Complete Puzzles To Destroy Enemies In The Dungeon Saga
The Dungeon Saga ($0.99) by GameLab Innovation Center is an addictive puzzle RPG game that offers hours of gameplay, epic fights, and hero customization. This game is reminiscent of the popular Puzzle Quest series, and if you enjoy Puzzle Quest, you’re sure to enjoy The Dungeon Saga. This version is for the iPhone, but there’s also an iPad version available for a dollar more.
In The Dungeon Saga, you play a hero adventuring through a never ending dungeon, defeating enemies and collecting items to become increasingly powerful.
When you start the game, you can choose from two different characters: a warrior and a sorcerer, which each have different abilities that will be unlocked throughout the game. There are three difficulty levels to choose from, and each one changes the number of lives you will have in a game.
The opening screen is a map, which shows your character in the form of a hat (I was the wizard, the warrior icon will be different), and enemies as skulls. Tapping a skull will cause your character to engage in a fight.
Fights are match 3 type puzzles, where each match has a different effect. Matching swords is your main goal, as each time you match at least three, you will damage your enemy. Making a match is done by dragging your finger over the icons.
Every icon has a different effect. Purple shields will add to your shield number, which will block incoming sword blows. Red potions will restore hit points, while blue potions restore mana. Green stars give experience, and gold coins give money.
You and your enemy each have a limited number of hit points and shield points, and when you deplete your enemy of life or when you run out of life yourself, the game is over. If you happen to lose, don’t worry, you can just try again (unless you set it to ultra hard).
After a couple of fights, you will be able to progress to an obelisk on the map. The obelisk allows you to level up one of four skills: strength, defense, mana, or health. There are also various spells and skills to learn, that are both active and passive. As a sorcerer, I was able to learn spells for mana regeneration and damaging spells such as a fireball.
There are 120 dungeon levels to go through, and each level has multiple enemies to defeat, adding up to a ton of available gameplay. There are 20 different types of monsters to battle, plus plenty of items to obtain and spells to unlock.
The menus are intuitive and gameplay is easy to pick up, though mastering it will be a little more difficult, especially when fighting tough enemies. There’s a menu that keeps track of all your stats, and The Dungeon Saga also supports OpenFeint and Game Center.
I am a huge fan of Puzzle Quest, and I’ve played it on multiple platforms, so I was excited to try The Dungeon Saga. I was impressed with the game, but there were a couple of issues that made it a little frustrating.
Games go on entirely too long. Puzzle Quest has spells for healing, but there’s no direct healing via potions like in this game. The red potions give too many hit points and each match lasts significantly longer than it should. Even when the enemy only had 14 hit points at the beginning of the game, matches lasted forever.
There’s quite a bit of variation in Puzzle Quest, with different kinds of puzzles to unlock doors, disarm traps, and learn spells. That’s definitely lacking in The Dungeon Saga, and without any variation in gameplay, it can become boring after just a few battles.
However, there are still items to buy and new spells to learn, both of which keep the game interesting. It may not be suitable for extended periods of play, but it’s a game that you can pick up for a few minutes at a time while waiting in line or sitting in front of the TV. The Dungeon Saga is a great value because there’s a ton of gameplay for just $0.99, and it’s a game that you will be playing for quite awhile.
