Stay Safe: Labyrinth of the Mad

Review

On the main menu screen, you’ll find two options to play: Generate Random Dungeon and Generate Dungeon by File. Selecting to generate a random dungeon will then let you name your adventurer, after which your next choice is to choose your Occupation.

There are four occupations on offer to you: Escapee, Fighter, Defender and Mage. The occupations each have their own stats, Escapees have the average stats, +0% across the board of Health, Strength, Defence, Magic, Attack, Evasion, Critical Hit and Sight. Fighters have +50% on Strength, with –25% on Defence and –50% with Magic. Defenders have +25% Health, Defence +50%, -50% Magic. Mages have +50% Magic, -50% Defence, -25% on both Health and Magic. Those are the main stats of each occupation, but there are a couple other smaller percentages on the other stats.

Once you have chosen your occupation there’s one thing left to choose, and that’s what you’re going to take into the dungeons with you. There are three options (although you can swap for a new batch until you find something you prefer), and each will have various weapons, shields, potions, meats and magic scrolls.  After a short introduction explaining your plight, you are now ready for your adventure into the dungeon to begin.

You find yourself inside the dungeon where you will need to find the stairs leading to the next dungeon level. As you step out of your prison cell you only have the rags on your back and the rusty shackles binding your hands. Luckily for you though, nearby is a chest with your belongings stashed inside; sadly, there is also a guard. Disposing of the guard will allow you to collect your stuff from the chest and proceed on your escape.

Making your way through the dungeon levels, you’ll come across various guards, creatures and traps, all of which are to stop you from escaping. Chests and barrels may contain gear, equipment and items to help you progress, more of which you may find after defeating guards and creatures. Your character can be equipped Head Gear, Body Armour, Boots, Trinkets, Shield and Weapons (One and Two-Handed Weapons). Some of the gear that you find may be part of a matching set, which will give your gear a bonus in its stats. As you defeat the enemies around the dungeons, you’ll gain experience points that will level up your character.

Any weapons or gear you don’t require can be deconstructed into various parts. The parts you get will depend on what item, gear or equipment you deconstruct. You can use these deconstructed parts to craft new things; you’ll find what you can create in the Recipes tab in your inventory. Finding scrolls and learning them will allow you to create new items. Your inventory can hold up to forty items.

Some potions have an unknown effect, so use them at your own peril. You can, however, throw these potions at your enemy to find out what they do. This is risky and you’ll have to decide whether or not the risk is worth it. Potions can have negative and positive effects, so throwing a potion may end up having a positive effect (such as giving extra strength) instead of a negative one.

As you try and reach the final floor in the dungeon, you’ll come across Champions on some of the floors. These champions are characters of real players and can be tougher than the usual creatures on your current floor level.  Defeat them and you’ll become champion of that floor level.

You may also find what looks like a blood-splattered door with some sort of face upon it. Entering this door will take you to a room where you can buy or sell items from a trader, or visit a blacksmith to repair your equipment and gear. Also, here is a Save Point which you can use should you wish to take a break. However, should you die, then your saved game won’t work any longer.

Once you have been killed, your character’s stats will be displayed. Things like how many monsters you’ve slain and who slew you, the number of steps you took, the floor number you reached, your character’s level, strength, defence and magic stats, the number of items you were carrying as well as the total worth of those items, and finally, how long you were alive for.

In the Settings there’s options for Game (Interface and Gameplay), Controls (View and Rebind) Controller (Vibration). Graphics (Resolution, Full Screen, Colour Blind Mode), Audio (Music and Sounds volume sliders).

I’ve enjoyed playing Stay Safe: Labyrinth of the Mad thus far, but it’s had me pulling my hair out a few times. I had a bit of a problem while I was using my game pad (Xbox One) in the rebinding options and then using the game pad to enter my game name. I accidentally changed the “Confirm” button, but I wasn’t sure what it was originally. This isn’t normally a problem if you have a reset to default option, but there isn’t one. In the end I decided to just use the keyboard, as every time I pressed the A button to confirm a letter in my name, it would take me to the next screen. I found this annoying, but on the bright side, I now have less grey hair.

One other thing I noticed was that some achievements haven’t unlocked, like Start 10 Dungeons. This isn’t really a problem for me, and it could be just a bug, but to achievement-hunters it might drive them up the wall. It’s a fun game to play, it will challenge you; some games I played lasted only a few minutes, while others lasted over an hour.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!