Dungeon Crawling at it's Meh-ist

What makes a good game? Specifically, a good dungeon crawler. Everyone is going to have a slightly different take on it, but it boils down to completing a difficult task than receiving its reward. While Vilesteel does every other aspect of the game average or better, the risk and reward factor is severely lacking.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Vilesteel starts with a character customization screen, giving a decent level of customizability with: gender, name, three different races, a large variety of color for clothing, skin, hair and hair styles.

The primary stats in the game are Vigor (STR), Dexterity (DEX) and Spirit (ENG) which determine damage, dodge/block chance, and mana in that order. The game’s primary classes: Priest, Dark Priest, Paladin, Seer, Necromancer, Dark Lord, Stalker, Barbarian, Fighter and Archer are chosen by selecting two of several different skills. The combination of those skills determines your class (Black Magic + Melee Combat = Dark Lord)

Once you actually get into the game, you notice a level of graphics reminiscent of the older Diablo series. The music works but is fairly generic. Sound effects are lacking, there are only a handful of sounds in the game and be prepared to hear them over and over again.

The user interface is familiar, easy to use and functions well. Enemies are varied, but the humanoid ones are very slender, making it easy to misclick and walk instead of attack, the issue could easily be solved with larger hitboxes. The world map is large, with many, many sub-maps which can contain multiple dungeons – making a rather large world to explore.

Loot drops are plenty, with a large variety of ranged and melee weapons, two and one handed, duel wielding, armor of all sorts, and a large variety of multiple accessories (the accessory slots are all independent, meaning you can wear six capes or amulets, rings, etc.) There are a multitude of weapon grades, shown by the color of the icon and name (Ancient, Grand, etc.)

Which brings us to the most perplexing issue of the game, the risk / reward factor. To put it simply, there is no risk in the game. Dying is a feat that requires hard work, even hours into the game if you picked the “right” class you won’t have used a single health potion or spell/ability. Simply left clicking all your enemies is enough to kill them with no risk to you.

This game would never require a cheat, as simply playing the Dark Lord class grants you vampirism, guaranteeing that every hit you take, is followed by gaining twice as much life. I have much praise for this game up until the point you actually start playing it. It’s a shame that all this work would fall flat over balancing issues, without even so much as a difficulty selection.

All in all the game is very atheistically pleasing, has a surprisingly large variety of customization and options both cosmetically and gameplay wise. With the large world and multitude of dungeons it has the makings of a great dungeon crawler. The Devs were even kind enough to create a full game guide explaining every aspect.

It’s a shame that the lack of difficulty turns it into a point ‘n click adventure.