I have just finished, and here is my review and thoughts as well.
Graded on a scale from 1-10
Overview:
If you play Zed's dungeons in order of creation, I think its neat to watch him grow as a creator. This is definately his best work so far, and I would recommend it both for novices and old hands. The dungeon is small, but well thought out and engrossing, with clever tricks, amazing wallsets and graphics, and a few neat puzzles. There are some minor flaws both in mechanics and puzzle logic, but not very many, and the ones there are are not severe. Fights abound, with 'boss' fights every level. Some are tough, and require quite a lot of 'twitch mechanics' to beat. However, unlike Zed's previous entries, the focus is not soley on fighting, as there are puzzles as well.
Graphics/Atmosphere - 8
Simply amazing. Zed has obviously put a lot of time and effort into his wallsets, items, and monsters. Although I would not grade an entry 'down' for using the traditional DM graphics, I feel the creativity of Zed's dungeon deserves a high score. The graphics and music fit the environment well, lending a dark demonic atmosphere. The musical score is inventive, and not annoying. The only real flaw in this area that I found was the initial forest level was very hard to walk around in due to not being able to tell the difference between wall tiles and passable 'tree' tiles.
Size - 5
Small, but leaves you wanting more. I just wish it could have been a little longer, as I beat it in 3 hours.
Characters/monsters/items- 6
The characters were the one area I felt the dungeon was weak. Some variety in stats would have been nice as it seemed that all of one type of class had the exact same stats so it was just a matter of what picture you like best (or if you ressed, name). However, the monsters were inventive and interesting. I also found it interesting the lack of weapons in the game (or maybe I just didnt find them) so until literally the last level, one of my front row characters was punching. Also inventive were the way the light spells work and the trick of
washing the salt fish to make it edible.
. I wish there would have been more clever spell uses. I did kind of like the 'low item, low magic' style dungeon, as it makes you really parcel out your resources.
Puzzles and gameplay - 8
This is one area where Zed has most grown as a dungeon creator. There are quite a few clever puzzles throughout the game, although a couple of them seem to be lacking in logic somewhat. But, the logical ones outweigh the few that are not as smoothly put together. There are many fights, including quite a few tricky 'dance' type boss fights. Zed has made it so you cant use the stair trick either. But even though the fights were difficult, I felt it was just the right amount of difficulty to leave you a sense of satisfaction when the enemy was beaten.
Difficulty - 7
There are quite a few difficult battles, as well as a few puzzles that may send you running to the forums to get an answer.
Ending - 4
Just a
do you want to leave?
message. And you dont even need to fight the final boss if you dont want to (or dont know that you can).
Some neat little 'ending' message would have been nice
Overall - 8
As I said before, this is definatly worth the 2-4 hours it will most likely take you to beat it. I look forward to seeing Zed's sequel and his further improvement as a dungeon creator.
RAF, you should use proper French in your translator software.
