Dungeon Souls
Overview -
'Dungeon Souls' by Lamina Studios just exited early access after spending more than a year in the program. It is a pixel dungeon crawler roguelike heavily influenced by 'Nuclear Throne', 'Overture', and more, with a high level of difficulty, procedural levels, and local co-op.
Video Review
'Dungeon Souls' has a frenetic, finely crafted pixel aesthetic. The lighting is excellent, making the game a bit creepy without obscuring important details. The UI feels a bit squished together and can be difficult to navigate, either with the keyboard or a gamepad. 'Dungeon Souls' is one of the few games in recent memory that pushed me towards the keyboard instead of my usual controller preference, because the aiming with a gamepad is not accurate at all. The reticle kept rubberbanding to the cardinal directions instead of letting me fine tune the aiming myself, which grows frustrating before long.
Audio Review
The sound effects and music are as old-school and top-notch as the pixel presentation. It is deeply nostalgic; not pushing the bounds of game technology but still very effective for what Lamina is trying to accomplish.
Final Thoughts
'Dungeon Souls' isn't boring, but it's tough to justify spending time with it over many of the recent dungeon crawler greats. It is a typical roguelike - fun to play for a while, and easily forgotten afterwards.
