DungeonUp fools you at first glance. It looks simple, but it hides a lot of depth. You might think it’s a rogue-like, but it’s actually a puzzle game.
I’ve had this game for almost 10 years and I keep coming back to it. It its core, it’s a dungeon crawling RPG. You know the drill. Level up, get better stats – which allows you to slay more powerful enemies, giving you access to more loot. If you’re familiar with Tower of the Sorceror or Crystal Adventure, then you know the drill.
But what makes this game so unique is its wholehearted commit to keys. There’s lots of doors you need to unlock and only so many keys. Run out of keys, you can’t proceed. Not only do you have to care about doors, you quickly discover that not all doors are the same. Yellow doors can only be opened with yellow keys, and blue doors can only be opened with blue keys.
The RPG and puzzle elements result in something that’s immensely challenging. Not only do you need to level up but you have to ask yourself if it’s worth levelling up since you have to manage your resources. Each time you reach a new floor in the dungeon, though, there’s a huge sense of accomplishment.
Graphically, DungeonUp is fairly simple and that’s because it was originally developed as a mobile game in 2014. That same year, though, it was ported to PC. It like the look – it’s cute little 2D pixel art graphics that fills me with glee.
The soundtrack tends to be repetitive but at least it’s catchy and doesn’t overstay it welcome.
I’ve tried to discover if developer Clewcat Games has made anything else. Sadly, this is the only game of theirs that I’ve found on Steam. It looks like they’ve moved all development over to Fortnite. I wish them the best but I have a special place in my heart for homespun indie games.
Thankfully, DungeonUp is cheap. At regular price, it’s C$5.69. However, it has a -75% discount, selling for C$1.42 on Steam.
This is definitely worth playing, and I’ve got hours of enjoyment out of DungeonUp.
