During the days when AAA games were booming, I became a fan of a newly released game.
Not only can you carry machine guns and shotguns with your friends to kill everywhere, but you also need to find the key to breaking through under the pressure of the insect swarm. This kind of passionate and calm gaming experience is rarely achieved in a tower defense game called “Endless Dungeon”.
Speaking of which, “Endless Dungeon” is not a strange game.
As early as 2014, its eponymous predecessor “Endless Dungeon” was released on Steam. Although the game quality was good, only some core players in China knew about it because there was no Chinese language. After the sequel began production, the production team also released many test experiences in the past two years, and probably many players have already experienced the test version.
And now, after a long period of polishing, the game content of “Endless Dungeon” has become more and more perfect.
The story of the game takes place in a mysterious abandoned space station. Here, space adventurers are caught in a strange cycle: every time they die during the exploration of the space station, they are reborn in the salon inside the station. In this cycle of constantly trying to explore the space station, they must constantly search for ways to escape from here.
For these adventurers, this space station is undoubtedly an “endless dungeon”.
Players who play as one of the explorers are also trapped here. We need to form a team to go deep into the space station to repair the core and escape from here, and also protect the crystal from being destroyed by wave after wave of monsters.
The game will initially provide two hero characters, the defensive sweeper and the output character Zeduo. As the game progresses, more characters with their own characteristics and skills will be gradually unlocked.
Each hero has a fixed move and a big move that can be used, such as a powerful landmine or a large amount of detergent that slows down the enemy’s speed. In the later games, we can also continuously upgrade the abilities and add devices to these hero characters in the game, making them gradually stronger.
As a tower defense game with Rogue elements, the level logic of Endless Dungeon is similar to that of Hades, and the map is procedurally generated, requiring players to fight in a series of randomly arranged combinations of rooms.
For example, some rooms may be full of enemies, but if you succeed in the challenge, you can randomly obtain currency and resources. Another example is that entering certain rooms will trigger various events, which may be medical equipment to restore health points, production resources, encountering store owners selling props or firearms, or just a simple Treasure box.
However, since each game will have a different map layout, the experience of tower defense games may not be very applicable – we can’t memorize the map, and we can’t predict where the next wave of monsters will come from.
Fortunately, in the early stages of the game, the number of rooms in each small game is limited. We can quickly identify the room layout and plan the turrets and defense areas that need to be laid out.
During our exploration of the map, we occasionally refresh the crystals that the enemy is heading towards. Therefore, we need to build defensive turrets at various turret points on the map. These turrets are divided into various types such as attack, deceleration, and enhancement, as well as their respective elemental attributes.
Building and upgrading turrets require the use of resources. Resources in the game are divided into three categories: food, industry, and technology. Specifically, industrial points are used to improve technology and build defense towers, food is used for character upgrades and endurance, and technology points are used for the development and upgrading of various characters and defense tower skills.
These resources all come from the exploration process of the space station. When exploring the map, these three resources will be automatically obtained every time a door is opened. Opening the Treasure box and smashing small boxes on the map will also obtain a small amount of resources. In addition, when we encounter a resource generator during exploration, we can choose one of these three resources to give a bonus, so that the corresponding resources can be obtained more every time the door is opened.
As the game progresses, we will activate different sectors in the space station. Each sector has a different style, such as the Interstellar Port, which is a futuristic technology block, and the Hidden Garden, which is like a small tropical rainforest.
Retreat garden
Similarly, each sector also has monsters of different shapes, and the methods of dealing with them are also different. For example, the characteristics of the Zerg are fast speed and large numbers, but their weakness is fear of fire; robots have weak resistance to electric elements…
Diverse maps and monster designs require us to use different heroes, select weapons with different attributes, and tower defense buildings to deal with different situations. In these aspects, “Endless Dungeon” continues the strategy of tower defense games very well.
The difficulty of the game does not only come from the wave number and quality of the monsters, but also from the fact that the open door will change the direction of the monster’s attack, and the newly discovered monster nest will become an unexpected brush monster point, from an unguarded direction. Continuously threaten the crystal.
At the same time, in the game, including the construction of turrets, character upgrades, etc., all need to be used around specific nodes in the room. And those attacking enemies not only attack the core crystals, but also these map nodes similar to resource managers will be constantly attacked.
The uncertainty of the map often makes us lose sight of one thing and another. Once the unexpected monster nest is poked, the difficulty of the game will suddenly rise, and a chaotic operation is essential.
There are many directions to attack
In addition, “Endless Dungeon” has a very special design.
Simply put, in the traditional tower defense game, the core position that needs to be defended is often fixed, and we only need to allocate firepower according to the enemy’s troop arrangement and reasonably allocate our own defense resources.
This is another major difficulty in “Endless Dungeon” – defensive positions can change.
In the game, when the player finds the door to the next level and clicks to open it, the core crystal will start to move slowly. During the movement of the crystal, we have to face the enemy who comes like a tide until the crystal reaches the target point.
What’s even more difficult is that due to the randomness of Rogue, the movement route of crystals in each small game is completely different. The turrets built in front often have difficulty playing a role in the later movement process. At the same time, the already built turrets cannot be dismantled to return resources, and we cannot temporarily change the defensive focus.
As the exploration deepens, the scenes on the map will become larger and the final action route will become more complex. The strength and quantity of monsters encountered will also increase, the types will also increase, and the difficulty will also increase.
Boss is not easy to beat
When the strategy doesn’t work, we have to give full play to the power of the hero characters. Control them to the hubs of those clearance routes and have a thrilling battle. The smooth shooting feel of the game, the variety of weapons and skills, well lubricate the rhythm between decision-making and combat, and the cool combat graphics will also provide a more unique combat experience.
Of course, if you only play action shooting in “Endless Dungeon”, it is difficult to go too far in the cruel dungeon; similarly, only playing tower defense strategy without focusing on action cannot let us pass the level. Players need to constantly fight in different areas, then reborn in the space salon, accumulate experience, collect resources, unlock facilities, strengthen hero attributes and upgrade weapon strength again and again, and then gradually explore the entire space station.
In summary, “Endless Dungeon” organically combines tower defense, Rogue strategy, action, and shooting. During the gameplay, we will clearly feel that every strategic decision or operation we make will have a great impact on the subsequent game progress, and we must carefully consider and treat it in order to complete the game.
However, compared to the trembling of single-player mode, the gaming experience of online mode is much easier. In single-player mode, the teammate AI is mostly just a tool running behind the player, while in online mode, the cooperation between players can maximize the numerical advantage of the team, reasonably plan each person’s defense area, and play to their character strengths… Basically, one player can defend one side, and with the cooperation of the turret, it is a purely enjoyable game.
In fact, Rogue and tower defense are both well-known gameplay for every player, and they can still burst out with freshness after a chemical reaction with new game designs. Although as a fan of tower defense games, I have played dozens of tower defense games from PC consoles to mobile platforms, Endless Dungeon can still bring me a unique experience within the traditional game framework.
