Matthew Steele - Dungeons of Dredmor (2011)
Composer: Matthew Steele
Console: Steam, Indie PC
Game Release Date: 2011-07-13
Soundtrack Release Date: 2011-07-11
Runtime: 1:11:28, 28 Tracks
Console: Steam, Indie PC
Game Release Date: 2011-07-13
Soundtrack Release Date: 2011-07-11
Runtime: 1:11:28, 28 Tracks
Continuing on with dungeon crawlers here is another game I consider to be one of the best dungeon crawlers ever made. I had originally found this game through a LPer I watched who did a run. I fell in love with it. I don't think I even finished the LP. I had to just play this for myself. This game is also one of the only roguelikes I enjoy (although I certainly don't play it like one). It's a shame this game is as underrated as it is.
Dungeons of Dredmor is a top-down dungeon-crawler / roguelike indie game made by Gaslamp Games. In the game you play a player-named adventurerer as they go into Lord Dredmor's dungeon to slay him. The dungeon is filled with tons of stuff ranging from humorous enemies, a range of items such as a wide variety of wine and random items, level gimmicks like portals to alternate dimensions and more are all crammed in the floors. The game has lots of replayability to. Random floors, traps, enemies, etc. Not to even mention the plethora of user mods and steam workshop integration that are available. Whenever I do another run of this I will be using mods. The game is still outstanding even without mods. The developers really put a lot of work into this. There are also a ton of classes to pick from ranging from typical things like fighter and mage to untypical things like psionics and blood magic. There is even a communist class.
Since my original run of the game back in 2012(?) I haven't touched it. The game left such an impression I still remember a lot from it. I will 100% do another run in the future but for now I am still content. I don't have many highlights to mention though. One thing I loved about the game was the monster zoos. A monster zoo is just a room that's filled to the brim with monsters. It even gets its own theme which, wheneveer I heard pumped me right up. Without being prepare though, monster zoos can possibly end the run. In my runs one class I always used was pyromancer. Its spells were unmatched in quality and always useful. I remember one of the endgame spells being perfect to counter monster zoos. It was a fire spell that when hit would explode hitting enemies around it and turning those tiles into burning spots causing lots of enemies to die on it. The portals also added a lot of mystery and I found myself dying in those dimensions a lot. I would literally enter one then get one-shot or two-shot by the first enemy I saw. I'm not big in to roguelikes so I played it with saves though I do think in a future run I will actually play with permadeath. I got the hang of it.
In 2017 Gaslamp Games shut down. Aside from Dredmor they only made one other game, Clockwork Empire which was later pulled off online stores entirely. I have it, though I have never played it. In 2012 as an April fools joke they teased a second game which would have been 3D. Although it was just a joke I do feel they were working on something like it officially. That said, there isn't any news of a sequel and with the company dead I have no idea if we will ever get one. There is no other game like this one out there. I still haven't found anything to scratch that itch.
The game has two DLCs that add a lot of features as well as extend the game. Imo, they are absolutely essential and if you get this game you need the DLCs too.
The games music was composed by Matthew Steele and indie game composer out of Seattle, USA. And holy is the music good. Genre-wise it's ambient, dungeon synth, fantasy music all with a sequencer/MIDI feel to it. This is a soundtrack I would list that has it's own sound. It's even got a bit of swing in it. Steele really outdid himself with this one. When I started building my local music collection all those years ago this was one of the first soundtracks I had to buy. I've also used one of the songs from it in an unreleased mashup with an Aesop Rock song. Maybe one day i'll release it. Steele is still active on Twitter though I am not sure if he still composes. His last bandcamp release was 2014.
With the end of this post I am going to be taking a break from posting until we get to the GOTY2021 posts. Cheers!
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