The Dungeon Crawler

Being a person who is not an avid fan of dungeon crawlers, I was pretty reluctanct to dive into this, especially since the game was aforementioned to lack "plot". You know, that thing that keeps you wanting to play the game. (If it's good anyway).

The game has been broken up into 6 parts: Storyline, Pacing, Dialogue, Audio, Game Mechanics, Visuals.

The rating for each segment will range from 1 to 5.

Storyline: Quite frankly, there isn't one.
1/5

Pacing: There really isn't any pacing. The game begins with the player on a cliff/plains thing, and you are supposed to pick between to class. Though there is no storyline, the dungeons in which the player explores are set apart rather evenly. Brady (name of the developer ironically) does a great job of making the shop/inn available after what seems like a million monsters have been fought.
2.5/5

Dialogue: I didn't make it to the final boss because of a glitch in the game. (Sephy-twin gets held up during his event). I don't know if there is any dialogue for when you fight him, but there are only two to three other instances of dialogue within the game. Right in the beginning when you pick a class and head for the dungeon, and second when you meet Sephiroth's twin. And no, none of it was engaging.
1/5

Audio
The audio within the game was rather good and very well placed. I wish I could say whether it was standard RTP music or not, but I am unsure, though there are a few pieces that I would definitely say are outside of the RTP collection. I thought much of the music was very good, and each piece fit the dungeon floor that it was meant for. The sound effects were pretty standard as well, but they were used very effectively. My favorite would have to be the explosion that occurs whenever a huge fire ball hits you (the ones that are thrown from the statues and the gypsy evil fire men of doom). Overall, I would have to say I was pretty impressed with the music the developer chose.
3/5

Game Mechanics:
The interesting part of this review. The game is set up as a hack and slash similar to Zelda. If you don't know what Zelda is, shoot yourself. For those of you who do know, take Zelda's capabilities from the SNES title "A Link to the Past", and get rid of everything except your sword. I'll give you the ability to choose between various weapons, but that's it. Unfortunately, there are no instructions on how to fight, so I spent the first minute and a half getting my butt handed to me by a slime. There are a handful of different enemies to choose from, but they really don't pose a threat. Once you get to a particular level, the enemies take off 0 hp. Not that I can complain, since I don't have any other method of fending off enemies aside from slashing, then running away, since there is a delay between each sword attack. The rooms are said to be randomized, but, if you happen to die and play back through the game (Which I most certainly did) you realize that there are maybe 2 maps to choose from between each dungeon level. Though it offers a little bit of an edge, after playing a couple of times you can start to identify the maps.

While fighting, you come across a lot of money and treasure which you can sell in one of two shops (presumably). The upside is that the items are more than affordable - If you do a good job and perhaps get at least half of the treasure in each of the maps you visit, you will have enough money to get the best armor/weapons. Items are fairly cheap too, but their healing rate is rather low. To start out, the normal potions only heal between 5-9 hp, when the player is starting out with 35 hp.

There is a neat section in the game where you are required to use a torch. The lighting effect is neat, but due to a glitch in the game, the lighting effect follows the player after death (though it is fixed once you re-enter the dungeon from the beginning).

The large down-side for me was the UNAVOIDABLE LAG. There were so many parallel events going on that my character's movement would slow to crawl. There were plenty of times that I was on the verge of quitting because I was fumbling through the dark at the pace of a crippled snail.

The game mechanics come out as refreshing at first. It doesn't take long for the battle system it grow old and become monotonous. If there were more effects and attacks integrated into the fighting system, it would have been more effective. Most of the time, it was button-mashing. 2.5/5

Visuals:
The game uses the standard RTP tiles, so there are no custom edits anywhere. But, that doesn't stop Brady from making fairly detailed and organized maps, most of which were rather engaging and detailed. The title screen was custom as well, which added a small bit of flare to the game. I'd say it was fairly average: Nothing exasperatingly good, but nothing mind-numbingly bland. 3/5

Median Score: 2

Might I add - Brady, I would love to see a game made by you that actually contains RPG elements. Something tells me that it would be rather good!

P.S. - Sorry Killer Wolf. ;C