Arakion: Book One

Arakion: Book One

The game takes the old dungeon crawlers features and takes new mechanics from others games like minecraft or fornite (weapon crafting, town building). Combat is challenging especially in hard dificulty, but if you want to enjoy more from crafting and exploration, or if you are new in this kind of games I recommend you the easy mode. Some features are in developing yet, is an Early Access, but is not a problem for enjoy the adventure (are only aesthetic things in character creation menu).

Character progression its like Final Fantasy X (you have some branches and need shards for increase your stats or learn new skills). You need to craft your own weapons, armor, camp… to progress in the adventure.

Real player with 25.9 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure RPG Games.


Honestly I’m really enjoying the game, its difficult on legend/ironman mode. Loving the crafting, but the stamina in combat kinda irritates me, feels like I spend more time dancing so I dont get beaten to death, while i’m waiting for my stamina to regen. Then I lose out on the bonus xp for moving, at least im guessing thats what the multiplier bar is when you are in combat. The game is amazing in so many ways, but when I keep falling through the ground and either dying or getting stuck, then having to use Mr.Maker, and sac 30% of my shards. it’s pissing me off. If you can get by falling and losing shards at random, or having the permanent debuff that you called upon Mr.Maker. Then buy this, you won’t regret it. If not, wait till its out of early access.

Real player with 22.0 hrs in game

Arakion: Book One on Steam

Crystal Rift

Crystal Rift

**** Key was provided by developer for review purposes ****

This review is of the 0.9.4 version of the game

I used a controller to play through this game

Crystal Rift

Crystal rift is an Indie Dungeon Crawler that shows puzzles, adventure, and creepiness. Currently only act 1 of 3 is available to play through in the story. An interesting aspect of this game is the letters that you find which slowly reveal bits and pieces of what is really going on and what happened beforehand. I will add a TL;DR at the end.

Real player with 4.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure RPG Games.


This is a dungeon crawler game best suited for a seated gaming experience. I think initially I was kinda iffy about it because I wasn’t used to the feeling of moving while sitting still, but a little at a time I was able to get used to it. Also, it helps out a lot to choose the smoothest animation for turning and moving. The game defaults for a smooth walking animation but a jerky turning animation.

The Controls are unfortunately set in stone with no way to change them. The game has you use the left hand controller touchpad to move forward, backward and strafe left and right, and the right hand touch pad lets you turn left and right. This would work great if it wasn’t VR and also if the touchpad was actually 4 separate buttons and not one button with 4 sides you can press.

Real player with 3.5 hrs in game

Crystal Rift on Steam

Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper

Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper

Drawngeon is a traditional dungeon crawler, which is equivalent of a first-person roguelite with 90-degree turns. It takes anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to finish without prior knowledge, but it has some replay value through different characters and achievement hunting. Can I just say that I absolutely love the UI in this game, you can actually point&click in a first-person view and move things into your inventory, also works when you need to drop or give items to the quest giver. You could play with a controller, but I find it a little difficult, so I just played with the keyboard instead. The game has pretty nice settings, including a camera lock and key binding. For the most part it’s a very creative game with fun gameplay, although it falls apart toward the end due to poor balancing and lack of coherent progression.

Real player with 11.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure RPG Games.


Glorious solo-protagonist reincarnation of ancient “Eye Of The Beholder”, only if it was made by a non-DnD fan, in 2018. (and that’a actually how it was)

Unique drawn art style, droning ambience and atmosphere. Creepy twist in the end. No real ending, but probably the only thing that got me qualitatively scared for half a minute. Not an ARG or meta-game, but just a well-executed mind trick.

Not without its flaws, like eventual off-screen teleports or holes in the floor polygons, but maybe that will get patched out eventually. For a game made by 2 self-funded people, pretty impressive.

Real player with 7.0 hrs in game

Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper on Steam

Rob Riches

Rob Riches

One of the best puzzle games I’ve played.

Very high quality and offers decent challenge.

Real player with 14.9 hrs in game

Game plays super smooth and has very interesting and fun puzzles. Definitely recommend it to anyone that loves puzzle games and games with a similar theme, it’s a lot of fun

Real player with 11.7 hrs in game

Rob Riches on Steam

Dungeon Of Dragon Knight

Dungeon Of Dragon Knight

If a casual, grid-based, well-done dungeon crawler would have its standards that every other should follow or be better at - it would have been this one. Everything is done alright in the way we expect from the genre. And it is tasty, and it is good, and it is in a brand new dungeon. Incline!

–-

Simple but not stupid character generation that allows even for experiments such as 4 archers. Good enough real-time “side-stepping” combat. Exploration and finding secrets means meanigful rewards. The atmosphere is very good and brooding. Puzzles are kinda simple but not without the charm (I especially like how they intertwine with traps). Death is not around every corner, but things can surprise you quickly if you don’t pay enough attention. There is very likely no grinding here, all monsters are hand placed - or at least after 10 hrs of gameplay I haven’t encountered a respawning point or whatnot. The same thing goes for the treasures and the only thing that’s random is the gold amount found. You can spend gold in the shop (wo)manned by a lewd, humorous she-shopkeeper ‘:3

Real player with 36.0 hrs in game

SHORT REVIEW.

Dungeon of Dragon Knight is a good solid dungeon crawler. If you like classic dungeon crawlers then this game is definitely for you but if they are not really you’re thing then probably best to give it a miss.

LONG REVIEW.

