Guild of Dungeoneering review

Casual titles are something of a divisive topic for the general gaming audience. While some appreciate this genre’s accessible difficulty and low entry level, others feel it’s an ultimately unfulfilling endeavor with too much handholding. Perhaps as an attempt to bridge the gap between both seemingly irreconcilable factions, Guild of Dungeoneering offers short gameplay bursts with challenging and addicting gameplay. Sadly, it’s not as successful addressing the feeling of an incomplete experience

Featuring a hand-drawn art style, Guild of Dungeoneering harkens back to the days of pen-and-paper roleplaying games, with every asset seemingly drawn on graph paper using a ballpoint pen. Instead of asking players to form a monster-hunting party, it tasks them with running the titular Dungeoneering Guild, sending its members on quests and utilizing treasures recovered as a means of expanding your headquarters. All of this is done in a humorous tone, as the main character’s petty motivation is to one-up a different guild at every turn simply for refusing to let him join. In reality, our invisible protagonist has no respect for his/her crew and is more than happy to send them to their deaths.

Perhaps equally enjoyable is the accompanying bardic soundtrack, whose lute and rhyming songs seem to both encourage and taunt the player. These also provide humorous descriptions of character classes and other situations, though sadly, they soon start repeating themselves. One can only hear the same songs about dungeoneers dying before they start grinding away.

Your characters will indeed die considering there is no persistent loot or levelling system. Any items or experience gained during a quest run will be lost upon death or completion. Only money can be brought back from any mission and its sole purpose is meant towards acquiring buildings and upgrades which unlock new classes.

Just as there is little reward for a successful assignment, the punishment for failure is equally negligible. Any crew member lost is instantly replaced by a randomly created generated substitute of the same class at no additional cost, and considering gear and character levels are not persistent nothing is either gained or lost.

Upon starting a quest, players may select a hero from their guild roster. It’s here Guild of Dungeoneering’s main attraction comes as suddenly, you’re presented with a dungeon crawler where your selected warrior chooses his own path. Each turn, gamers are given a handful of cards and may use up to three while discarding the rest. These can alter the shape and size of the dungeon as your warrior explores it, either by connecting treasure chest rooms to starting locations or creating an easy way to reach an intended mission objective. Monsters may also be scattered according to your will with the purpose of finding gear or leveling up as preparation against the often inevitable level boss.

Although you never directly control your hero’s path, changes can be made to a dungeon which will influence his/her decisions. A character might be more tempted to go down a certain path if there’s a giant sack of coins just waiting to be picked up or if players create a fountain with randomized battle effects. Still, this is never a certainty, sometimes your hero decides to ignore a nearby shiny gem choosing instead to attack a far away monster for no apparent reason.

Keeping in tone with the card-based element, battles are handled in the same way. When fighting an enemy, each side initially received three cards with an additional one being drawn each turn. Players can view what their opponent’s move will be before they play it and can thus decide their next step accordingly. Actions can range from physical and magical damage to defense, counter, healing, unblockable strikes or the ability draw extra cards. These bouts are perhaps Guild of Dungeoneering’s best element as the luck element can drastically change the outcome of any battle.

Upon defeating a foe, your character gains experience and items which can increase health and grant new cards. As new gear is found, the old can be replaced if the player so chooses though this can come at the expense of previously acquired cards. Towards the later stages and depending on your classes, it often became necessary to sacrifice better gear out of fear the deck would become too bloated for its own good. Though sadly, as mentioned before, upon completing an assignment any gear or cards gained are lost. These must then be regained on your next quest.

Perhaps an equally questionable design choice is how the more expensive guild buildings do not necessarily grant better classes. I had already unlocked mid/high tier upgrades including barbarians and yet I often found myself picking the brawler, an early class, simply because their abilities suited my gameplay style better.

Missions can generally carry different goals, ranging from looting chests, killing enemies, fighting a dungeon boss or reaching a certain location within set number of turns. However, characters have a mind of their own and attaining the necessary cards so as to shape the level and drive their motivations to their intended destinations is equal parts luck and strategy.

Due to its strong emphasis on card draws, many of the later quests become an exercise in frustration due to a bad hand while battling a monster or failure to direct a hero accordingly. Of course, with the lack of a proper punishment and reward system, all too soon Guild of Dungeoneering becomes an unfulfilling endeavor that is better suited for mobile platforms.

Guild of Dungeoneering was played on the PC with review code provided by the publisher.