DungeonLand is an easily misunderstood game. I don't necessarily blame its publisher or marketing department, but perhaps its just the gaming mindset today. At first glance it's easy to mistake it for an Action RPG in the same vane as Diablo or Torchlight, but as we learned from our interview, DungeonLand has more in common with Gauntlet than the aforementioned titles. After putting several hours into the title, I can easily see that reference, but there's other inspirations there including hints of Smash T.V. and a model of unlocks that feel similar to free to play titles. The biggest draw though isn't necessarily the nostalgia, but just how well the game's characters work for co-op play.
There's no huge overarching story in DungeonLand, instead there are different theme parks to choose from, each with their own motif. The entire feel of the game is a bit silly and the bright colors and over the top character and enemy design accentuate that. Even the music and sound effects are a bit goofy, so it's obvious the game isn't taking itself too seriously.
While there's not a huge difference between the parks themselves, there is a nice variety. One level focuses on animal creatures with enemies ranging from bees to monkeys while another is more fantasy based with orcs and fat purple dragons making an appearance. The levels are broken up into sub-missions, two areas you need to traverse and then a boss area. To clear each section of a mission you'll need to kill all the enemies and the enemy spawners. Along the way you'll be smashing crates and barrels and picking up plenty of loot like gold coins, gems, and other goodies.
There are three classes to choose from in DungeonLand - Mage, Warrior and Rogue - but in saying so you are only getting one third of the story. The characters themselves actually have unlockable sub classes, yielding different play styles for the roles they'd typically fill. The Mage can subclass himself into a Fire or Ice mage for example, or the Rogue can choose to wield a gun or a bow instead of the normal throwing daggers. There's trade-offs here that becomes immediately apparent, especially in co-op play. For instance if you mix the knife throwing Rogue with an ice Mage; the Rogue's throwing knives combined with the Mage's ice wall will take on the properties of that element, freezing enemies in the process. These elemental combinations can help greatly with crowd control, which is crucial for survival in DungeonLand.
So while the combat system of DungeonLand seems simple at first, with a basic attack, potion based skill and a secondary skill that's limited by a power gauge, it quickly becomes deeper as you combine the classes together and support each other. There's an additional layer added by using the gold you've collected to unlock active and passive abilities for your character. For instance, while the Mage normally has a temporary ability that makes a person invulnerable for a short period of time, you can unlock the ability to heal instead - completely changing up the dynamic of play.
The combat in general is fairly intense and the strategy of the situation usually comes from supporting each player and taking out the monster spawning devices as fast as possible. While it's a fairly rinse and repeat scenario through most of the combat situations, there are times the game mixes things up. A few sections lock players into an arena and for them to face off against waves of enemies. Some areas actually add some vehicles like dinosaurs and tea cups with razer blades, and there are items to pick up you can chuck at enemies like barrels, sheep, and exploding frogs. Did I mention this game doesn't take things seriously? Finally randomly spawning mini-bosses keep you on your toes by having buffs like 'slow aura,' 'invisibility,' and the worst one - 'spawns minions on damage.' Fighting a giant, lumbering invisible cow is both frightening, hilarious, and frustrating at the same time. The randomly generated boss names are a nice touch too.
DungeonLand does have some issues, especially when trying to play alone. In single player the game is incredibly frustrating, as you'll have two 'bots' filling the shoes of your companions and it's much more difficult to have an effective strategy. Combined with the steep difficulty of the game ('hard' is the easiest difficulty you can choose) - single player at times is rage inducing. There's some odd camera quirks, some sound balance issues, and a few other polish type things that generally make the game feel it wasn't quite ready. We even managed to get trapped in certain sections of levels because of bad event triggers, unable to proceed.
Luckily from a purely co-op perspective, DungeonLand is extremely accessible. Allowing local, online or a combination of the two to join a game. You can drop in and out at anytime, carry back any loot and unlocks, and use a combination of keyboard and/or gamepads. Because of this finding a co-op buddy and enjoying DungeonLand the way it was meant to be enjoyed is fairly easy.
DungeonLand also sports a DM mode that lets players control monster spawns against other players, and for the most part, it seems to be one of the more popular modes played online. Like the regular game, there's a few quirky issues here which we hope get fixed in an upcoming patch.
If you're looking for a game that has a classic feel to it, combining arcade like gameplay with a modern carrot and horse type reward system, DungeonLand is going to be right up your alley. As a big fan of Smash T.V. I can't help but feel that DungeonLand was somehow birthed from the same DNA. It's challenging, entertaining, a quick play, and best enjoyed with friends.