Sega-owned developer Amplitude Studios made a name for itself with 4X strategy games. The 4X subgenre is all about exploration, expansion, exploitation and extermination (hence its name), and Amplitude has become a pro at it through games like Humanity and his long-running Endless series.
However, the next game Endless, Endless dungeon, is not a strategy game. Instead, it’s a unique blend of twin shooter, tower defense, and roguelike. Building on the formula first explored in 2014’s experimental game The Endless DungeonAmplitude Studios wants to show that its 4X expertise is applicable to more action games with Endless dungeon.
“What we want to show is that strategy and tactics can take many different forms,” said Amplitude Studio head Romain de Waubert in an interview with Digital Trends. “Endless dungeon is one of those forms where you can explore tactics with friends during intense action. If you like how we look at strategy in 4X, I’m pretty sure you’d love how we look at strategy in action. There is a similarity between the two because the same people work on both.”
I went with him Endless dungeons first OpenDev (Amplitude’s internal early access) build and discovered that roguelikes and tower defense games have a lot more in common than I thought. There are some clear improvements that could be made, but Amplitude Studios is definitely on its way to becoming more than a single genre studio with Endless dungeon.
ENDLESS™ Dungeon Open Dev Trailer
Endless genre possibilities
IN Endless dungeon, you play as an eclectic crew of sci-fi heroes trying to escape the space station they’ve found themselves on. To do this, they must guard and guide the Crystal Bot from Crystal Slot to Crystal Slot throughout the space station. If they die or the Crystal Bot is destroyed, they will have to start the run over. I only got to play this alone with an AI companion, but the full game will allow up to three players to go through the dungeon cooperatively. Creative director Jean-Maxime Moris tells me they settled on three-player because it was the “sweet spot” where co-op play wasn’t too taxing or too boring.
Endless dungeon is a satisfying loot-based twin-stick shooter where players will have to stay on their toes as they explore the station room by room and hold off waves of enemies swarming the Crystal Bot from all directions. Each hero has special abilities that can be used to buff themselves or damage enemies, and they can also place different turrets that either damage enemies and remove debuffs or improve your party and your turrets. The resources needed to build turrets and get new equipment are not infinite though, and here are some of the Endless dungeonIts 4X impact can be seen.
Gathering resources is a big part Endless dungeon as players must manage scientific, industrial and food resources needed to build and unlock towers and character upgrades. Players will receive a certain amount for each door opened, but industry resources can be spent on building modules that increase the amount players receive with each door opened. This adds an extra layer of strategy more akin to a 4X game or a traditional Tower Defense title on top of a twin shooter that might otherwise feel pretty standard.
Lots of promises
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Resource management is an important part of a roguelike, so Amplitude was smart to recognize how these elements from 4X and tower defense games could work really well in a roguelike. My two problems with Endless dungeon they originate from the root of the defense tower. I couldn’t deconstruct or move my turrets, which limited my strategic options when the turrets got stuck in an area I shouldn’t have been in anymore. Fortunately, Amplitude has confirmed that players will be able to move their turrets in the final game.
Another problem is that the spawn rate of the waves seems to be inconsistent. I was told that the waves were triggered based on a combination of timing and research, but I could never predict when the countdown to their start would begin or where I would be when it did. Once again, the random nature of these waves meant that I never had enough time to fully plan my crystal’s defense during most of the enemy waves. I’m sure some of that stress is intentional, as it keeps players on their toes, and even though Amplitude gave players the ability to teleport back into the crystal at any time, simply counting down to the next wave would go a long way in creating some tower defense Endless dungeon feel more profitable.
Apart from those few problems, Endless dungeon still has a lot of promise. And thanks to OpenDev’s feedback-driven approach, Sega and Amplitude are using it Endless dungeon, those issues will probably be fixed in the full game. Overall, Amplitude did a fantastic job of transitioning into a new genre while still retaining some tactical elements and showing that some disparate genres actually have a lot more in common than you might think.
Endless dungeon is in development for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn