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Do you ever wonder what it would be like to build your own kingdom in a fantasy world? Fortunately, in Desktop Dungeons: Rewind you can do just that. Developed by QCF Design and jointly published by Prismatika and Indienova, Desktop Dungeons: Rewind is a remaster of Desktop Dungeons. I have not played the original Desktop Dungeons and as such, this review will be from the perspective of someone who has only played this remaster. Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, is a puzzle rogue-like game with interesting mechanics, fantastic character designs, and a lot of content to keep players invested. While the game has some issues like its cheesy dialogue or the UI having a monopoly on-screen space, it still is overall a good game.
Dungeons and Kingdoms
Desktop Dungeon: Rewind’s plot is quite basic. The events begin after your caravan is attacked by monsters and you decide to rally up your fellow caravan members to create a Kingdom. In order to do that, you need money, which can be found in dungeons. This is done by sending heroes to gather resources. While simple, the story works well and allows you to focus on the gameplay. However, the main issue with the story arises in the dialogue. Unfortunately, the game tends to use dialogue that is akin to your parents using emojis. While it has some funny jokes, a lot of them do not land and ruin the atmosphere of the game’s gritty fantasy world.
Explore, Fight, and Level Up
Desktop Dungeons: Rewind is split up between two sections, the preparations and the exploration of the dungeons. The preparations take place in the kingdom, where you can build or upgrade buildings. By doing this, you gain access to more classes, kins, and items for the dungeons. Also available in the kingdom are the challenge modes, which task you with defeating bosses under certain conditions. These act similar to the movies in Pokestar Studios in Pokemon Black & White 2, where you are given a scenario and must complete it using the limited resources you are given. The challenge modes are great for teaching the deeper mechanics of the game to players who are struggling with gameplay. Furthermore, they are a fun distraction from the exploration gameplay.
The exploration of dungeons is the other half of the gameplay. Once preparations are complete you be placed with your chosen warrior on a grid-based map. It is here that you will fight enemies, level up, and finally confront the boss. Enemies will not attack you unless you attack them so you must be the one to seek them out and slay them. However, as you explore you will be healed and as such, the more you explore the fewer opportunities you will have to heal. This leads to having to balance exploration with healing to not waste limited resources. This led to a very fun but difficult game. There are also plenty of maps and bosses each with their gimmicks keeping the game from becoming stale. Overall I enjoyed the gameplay however, I did find that it can become frustratingly hard at times.
The Mighty Kingdom and its Sounds
Desktop Dungeons: Rewind has great character designs that reflect the character’s personalities quite well. This is furthered by the character’s portraits which all look incredible. It is also present in the enemy amazing enemy designs. Unfortunately, it is followed by bad UI. The UI covers the screen making it so you can’t see the whole map, even in its most zoomed-out form. It is also intrusive, making it so you can’t click on areas covered by the UI. While there are ways to navigate around the awful UI, I should not have to do so. Fortunately, the UI still does a great job of telling you what you need to know to plan your next move. Lastly, this game sounds alright, there was nothing that blew my mind but it wasn’t awful either.
Desktop Dungeons Rewind and Recap
Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, is an enjoyable game with a lot of puzzle-based gameplay and a variety of different modes. Unfortunately, the game has faults like the cheesy dialogue and the intrusive UI. However, the amazing character designs, amount of content, and great puzzle gameplay far outweigh the bad. Although the game can be frustratingly difficult, the game is still overall an entertaining experience. I recommend giving this game a chance if you are interested in trying out this unique hybrid of rouge-like and puzzle gameplay.
