Another roguelike, but this time we got a dungeon crawler mashup. Siege of Dungeon seems pretty early in the dev cycle, but I think the basic structure is pretty solid to build on. As of now, I think the game is a bit barebones in terms of content, but aesthetically and mechanically, I think there’s a lot of good work put in. You start your run picking your party members of 3, with the classic healer, dps, tank team composition filled. From my understanding, more classes are coming soon, with more unique builds to discover. The game is broken up between the dungeon traversal screen and combat screens. Each character has an individual move stat, and you can split your team across the map to scour for resources and events. You cannot see what is coming up ahead, so encounters can appear, pulling any closeby allies for a fight. Combat is classic turnbased affair, with a speed stat determining initiative during each fight. Let’s get a more detailed breakdown of both systems.

So okay going back to the turn-based combat, your characters have a pretty straightforward health stat, speed stat, and mana. Each turn, your team collectively produces 1 BP, which can be used to access your special moves for free. Otherwise, your character skills cost mana, with an enhanced version of each move also accessible via BP. I was reminded of Bravely Default in this way, however, there really isn’t nearly as much of an emphasis on targeting weaknesses. Instead, most of the game revolves around customizing your team with skills that can be purchased via merchants, as well as rationing your mana and stats to explore each map before the boss. Now, I brought up before the aspect of splitting up to cover more ground, however, practically it felt universally better to huddle up so you can take on fights without getting outnumbered. And since there isn’t any sort of stealth or way to avoid combat, I found it pointless to keep my party members more than a few steps behind one another. Also, I never found maps all that difficult to uncover in this way, despite the threat of a timer that can power up the boss if you take too much time. In this way, I kinda wish you could maybe have 4 team members, and split into 2 man parties or something along those lines if that’s supposed to be an important feature in the game.

Outside of combat encounters, you can also find shrines or other events, and the primary reason to seek out fights prior to a boss is to accumulate the currency used to unlock some sweet sweet roguelike gear. I found a lot of the options to trick out your party pretty interesting, although the prices for most of these items felt EXTREMELY expensive for what they were. After winning a fight, you do have an option to heal a bit, regain some mana, or get currency and even when you’re constantly picking currency, I felt incredibly poor. I wish there were some more clear progression markers like level ups that can help me start ramping up my team composition. After bosses, you do often unlock significant passives or active abilities to build your team around. I focused primarily on gaining a lot of armor spread across my team and triggering effects and free damage as I do so in my first run to success.

That’s the gist of the game without getting too heavy into spoilers. I think going back to what I mentioned in the start of the review, there’s a good rhythm and flow to the core gameplay loop. I do find the balance can be a bit shaky at times, and combat can get very dull early on, especially with how slow it can be to upgrade and discover new abilities to spice up gameplay. I expect with some balance updates, and new content patches, that a lot of my grievances will be addressed. It’s a bit of a 50-50 whether or not I can wholeheartedly recommend this game in its current state. The aesthetics of the game are pretty charming, but in terms of gameplay, it’s not all the way there yet in my opinion. As of now, I don’t think this game quite earns the seal, but I think it’s definitely a recommendation to wishlist and follow its development. If you’re a fan of backing Early Access games sooner rather than later, this is a much easier sell and you probably won’t regret it weighing it against the deluge of other titles.

Siege of Dungeon is developed by Binary Tree Studio

Available on Steam for $12.99

Provided free review copy via Devs

Hellfirebam has reluctantly chosen not to award Siege of Dungeon the Indie Gamer Seal of Approval. I think there’s a lot of potential for this one down the road.