not interested.”
“Worse, doing so taints your save and keeps you from being able to progress through the story on future runs.”
“Imagine getting locked out of the story because you were killing things too fast and didn't select the right option with the NPC who's barely even visible.”
- grinding48 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's progression system requires significant grinding, which can lead to repetitive and tedious gameplay, especially for those aiming to unlock all content. While some players enjoy the grind and find satisfaction in mob clearing, others feel that the lack of variety and compelling story diminishes long-term engagement. Overall, the game appeals to fans of grind-heavy RPGs but may not hold the interest of those seeking a more dynamic experience.
“I had more fun in this game at the beginning as it eventually just becomes repetitive and grindy if you want to 100% all the unlocks/recipes/characters.”
“The story isn't compelling enough to drive me and if this mob clearing repetition is all I have to look forward to for grinding new items and passives, I'm not interested.”
“It had potential, but the gameplay is way too shallow, repetitive, and grindy.”
- replayability48 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while many players find it enjoyable and packed with potential due to upgradable passives and weapons, others note that it diminishes significantly after unlocking all characters and completing the game. Some users appreciate the frequent updates and the promise of new content, but others feel that the repetitive nature of item drops and stat grinding can lead to boredom over time. Overall, the game shows promise for high replayability, especially as it continues to develop.
“It has its balance issues, but it's still great fast-paced fun with lots of replayability.”
“Having upgradable passives and weapons which you can make in the forge gives it a lot of replayability!”
“Very fun game with endless replayability.”
“The replayability runs short once you have beaten the game, upgraded all your passives, and unlocked all the characters.”
“More items; replayability kind of plateaus and gets boring after a while due to the same drops being picked up over and over again.”
“However, at this state, I cannot fully recommend the title because after a couple of hours, the replay value shrinks to a minimum due to stat grinding mechanics.”
- stability42 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its numerous bugs and glitches, with many players reporting issues such as broken controller support, problems with the quicksave feature, and game crashes. Despite some players noting that the developers are actively working on fixes, the overall consensus is that the game's stability is poor, making it difficult to recommend until significant improvements are made.
“Unfortunately, it's very buggy; controller support is completely broken for me.”
“If and when it works, it's great, but it's far too buggy to safely recommend.”
“Unfortunately, this game is still filled with bugs and glitches that haven't been resolved since launch, which won't ever get fixed.”
- optimization20 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has seen improvements, allowing it to run on less powerful PCs and fixing some previous crashes and performance issues. However, local co-op and controller support remain poorly optimized, and users still report occasional bugs and inconsistent performance, particularly on certain systems like Ubuntu. While combat is generally streamlined and well-optimized, the game still faces criticism for its aiming system and overall performance stability.
“The combat in this one is pretty streamlined and well optimized, if simple.”
“- The game was optimized lately, so it can run on even less powerful PCs (my laptop is running this just fine and it isn't that good).”
“Edit: Crashes and performance issues seem to be fixed, changing review back to positive.”
“Local co-op is poorly optimized for split screen.”
“Also, if you plan on using a controller, know that it's very unoptimized.”
“The game is buggy as hell and has some annoying performance issues.”
- humor12 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its amusing voice acting, particularly the giant slime's voice, which has elicited laughter from players. Additionally, the game's 8-bit graphics and the comedic nature of the new characters, Brawler and Engineer, contribute to its overall lightheartedness, making the experience entertaining despite some criticisms of the voice acting quality.
“It was better before, now I just can't stop laughing when I play a boss.”
“When I heard the giant slime's voice, I started laughing so hard.”
“Procedurally generated levels, a lot of loot, lots of enemies, and quite funny.”
- character development6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The game features engaging character design and incorporates RPG-like character development elements, enhancing the overall fun. However, there are significant concerns regarding the balance of character classes, particularly the melee classes, which are perceived as ineffective, detracting from the overall experience.
“It's a shooter - but with RPG-like character development.”
“If you play any of the other classes you'll probably be fine, but the melee classes are so useless, I just can't in good conscience recommend a game with such poor character design.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional response to the game is largely negative, with users expressing frustration over performance issues and gameplay mechanics, which detract from their overall experience. The strong metaphor used highlights a sense of helplessness and dissatisfaction, indicating that these technical shortcomings significantly impact players' emotional engagement with the game.
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers consistently highlight the game's floors as a standout feature, noting their impressive design and contribution to the overall atmospheric experience.
