The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians - Enhanced Edition 的评价

The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians, which we will call The Fall from now on, is a dungeon crawler of heroic fantasy developed largely by a Frenchman whose independent studio is called Mana Games . It was released on 2016 November on Steam. Yes, it's been a long time, but before I had some many other games to play ... In any case, I'm very glad to have finally been able to immerse myself on this test. Its main originality is to propose battles with active breaks to develop strategies, but it is much richer than that and we will see it together.

Prisoners or guards? Why not both?

The Fall begins with a long-scripted stage that will introduce you to the story. In this period of crisis where the unemployed are more numerous than ever, you finally get a job as a prison guard. You are warmly welcomed by the guard of the entrance who explains that the prison is divided into several floors according to the type of prisoner. With an elevator, he takes you downstairs and introduces you to the prison manager who will take you to the dorms for your first night. You are suddenly awakened by the director who tells you that the prison is undergoing an insurrection and that all personnel start to flee. As a result, he promotes you as the leader of a group of guards charged with staying in the prison to prevent the prisoners from leaving. First day and already a promotion is nice, right? The dialogues of the game are well written, light and,above all, sprinkled with humor.  After this introduction you will see your group creation screen.

You can create your own group at your convenience or choose a predefined one if you do not have the courage. Your company consists of four characters who all have a role: a tank, two DPS and a healer. The whole strategy of the fighting is based on this so I strongly advise you to follow it, but it is you who see. After choosing the role, you have the choice of a race (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Black Elf and Halflin) that modifies your basic characteristics without imposing any restrictions of class or equipment. There are four classes (Healer, Rogue, Mage and Warrior) and each has three specializations. Each specialization corresponds to one of the three roles mentioned above and, as I have already said, it is better to take this into account.

Finally, you choose sex, portrait and voice that will only change the screams of pain that your hero will push in being attacked. I noticed a small problem in this phase: since the game does not have a tooltext, it is not known precisely at this time what the will or the force is used, or what constitutes the specialization " necromancy ", even if one has an idea. You will have to wait until the beginning of the game and go to the skill and character cards to find out. The characteristics are five, without surprise: Strength, Agility, Vigor, Consciousness (which equals Intelligence) and Will. If you're a regular role-player, you know you do not need much more to describe a living being and for that matter, when I see some, I wonder if it's not too much.

Back on topic. These characteristics will define the different components of your character: his life, his mana, his attack speed, his resistances and so on. Each character has its own experience pool that, once full, will make you level-up. The experience gained is common, but each hero has some experience given in advance to prevent them from all gaining a level at the same time. So the tank starts with 1500 points while the second DPS does not. Anyway, after a while, this difference will be minimal considering what you will earn. Since the game does not have any quests, the experience will only come from monsters and enemies killed. Once a level is gained, a hero will see its characteristics automatically increase according to its class and, above all, will earn a skill point.

The latter can be passive or active, and are grouped into different independent trees, each corresponding to a class and a specialization. It is compulsory to take a skill from the class of your character, but you are free to draw from others different specializations. There are also active skills that unlock automatically once many points are invested in one of the trees. It's up to you to invest in a single tree or several to create your dreamed build, which will give way too many possibilities of character evolution.

As for the equipment, there are twelve pitches: on the armor level there is a chest protector, a helmet, leggings, boots, armbands and a cape; at the level of the jewels we are entitled to two rings, an amulet and a magic trinket; for weapons, we have two pitches for hands depending on whether we want to play with a two-handed weapon, or a hand with shield or magic object. These objects can increase your characteristics as well as your different statistics and are essential to specialize your heroes in one way or another.

Prison Break

For me, there are two important vectors in a crawler dungeon: fighting and exploring. This first stands out from the competition because it offers an active break to plan its attacks. Indeed, you will find at the bottom of the screen, next to the portraits of characters, all their skills that you can use by clicking on them. You can of course start a fight without ever using the break and activate your skills with feeling, but I'm afraid that you will not last long, even in medium difficulty.

When the combat start the screen will freeze and you will have the freedom to choose which opponents your characters will aim for, knowing that each hero can target a different opponent, and you can plan up to three skills. After the return to real time, you will be able to admire the show as well as check if the fight happens as planned, and pause at any time in case of unforeseen events to change the planned skills. Beware, however, this is not turn-based because the actions of the enemies will take place at the same time as yours.

The more you progress, the more skills you have and the more tactical the fighting. Your tank will have to make sure that enemies attack only him by increasing his threat rate with them; it is also the only character to have skills to interrupt the casting or attack of the enemy, which will prove essential against the bosses. To help you in this task, you can select an enemy by looking at his life, the hero he targets, the threat rate of each and the skill he uses. Fighting is tactical and there is virtually no way to dodge an attack while moving, because enemies are very fast and will heal and get their life back if you go too far.

Each skill has an activation time and a recharge time, although some are instantaneous but remain unusable for longer in return. Classic attacks are totally automatic if you target an enemy and no skill is used, and once launched, there will be a brief time before the next attack or skill, depending on the character's characteristics. In all honesty, the fighting is truly gripping and gives real satisfaction if successful. To continue with the fighting, some additional information: if you finish a fight with at least one member of your troop still alive, all others will go resurrect with some hit points. The latter recharges more or less quickly according to your characteristics.

