Dungeon of the Endless is a 2014 Amplitude Studios published rougelike game set in the Endless universe with tower defence gameplay elements. The game has a 3D sequel in Endless Dungeon.
Plot[]
A prison space craft containing criminals being brought to Planet Auriga is shot down by space pirates. Taking an emergency escape pod, the people on the ship escape to the planet below, crash landing inside a dungeon.
With everything bar the energy crystal that powers their ship busted, both prisoners and the prison warden crew must work together to explore through deadly dungeons, fight off countless aggressive monsters and make it to the surface alive.
Gameplay[]
The player starts by selecting two characters to crash land with. Each time a door within the dungeon is opened it counts as a turn, and will allow players to come across both treasures and monsters.
The main resources of the game are:
- Food: Used to level up your characters, unlocking new skills and increasing their stats. It can also be used to recruit new characters you discover inside the dungeon to help you on your journey.
- Science: Used to create new nodes which can be used to help defend you. These can include everything from simple turrets, to gas that slows enemies down, hologram heroes that act as decoys or a buddy bot that will help look after your modules.
- Industry: Used to build the above items and modules that increase the amount of food, science and industry you recieve each turn.
Occasionally the player may come across a merchant who will offer goods such as weapons, clothing(used for defence) or support items which do a variety of different things. Each character has a different weapon of choice and can only equip that particular weapon. For example the bounty hunter, Sara Numas, can only use swords and is unable to use pistols, heavy machine guns or spears.
The player may also come across a new character who will be recruitable providing the player has enough food and has 3 or less party members. Once joined they will join your party. Keeping them alive for three floors will unlock the character.
After finding the exit, the player must get a character to pick up the crystal and take it to the exit. The only problem is doing so will set hordes of monsters upon the characters. The crystal carrier will be able to exit once they reach the right room, although any allies that aren't in the room will be left behind to die, making it a good idea to get everyone into the exit room apart from the carrier.
After clearing 13 floors, the characters will escape to the surface and gaze upon the apocalyptic planet they now reside on.
Playable characters[]
There are a total of 27 selectable playable characters in Dungeon of the Endless and one secret character that can only be played via selecting Random.
Trivia[]
- The game was originally going to be a little companion game to link Endless Space and Endless Legend as a little free to play title with a few characters. But as development continued the game got far more complex, more characters were added, more gameplay elements were included and it became a squad based game with tower defense elements and resource management. In the end it was released as it's own game.[1]
- The PC version features the free Australium DLC which adds characters from Team Fortress 2, namely Heavy (Misha Cherny), Pyro (Pat Bates), Medic (Kaspar Herab) and Engineer (Dell Bradford).
- Incidentally this is the second Sega title Heavy and Pyro have appeared in after Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
- The character Opbot DV8 is seen in both Endless Space titles as a hero of the Vaulters, as their narrator in Endless Legend and as the main character of Endless Zone.
- Sara Numas is a shout out to Metroid's Samus Aran, with her job role and looks, even having her name be an anagram of the Metroid star.
- Several of the cast have unique interactions:
- Sara Numas and Gork "Butcher" Koroser have a hatred for one another as Gork slaughtered Sara's family. After five floors, the two will attack one another with the stronger one killing the other. This unfortunately leaves the player down a hero for the next floor.
- Ken Massoqui has interactions with both Opbot DV8 and Chef Nandor.
- Josh N'Tello will have a storyline where he tries to discover who talked and got him and his gang sent down. He shares this story with the members of his gang, Max O'Kane, Troe Pekenyo and strangely Warden Mormish.
- Warden Mormish also has an interaction with Nurse Deena Ratchet.
- Elise Ness and Rakya Pulmoni share a storyline.
- Golgy Phurtiver who thinks she's a spider has an interaction with the insectoid gentleman Skroig. Both want to eat one another. However this does not lead to the death of one unlike Sara and Gork.
- Hikensha has a story with both Max O' Kane and the Drakken Kreyang and the split personality Mizi Kuritiz.
- Lady Joleri Tulak has a story with Troe Pekenyo and Skroig.
- The PC exclusive Team Fortress 2 characters of Dell Bradford (Engineer), Pat Bates (Pyro), Kaspar Herab (Medic) and Misha Cherny (Heavy) have a story together.
- Sara Numas, Max O' Kane and Gork "Butcher" Koroser all appear in the official Amplitude Studios produced comic book "The Perfect Plan" which goes into the backstory of Endless Space character, Horatio. In it, Horatio ends up getting everyone killed by first knocking the Crystal off it's perch which gets Max killed, and then abandons Sara Numas and Gork as he escapes on his own. Sara is seen being killed by a tentacle, although Gork's fate is never revealed.
- Esseb Tarosh can be unlocked by playing the game on the 21st January to the 25th January. However as the character is unlocked based on the players computer clock, it's easy for a player to alter their clock in order to get Esseb to unlock.
- Ayairi Whairydd is the only character not selectable from the character select screen or hired in the dungeons. She can only be used by selecting Random on the character select screen, where she will have a small chance of being chosen.
- Despite the Switch version not including the Team Fortress 2 characters of Misha(Heavy), Kaspar(Medic), Pat(Pyro) and Dell(Engineer), the Heavy's trademark favourite food 'Sandvich' and Medic's pet dove 'Archimedes' remain as equippable support items.
- ↑ The Art of the Dungeon of the Endless digital book, free with the game.