Dungeon of Dragon Knight

Review

A group of four individuals has sought refuge in a dense forest after their hometown was destroyed by an army of Orcs.  Low on provisions, they just kept pushing forward to the point of exhaustion. Suddenly a woman appears from the thickness of the woods to offer them shelter and food. As they approached the humble building, their hostess just as suddenly disappears. Too tired to walk, they all decided to enter the house but they were surprised to discover that it was the entrance to an underground cave. Have a short rest, guys, as you are about to enter the Dungeon of Dragon Knight!

Dungeon of The Dragon Knight is a Dungeon Crawler developed and published by HexGameStudio, where you play a party of four and have to find and defeat Sowen the fallen Dragon knight, who owns a magical orb which can open the gate to hell and summon demons.

When you start your first game, you’ll be prompted to customise your party of four (if you choose) and decide whether or not you want to play the game old school, which is without a map. Personally, I strongly recommend playing with a map, as the dungeons are quite tricky and well-designed from the start.

If you decide to customise your party, you’ll be able to choose between four of the races available to you (Human, Dragonborn, Elf and Dwarf) and five classes (Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Warlord and Wizards).  The race and class you choose will determine how many points will be distributed over 12 different abilities. Then you’ll have an additional 16 points to distribute as you wish. You’ll also have two skills and trait points to distribute per character.  Once that’s done, you’ll get into your first dungeon. If you choose not to customer, the game will automatically give you fours characters. Make sure you select your two best fighters up front and the two others behind them.

In the dungeons, you’ll move your party with the A, S, D, W keys as well as Q and E to rotate 90 degrees. Depending of which classes you choose, your character will be able to create spells. The ones who are able to do so will have a book on the right side of their avatar. Six runes with colour symbols will appear when you click on book. The interesting thing you’ll notice straight away is that each of the classes that are capable of using magic have different runes. You can select one or two runes to cast a spell, but it might take you a while (especially with two runes) to find the right combination. Don’t despair, you’ll find scrolls within each of the dungeons with a specific spell code. Then you’ll have to find out who within your party can cast the new spell.

As you move through the dungeons you’ll encounter several types of enemy, and as soon as your party engages with them, they will start fighting automatically (if they have either a melee or range weapons, which includes rocks). It will take around 3 seconds to recharge an attack, and you’ll have to manually cast a spell every time.  Make sure you know the right combination by heart, otherwise your party might suffer greatly.

After each fight, you party will receive experience points which are distributed equally between your four characters.  Each time you level up, you’ll receive one ability and skill point per character.

What else can we say about the dungeons? Well so far, I can tell you they are very well-designed, and I personally like the ability to open the map to find my way around. It will also record the flipping floors, blocks, pressure plates, thorn trap and trap hole as you discover them. In terms of portals, some will get you access to another location within the dungeon while one (per dungeon) will get you back to the tavern where you can purchase new items, including weapons, clothes, armour and food. You will need to make sure that your characters carry plenty of food as their energy will be depleted as you move toward the dungeon.

They are plenty of things to collect in the dungeons, such as foods, coins, weapons, armour and scrolls, but some will be tricky to collect.  They are interesting puzzles to figure out, involving pressure plates, levers and rocks in walls to press. Some of them are trickier than others but as you play, you’ll get the feel of it and it could take you less time to figure them out.

Dungeon of the Dragon Knight is an early access game, but with what I have seen so far, I am very impressed with what the developers have produced so far. Personally, I would like to see key binding for spells; if I already own a spell, I would prefer to have a slightly longer time to wait to re-do a spell rather than selecting one or two ruins each time I have to cast one.

Good graphics and I really like the dark, sombre atmosphere of the dungeons. In regards to dungeons, make sure you pick up or buy as many torches as you can to cast a little light ahead of you.