Is there a more terrifying concept than being trapped on a drifting spaceship with no way to escape, being eternally revived every time you’re killed by the ship’s murderous denizens? I can’t think of many, but Endless Dungeon makes it more exciting than harrowing.
This roguelite twin-stick shooter with tower defence mechanics is set aboard a space-faring relic of the Endless, an ancient race whose rise and fall predate modern civilisation. The ship has a tractor beam that draws in any other ships that dare get too close, and the unfortunate crews of these ships make up the cast of Endless Dungeon. Whenever they dare head below the main deck, they are attacked by wave after wave of vicious bugs and bots. Unfortunately, they’ll only get off the ship by bringing a crystal to the ship’s core to refuel it - a crystal the ship’s residents seek to destroy.
What makes Endless Dungeon stand out narratively is the fact that the roguelike nature of the game is given an in-universe excuse. Whenever a character dies or a run ends via broken crystal, they are revived by a machine on the ship’s deck - which has been turned into a hangout-cum-bar. Here, you can either delve right back into the dungeon or chat with your cursed crewmates. All things considered, they’re a plucky bunch who don’t seem to mind being made functionally immortal and given such a Sisyphean task. I didn’t get to know the crew all that well in my short time with the game, but their dialogue nails a feeling of forced camaraderie in the face of grim reality, all underlined by a beautiful, moody background track.
Mechanically, the eponymous Endless Dungeon takes the form of an isometric, room-based dungeon crawler. As you open doors, you’ll find enemy spawners, treasure chests, merchants, and generators - and even some enemies waiting to surprise you every now and then. Once the game has decided you’ve had enough peace, it’ll subject you to a wave of enemies, which will flood from all currently unlocked spawners towards your Crystal Bot - the all-important base you have to guard. The game’s nice enough to give you a 15-second countdown, but I still felt panicked whenever the alarms blared. What makes the gameplay loop more interesting is that the Crystal Bot is a mobile base you’ll have to bring with you as you make your way through the dungeon. You do this by finding new slots for the bot to fit into and commanding it to move on, at which point you’ll be attacked relentlessly until it reaches its destination.
Every room you encounter will have a number of slots for turrets, which come in the standard array of tower defence classics. You have basic turrets, turrets that slow enemies down, unlockable turrets that deal elemental damage, and so on. Turrets aren’t enough to delay your doom, however - you’ll have to get stuck in yourself. Every character in Endless Dungeon has their own equipment loadout and special abilities, which range from powerful area of effect attacks to setting proximity mines. The build I got to play had only three characters to experiment with, but they all felt very distinct. I’m eager to see what the other five will play like, though I found that Zédoé, the human personification of “More Dakka,” was the most fun to play, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
As is the case in most every roguelite I’ve ever played, your chances of survival will largely depend on how kind the Random Number Gods decide to be on any given run. I remember one fateful run in which I acquired a fire-elemental gun early on. With this, I was melting waves of bugs with little effort required, making the first part of the game pretty easy. Imagine my surprise, then, when I very quickly came across bot spawners, not the humble bug spawners I was used to. My fiery onslaught bounced off these like marshmallows against brick, and in my panicked inability to find a more suitable weapon, the bots were able to swarm my crystal and end my run with impunity. Endless Dungeon teaches you a lesson about hubris.
It’s worth mentioning that the game has a steep difficulty curve that fluctuates depending on how easily you can adapt to the playstyle, which may impact your enjoyment. Endless Dungeon blends together some very different genres, and a lack of experience in even one will show. I felt right at home when mowing down hordes of bugs but was pretty inept at finding the best places to slot turrets. I have not played many tower defence games. I imagine that the reverse experience is true - twin-stick newbies who come for the tower defence may end up feeling bemused when their generators get destroyed and their merchant gets murked in the resulting chaos.
If there’s one thing I’m looking forward to, it’s seeing what form the game’s meta-progression will take. The build I got my hands on lacked any meta-progression features, making it a ‘banging your head against a wall’ simulator. Hopefully, with the addition of permanent upgrades, the game will feel more like breaking the wall down bit by bit until victory is a more realistic goal.
As it stands, Endless Dungeon stands on solid foundations. The controls feel fluid, there’s an ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ quality about it, and the game has an undeniable amount of character. It was already a day-one for me, and my time with the game has made me more excited for that day.