Dungeon of Dragon Knight is a good solid dungeon crawler with a decidedly “old school” feel despite being quite a modern game. The graphics and sound are up to modern standards and at the time of writing (about 18 months after release) the game is still being supported and updated by the developers.

Real player with 33.3 hrs in game

Dungeon Of Dragon Knight on Steam

Ruzar - The Life Stone

Ruzar - The Life Stone

TL;DR: Its not quite as good as LoG 1/2, but its still good. Graphics and ambient sounds are nice. One thing, the female voice’s “oof” when you get hit bugs me, especially when you get hit with a DoT and it “oof"s every second. MAJOR flaw is theres no alternate weapon sets, making ranged weaps useless - you actually have to go into inven and re-equip everything to switch ranged/melee, suicide since the game doesnt pause in-menu. Combat & magic is simple, the magic system is just a click to cast, instead of runes or whatnot. Still, in a genre that hasnt seen many decent games recently, Ruzar is a breath of fresh air and worth picking up. Longtime fans of the genre will enjoy it, but its also accessible to new players of the genre.

Real player with 73.8 hrs in game

I was really impressed with this game the moment I started playing it. It’s something between LoG and MMX which I loved both so it’s not suprising that I’m very pleased with Ruzar-TLS also!

Pros:

-NPCs

-Quests

-Shop(s) with different approach than usual

-Hard when you begin and before you start figuring out elements of the game since there is no holding hands from the tutorial aside some basics

-Nice and easy UI that helps you in combat, etc.

-Interesting and promising skilltree

-Well thought of using stones/torches etc in the game without going to inventory first and needing to place them in hand to use them

Real player with 52.1 hrs in game

Ruzar - The Life Stone on Steam

Wilbur’s Quest

Wilbur’s Quest

Wilbur’s Quest takes place in a lonely subterranean labyrinth full of puzzles. On your journey you will discover different blocks and how you can interact with them through the various abilities you will collect. Search through this land for a way to the surface using Sokoban mechanics and your wit.

Features

  • Carefully plan your every move with Wilbur’s unique movement controls

  • Collect interesting abilities to help you traverse the underground

  • Discover many unique rooms with different types of puzzles

Wilbur's Quest on Steam

Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant

Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant

The Wizardry series is one of my favorite game series, and Wizardry 7 is my favorite Wizardry game. It is tied with the Complete Ultima 7 for my favorite game of all time. I have been playing it since it was released. I still my original floppy disks and physical manual.

This game is hard. Hard as diamond plated NES water levels. Party balance is important. Grinding is essential. If you try to play without a hint book or without the automap mod (or Gold), then you absolutely have to take notes and make maps. And even then, some of the puzzles and riddles are old school hard and unforgiving. Some, like the Bean Puzzle in Munkharama have never, as far I as could tell, EVER worked properly, and require some amount of luck to figure out. Seriously, Back in the old days, i did the puzzle three times on three different play through and the combination was different each time and none of them matched the clue book.

Real player with 911.3 hrs in game

This game is a true classic.

There was a dark era, long ago. Back when people were required to know a little command line in DOS just to run DOOM. But in this time, there were sick RPGs. RPGs that required you to invest your time and thought into them. Stuff like Ancients, where you had to draw your own maps of cities to navigate them.

Ok, some of that is a pain in the ass. But the point is that era of RPGs (Temple of Elemental Evil, Champions of Krynn, Pools of Radiance, the Xeen saga) were, for the most part, pretty fantastic turn-based exploration games.

Real player with 172.5 hrs in game

Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant on Steam

Bloodwych

Bloodwych

It’s the original Bloodwych! The devs should better explain how the startup options in DOS effect the game load, but otherwise nostalgia at its finest. Happy to donate $7 in the hopes that a remake is on the way.

Real player with 35.6 hrs in game

Absolute must have! If you like to find your path in a giant maze, draw maps to stop being lost, fight monsters and make your party stronger you will love it!

I like how you learn new spells: by sleeping and being visited by some magic faery who makes you choose for your new spells.

An option to remove the (annoying) music would be great but the game is fully enjoyable with no sound (or you can use the “internal beeper” mode to have sfx with no music, but not sure it’s the same sound quality as “Ad lib” mode.

Real player with 28.9 hrs in game

Bloodwych on Steam

Der Geisterturm / The Ghost Tower

Der Geisterturm / The Ghost Tower

Der Geisterturm is a game i could only describe as “hostile”.

It’s a grid-based, first person dungeon crawler not unlike say, Warhammer 40k’s Space Hulk, except you’re piloting a mecha - and i don’t mean the “protagonist” kinda mecha. You’re essentially stomping around in the kinda grunt suit that gets oneshot by the Gundam 5 seconds into a battle setpiece. You know, a Zaku I basically.

Now, while nothing in the game will actually oneshot you, what this means is that combat is often going to be an extremely risky endeavor, as to even have the slightest chance of survival you’re going to have to learn to:

Real player with 16.9 hrs in game

The spin-off sequel to the mecha dungeon crawler Das Geistersciff. Der Geisterturm improves on every aspect of the original title. Like the original game, an emphasis is placed on moving with purpose instead of slowly farming experience for levels. The player must manage limited resources such as ammo and the overall durability of your Robotic Combat Suit through the use of repair stations scattered around the tower. The player also has to worry about the health of the suit’s pilot as durability decreases, putting a heavier emphasis on avoiding enemies and damage whenever possible.

Real player with 16.9 hrs in game

Der Geisterturm / The Ghost Tower on Steam