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.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Team up with friends in this silly hack and slash action/RPG.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.