What is a dungeon crawler from a top-down perspective? Something like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but with grid-based movement! Christoph Minnameier hopes to deliver on this promise of a modern-day dungeon crawler with Dungeons of Dreadrock, inspired by classics like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, and modern favourite Legend of Grimrock. And we won't have to wait long to delve into this dungeon, as the game launches on Switch on 12th May.
Dungeons of Dreadrock sees you travel through 100 bespoke levels within Dreadrock Mountain to save your brother from being sacrificed. You'll find Zelda-esque puzzles within each level, and the little gal you play as even has a green hood!
The focus on these handcrafted levels is key, as the developer has some strong opinions on procedurally-generated dungeons and roguelikes! And hey, there are a lot of those on the Switch already, so we welcome some brand-new experiences! It's perfect for the Switch, too, as you can simply pick up and play the game in short sessions. It makes the dungeon crawling genre a little bit more accessible.
We've grabbed details on the game from its Steam page, where user reviews sit at 100% positive:
"Dungeons of Dreadrock is an adventure game that includes action, exploration and fighting but mainly focuses on puzzles.
"Every year, a young boy is chosen to defeat the King of the Mountain." - only this time, it's your brother. After accompanying him to the Dead King's Gate and letting him enter on his own as advised... Well let's just say things go different from there than the Village Elders expected.
In order to reach the Dead King's crypt to save your brother from being sacrificed you'll need to solve puzzles, evade traps and fight a bunch of enemies. There are scrolls to decipher, levers to pull, floor plates to step on, fireballs to evade, doors to smash or to unlock, and a whole lot of enemies to kill. But while Zombies or Dread Beetles are easy prey, a lot of other creatures from Ogres to Dark Elves, Minotaurs and Dragons will require more than just brute force to be overcome.
Dungeons of Dreadrock basically takes the idea of old-school first-person grid-based real-time Dungeon Crawlers (like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder or Legend of Grimrock) and shifts the perspective to top-down. But what seems like a little twist results in a whole new (yet somewhat familiar) experience that was designed to be accessible for old-school gamers and casual gamers alike."
Dungeons of Dreadrock is already reviewing extremely well on PC, iOS, and Android, and the bite-sized pick-up-and-play nature of the game means it's ideal for playing handheld.
Will you be picking up the game on Switch come 12th May? Let us know in the comments.
[source dungeons-of-dreadrock.com]
Comments 22
I like the look of this. Dungeons of Dreadrock is a great title too. I look forward to seeing how it reviews.
Glad the levels have been hand-crafted. I'd hate to think of programmers using their tongues or something
@sleepinglion Comments section now closed. 😂
One I'm hoping will be picked up for physical release
I disagree with the “Zelda like” descriptor. As they say in their own description, it’s like a top down of the First person dungeon crawlers… in fact, it looks very much like a rogue type game, but without the procedural generated level (and I assume the usual gameplay loop), instead opting for a more Puzzle like approach. It even looked like enemies might wait for you to move first?
Basically, it’s rogue-like, but not using the usual elements that get picked up from rogue.
Looks like fun. As mentioned, refreshing to have a dungeon crawler that isn't procedurally generated. It looks like 100 little combat/puzzle boxes. The visual design isn't totally my thing, but if it's cheap, I'll check it out.
More of puzzle game than a dungeon crawler from the videos I've seen. But, I do like the appeal of the smaller bite size game play.
This looks more like Gauntlet or Solstice than a Zelda game. One to keep an eye on!
I was getting a HeroQuest vibe with it (harking back to the Amiga days)
Take notice devs as that's how you do a trailer!! For that reason I'm now interested in this game.
I have completed it on Android. I liked it. It's not like Zelda. It's like more as a puzzle game and not as action-adventure. It has something that I haven't seen it before in a videogame and I am playing from 80s. In this game you have dungeons as levels and as you progress, in the loading time, it shows in real time the descension from dungeon 1 to x. It's not just a "loading screen, please wait", but it's the real thing. Cool idea. Maybe some other developer could put it in a past game but I didn't know it. Don't expect a long game in hours. It's short but it was very good and it has some tricky puzzles. No spoilers.
The style looks great and interesting puzzle games are always fun; I'll definitely pick this up if it reviews well.
@ChessboardMan Don’t you know - if a game is top down or challenging in any way combat wise, the description will always include Zelda or Dark Souls on this site. It’s very annoying, but they get clicks that way and they don’t care.
The thing about games like this is they will have outstanding presentation and art. They’ll promise to based off classics. You expect something akin to and then better than Zelda or Metroid. always get that.
But when you play them, should they not have been made by a gamergate fanatic of course as nobody should ever give them money. They deserve to fade away from the gene pool ASAP. When you play them they’re oversimplified, tile-based movement instead of fluid control, random dungeons or som crap.
They’re indie so they think they have to add some quirk to it.
Ultimately it’s this: they put so much effort into the hype, into the art, music, sound. Everything has effort stuffed into it. But they don’t put an equal amount of effort and quality into the gameplay. The “quirk” will have more effort than the base gameplay. Even the Starfox games do it now: one good one (Lylat Wars) and the rest are dull and *****. Even it’s main dev knows.
This is the case EVERY time now.
What you seek to do is essentially make Link to the Past or Links Awakening… and make a pretend sequel. But that’s too much for them. They want to make something quirky and it just doesn’t get played. There’s a Gameboy Color styled recent game: Asheron’s Call [totes wrong name soz] and it has one of those ***** awful limited-number of saves function like Resident Evil and it’s typewriter ink. I swear I looked forward to that game so much then found the save thing and never went back to it.
@Mynameishello riiiiiight, ok then...
@ChromaticDracula no its not
@Mynameishello @ChessboardMan @sleepinglion I am 100% with you, there are just too many games that look good but play boring.
I think this looks more like games such as Crypt of the necrodancer, Shinro the wanderer or Pokemon mistery dungeon.
I'm listening, game creator. I'm listening.
It looks really good. I would buy this in physical form for sure.
100 levels? No thanks.
@Mynameishello More like Mynameisschizo. Goobergaters living rent-free in your head in 2022 is a sign of extreme mental illness. Seek help.
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