Dunjungle is easy to play but damn difficult | Early Access Impressions

I have to add that I recently played Hades quite late at the table. But not just by chance, I was in a post-operative convalescence period and hammered it to within an inch of its life and secured the final trophy. Afterwards I felt a bit like Alexander the Great or Eric Bristow in darts when there were no more worlds to conquer. I needed another game to satisfy that roguelike itch and get me hooked in the same way. I’m happy to say that the excellent Dunjungle has come into my life and given me a new obsession, and I want to tell you why it should become yours too.

At first glance, this is another pixelated action platformer, a genre that has of course seen a lot of action in the last decade. But there’s an incredible depth to the roguelike gameplay loop that sets it apart from your average arcade outing. Your monkey hero begins by selecting some basic melee weapons and a skill, which initially is a projectile in the shape of a stone. You get four slots for your weapons and skills – one for the main melee attack and three for the skills assigned to Y, RB and LB. You will also receive an initial relic item that provides a buff that persists through each run. These can range from increasing the amount of gold coins you come across to increasing the effectiveness of elemental modifiers on your weapons. There is an incredible amount of relics, so much so that even after several hours of playing, I was still discovering new ones.

Her avatar moves extremely fluidly and with a sense of effortless grace reminiscent of a fully-powered Samus in Super Metroid or one of the Donkey Kong monkeys from the Country series. You can build momentum and move forward at the right pace. They can jump and double jump, climb and grapple onto walls and platforms, and perform a skillful dodge roll. All nuclear weapons have three modes of operation – their basic function, a charged or rapid attack, and a special move that can be tied to a specific action, such as: B. when you jump, add a projectile to your punches, or unload a barrage of punches at the end of your throwing motion.

Added to your abilities is a special power associated with the left trigger. A bar builds up as you kill enemies and gives a satisfying sound when full to indicate it’s ready for use. This will initially replenish some of your health, but you may encounter a Mystic on certain runs who can add additional magical power to your repertoire, such as: B. by increasing the attack for a certain period of time or creating a shield of iridescent orbs around your monkey for a few seconds.

Dunjungle is damn hard, and when you first play, you’re underpowered and have to rely on your wits and skill as a player to survive and get the two types of in-game currency that allow you to permanently improve your stats or even can unlock additional characters to play as, which supposedly make the game easier. Like Hades, gameplay is based on clearing rooms full of enemies and environmental hazards. The latter can be cleverly hidden, but are always in sight. It’s up to you to keep an eye out for them and take the necessary measures to avoid the inevitable damage they will cause. They reminded me of the booby traps of the classic Amiga platformer Rick Dangerous, a reference that you probably have to be very old (like me) to understand.

There are different types of rooms and you can choose between branching paths. A symbol above the door shows you what awaits you inside. Some rooms have tougher enemies that leave permanent stat boosts. You’ll meet blacksmiths who can increase the power of your weapons, but at the risk of breaking them in the process. You encounter a sinister serpent who offers you the chance to sell your soul for a relic; He will then burden you by doing something evil, such as dealing damage on every roll or reversing the polarity of the controls, until you meet his Faustian condition of killing twenty bad guys. If you’re lucky, the aforementioned mystic will appear, and there are also shops where you can spend gold coins.

There is a huge variety of enemies with unique attack patterns to learn. The combat is just so much fun that even when the odds are stacked against you, you’ll want to maximize the excellent combo multiplier system that comes into play as you pick off enemies one after the other without taking damage. The bosses are also absolute bastards, straight from the old school. Because it’s a roguelike, your arsenal of weapons, relics, and things you find varies every time you play, so it still feels fresh even after hours. The feeling of risk and reward is strong in this game. I went for difficult scenarios just because I wanted those precious blue gems to unlock new weapons for the next playthrough, or the more plentiful purple variety that lets you buy buff upgrades and new weapon and skill slots from the likes of the likes can blacksmith or this sneaky snake. Sometimes you’re stuck with a weapon you can’t handle; In my case, it was a close-range gauntlet made of conch shells that gets you dangerously close to enemies to injure them, and I kept getting wiped out. However, give me something with the aforementioned roll/flurry feature and I’m in my element.

Even in Early Access it seems to be one of the best games of the year for me. I know that if I play a game in bed and then wake up early in the morning to spend an hour longer with my coffee before work, it will completely freak me out. Easy to play but damn hard to master, Dunjungle throws new surprises at you in that dour way that keeps you hooked. It deserves great success.

Dunjungle will be released in Early Access for PC via Steam on October 22nd.