While shooters and action games constantly dominate the headlines – especially games that involve large numbers of players trying to off each other in massive online arenas – let’s not forget that there are many other genres out there with massive fan bases.
One of them is “dungeon crawler”, a genre with a long history that stretches back to before the age of personal computers. Basically, dungeon crawlers are games where the players have to navigate a maze-like dungeon filled with dangers of all kinds, battle monsters, avoid traps, and solve puzzles that usually hide better equipment, treasures, and other types of loot.
For a quick introduction to the dungeon crawler genre, take a closer look at Minecraft Dungeons – it is a simple, efficient, and lovable game without all the complexities of the genre that true fans appreciate so much. For those ready to dive deeper into the genre, here are a few upcoming games worth keeping an eye out for in the coming months.
UnderMine
UnderMine has been in “early access” on Steam for almost a year – and its final version will see the light of day (sort of) this August. While the game will likely not win any awards for its innovative graphics and gameplay, it will offer its players a deep and complex experience. In the “early access” version, players could only explore the game’s first three zones but this already has more than 300 unique characters, over 200 items to find, dozens of enemies, four bosses, and over 10 special characters to meet and rescue. The game’s reviews are “very positive” on Steam, so it is one to be looking forward to this summer.
Exanima
Another “early access” dungeon crawler – the time the game has already spent here is way more impressive, having entered this stage in 2015. The game looks great and feels great, too – players praise it especially for its combat system that beats those in many more battle-centred titles.
The developers of the game have ambitious plans for the game: the part available through Steam’s “early access” is only the introduction of a “larger, more open and varied setting”, as they write, with the Exanima itself serving as a prelude to a larger open-world game called “Sui Generis”. Given that it’s a crowdfunded project, the developers behind the game are building and improving it based largely on the community’s feedback.
The game currently doesn’t have a final release date but some think it may hit the shelves by the end of this year.
Vaporum: Lockdown
Finally, a game that takes dungeon-crawling out of its classic high-fantasy setting: Vaporum: Lockdown. The game is a prequel to the successful first-person steampunk cRPG “Vaporum”, and tells the story of Lisa Teller, a scientist struggling to survive disastrous events that happened in the tower of Arx Vaporum.
The game is inspired by classics like Dungeon Master and the Beholder series and has a unique and immersive steampunk setting, real-time first-person combat, and lots of exploration, loot, and mysteries to uncover.
The game is set to be released “in the summer of 2020”.
