Endless Dungeon, the successor to Dungeon of The Endless 2014, is a tower defense twin shooter created by French developer Amp Amplitude Studios; and after my practice session at Gamescom 2022, it’s possible next big roguelite.
Interestingly, this upcoming roguelite is more of a re-imagining than a sequel. Instead of the point-and-click navigation and auto-battle featured in the first game, players now directly control characters and weapons in real-time. Endless Dungeon reimagines the pixel art dungeons of its predecessor into a larger, brightly lit 3D space. Additionally, up to three friends can play cooperatively.
You play as members of a shipwreck crew, each representing a Western cowboy, stranded on a mysterious space station. But unlike other poor souls trapped among the stars, your team may have a chance to escape. To do so, you will have to fight to get deeper into the terminal.
Endless Dungeon is a twin shooter like a dungeon crawler and tower defense game. Every dungeon begins in a closed safe room with a crystal in the center. You must protect the crystal at all costs because if it breaks, you will die. Your goal is to escort the crystal to an undisclosed exit somewhere in the area. You don’t know how many doors are between you and the exit, so you should open them.
But what lies beyond each door is a complete mystery – it could be a new weapon, gadget, or it could be a nest or swarm of enemies. The crystal cannot follow you, so you must simultaneously protect it while exploring new spaces. The best way to protect the crystal is to build turrets.
Construction buttons line each room, and you can place a variety of turrets on top. Some modules create a slow field, others shield everything in their respective areas, and the most basic ones shoot enemies automatically. That may be obvious, but the challenge comes from limited resources, requiring players to place turrets where they provide the most utility. You can find more resources by exploring rooms or building unique space extractors, but each extractor can only produce one type at a time. Of course, everything you build is at risk of attack from hostile robots, aliens, and other enemies.
Once you spot the exit, the crystal will begin its journey through the station. But the crystal uninstalls itself from the system to move, triggering waves of enemies to appear and hunt it down. Of course, your duty is to protect it.
Each character in Endless Dungeon possesses unique passive and active abilities. Bunker, a cyborg sheriff, stands in the way of enemy fire with his giant shield, Blaze is an explosive-hunting zoner, and the newly revealed Shroom carries powerful healing elixir to boost his health. strong for the team. You can switch between characters at will and command team members to stay or follow. Again, Endless Dungeon will offer multiplayer support at launch, so up to three players can each choose their favorite character.
I played many excellent games at Gamescom this week, but Endless Dungeon might be my favorite. Its twin gunplay is polished, and its tower defense elements combine well with dungeon exploration to create tense scenarios. I find myself sinking dozens of hours into the final release – whenever possible.
But the studio has only “found joy recently,” a phrase often used to denote a successful prototype design. Before that, the team angrily pulled out their hair.
Creative Director Jean-Maxime Moris said: “Until two months ago, I had to admit that Endless Dungeon wasn’t as exciting. “We were a little wary of straying too far from the original.”
It wasn’t until about six months ago that the team decided to control characters and weapons in real time. Moris continued, “When we introduced real-time, that did it, so you always try. And even if you have to get through the whole level, it doesn’t feel that long because you’re always looking for danger.”
“We went to a place just a few weeks ago where I can now play games. And this is my vision for the game: if you’re good at it, you carefully place your turrets and upgrade them when they need to be repaired. I’m glad I didn’t have to fire a single bullet, just watched the carnage unfold and walked through the screen while watching the turrets do their job. “
Now that Amp Amp has established a core game loop, the studio focuses daily on level designs to vary the tempo and amount of challenge of the game. The project does not currently have a release window, but Endless Dungeon could be a breakthrough if it continues on the same trajectory.