In case of a blow, there are also potions that I advise you to keep for fighting against bosses because these are much stronger than average. Indeed, on each floor, you will find a boss, necessary to progress, which is unique and will ask you for a strategy. When you come to such an opponent, a member of your company will speak up to inform you about it and give you the strategy to adopt to defeat it but leave you the choice not to listen to it in order not to spoil the surprise. Each boss has a unique pattern and unique skills and it will be up to you to choose the right moments to interrupt and use the right skills. These fights are very interesting and pleasant, they will put you to the test in the highest difficulties.

A little stroll in prison, it tempts you?

Let's move on to the second major vector of a crawler dungeon: exploration. I will immediately break the suspense, it is great, but I will explain why, because I am kind and helpful. The Fall has twenty floors that have all been created with care and have a real logic in their structures: you will never feel like replaying twice the same level. The fact that everything happens in a prison could have brought about redundant elements, but it is just the opposite! They do not imprison an emperor like a mere scoundrel. Still happy. The environments are beautiful and well modeled: rooms of varied sizes, walls with relief, various decorations. You will not have the floor plan at the start, but each level has a first map that, once in your possession, will act as a auto-map, then a second one revealing you all level, including secret passages. If you are ever lost, which can happen because some floors are quite labyrinthine, you can always activate the auto-map in the game option.

To move, you have the classic keys: straight, back, sideways or turn 90 °; but you can also move your view by leaving the right click pressed. You can thus move as in an FPS, freeing you from the rotation keys. This function is very useful and fluid. You will find that both your group and your enemies move quickly. You will have virtually no need to go back and forth if you find the secret passages used as a shortcut. The world is well done. Well… the world may be not, but the game is ... Through the corridors you will find many enemies that can be up to six on the same square and patrolling nicely before you see and rush on you.

In short, in addition to seeing the landscape, you will see quite a lot of people. You will also find a ton of objects, whether on defeated enemies, in rooms or in secret places. Your inventory is in boxes, each item taking one, and is limited by the weight that includes both what you carry and what is in your inventory. This limit will increase with the characteristics of your characters and will not bother you too much - except maybe at the beginning - since there is no merchant system and therefore no reason to store anything. If you are like me and you say that I will keep my objects in case there would be a plate to activate, forget, there will always be a pebble to drags not far.

You will find, in addition to the equipment, potions to heal you, recover mana, increase your attack speed or your critical strike chance. The equipment is numerous and varied, it will be essential to increase your characteristics and so you specialize, then for once, it can be said that the coat makes the monk. An item of equipment does not require any characteristics or minimum level but is only available for certain specific classes. If you dreamed of making a healer with a two-handed ax, it will not be here. When you move your mouse over an object, whether in your inventory or on the ground, small windows will be displayed to compare it with your current equipment.

At the level of the secrets, know that they are very well dosed: neither too little nor too frequent. You can have a large empty area at the center of the map without any hidden passage inside. Another wonderful thing: the more you progress, the better they are hidden, so keep your eyes open. In addition, the developer added an upgrade to a treasure hunt that will start from the beginning and will follow you throughout your adventure if you can find the clues. As mentioned above, you will also find hidden shortcuts between levels to move between them more easily. In addition, some floors also have an entirely optional "enigma" room: this can range from a simple room with lots of fireballs to avoid, to throw objects in the right places to open a grid. Only small regret: there are no traps strictly speaking, no trapped traps or plates that will activate a burst of arrows on your group. At the same time, I do not see why prison guards would have fun putting traps in their corridors.

My handsome guardian, king of prisons!

I will say it : the game is beautiful. Well, all right : the game is not a graphic slap and has never pretended to be, but it is very aesthetic and will satisfy your retina during your journey. Environments, like enemies, are very well modeled and detailed and do not have to blush in front of other productions at bigger budget. The animations of the opponents are also very well made, fluids and depend on the type of enemy and the skill used. All this is complemented by coherent sound effects: by far you will hear the enemies walking, grunting, sighing ... close, they will shout when hit by your blow. The spells all have a visual and a characteristic sound,

Physics is virtually exemplary: you can take an object in your hand and place it wherever you want on the ground or throw it away to activate an inaccessible pressure plate. The grids have real holes and you can pass things through. What will happen to you in several secrets, but shush. Physics brings to the gameplay, especially for remote attacks because in a room, if the enemies are not in front of you or on the side but at an angle, you can quite aim them and they too elsewhere. In the flaws, I was upset against the light:some places being very dark and we cannot take the torches.

I also must mention the many graphic options and game help. You can also create your own difficulty. To top it all, The Fall has a workshop , because it has a level editor and also a modding tool to make ... mods. There are dungeons available, extra portraits, or a mod that replaces the skins of the spiders by those of the skeletons for our arachnophobic friends.

I have myself edited a mod to prevent your skill causing bleeding to work on several monsters such as skeletons etc… Check it out here 😊

The developer also offers a tutorial for the level editor, which will allow you to start on good bases if you have the courage.

To finish the adventure, trying to find the secrets and finishing the treasure hunt, it took me about forty hours. I was in average difficulty, so count more if you want to try the highest difficulty - good luck for that, because the game is not necessarily easy. Once the game is finished, except to try new builds, there is not especially interest in doing it again because it remains linear. All this for a game available at 19.99 € on the Steam platform . Moreover, I take this opportunity to point out that the developer ManuToo is very present on the forum Steam to answer your questions if you are blocked or have a problem.