Endless Dungeon Preview - Roguelite Twin-Stick Shooter Tower Defence Chaos

thegamer.com:

Is there a more terrifying concept than being trapped on a drifting spaceship with no way to escape, being eternally revived every time you’re killed by the ship’s murderous denizens? I can’t think of many, but Endless Dungeon makes it more exciting than harrowing.

This roguelite twin-stick shooter with tower defence mechanics is set aboard a space-faring relic of the Endless, an ancient race whose rise and fall predate modern civilisation. The ship has a tractor beam that draws in any other ships that dare get too close, and the unfortunate crews of these ships make up the cast of Endless Dungeon. Whenever they dare head below the main deck, they are attacked by wave after wave of vicious bugs and bots. Unfortunately, they’ll only get off the ship by bringing a crystal to the ship’s core to refuel it - a crystal the ship’s residents seek to destroy.

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What makes Endless Dungeon stand out narratively is the fact that the roguelike nature of the game is given an in-universe excuse. Whenever a character dies or a run ends via broken crystal, they are revived by a machine on the ship’s deck - which has been turned into a hangout-cum-bar. Here, you can either delve right back into the dungeon or chat with your cursed crewmates. All things considered, they’re a plucky bunch who don’t seem to mind being made functionally immortal and given such a Sisyphean task. I didn’t get to know the crew all that well in my short time with the game, but their dialogue nails a feeling of forced camaraderie in the face of grim reality, all underlined by a beautiful, moody background track.

Mechanically, the eponymous Endless Dungeon takes the form of an isometric, room-based