Roguelike gameplay concepts have managed to wrap their tentacles around pretty much every genre you can think of, and why should tower defense be any different?
Endless Dungeon doesn’t just stop at turrets and permadeath, though. You see, with its latest effort, Amplitude Studios has managed to inject a healthy dose of isometric twin-stick combat into the action, too.
Endless Dungeon : tower defense X twin-stick shooter
So what is a 4X specialist doing making an action-infused tower defense roguelite? Well, it’s not actually the first time the developer has ventured down this procedurally generated path. Dungeon of the Endless, a game with a strikingly similar title, was a pixelated prototype of what Endless Dungeon has turned out to be.
Having said all that, I’m not suggesting that there aren’t considerable differences between the two. However, the Sega-owned studio clearly has a soft spot for the genre and this is a beat that they’ve danced to before. Put another way: I had high expectations going in.
Endless Dungeon blends its constituent ingredients together quite deftly, I’m pleased to report. The tower defense elements have been integrated most intuitively, and this comes from someone who’s played a few over the years out of professional interest but never really for funsies. That is to say, I know my way around one but I’m also no turret-dropping prodigy.
It didn’t take me long to work out the essential principles, and it was just a couple of runs more before I was employing refined tactics – well, refined by my standards, anyway.
The turrets are quick and simple to position and upgrade via hardpoints that are located pretty much everywhere. However, with resources scarce and lines of sight ever-changing, it’s never as simple as just filling every slot in a room and leaving the turrets to it, especially as they will frequently need to be repaired mid-battle.
Hanging out at the edge of the Endless universe
The atmosphere is laid on thick, and that starts in the saloon; your new home among the stars and the base where you tend to your progression between runs. There’s a strong Space Western vibe reinforcing the notion that you’re on the edge of time and space.
In fact, you’ll spend quite a bit of time in here after each run, upgrading both your characters and their weapons, and learning more about the lore and the space station itself. I’m being vague on purpose so you can discover all this for yourself, but I thought it most intriguing and my desire to find out more helped shape even my earliest attempts.
Let’s stay in the saloon for a moment longer as it’s there that you’ll meet Endless Dungeon’s cast of playable characters. You are all in this weird limbo together, stranded on a mysterious space station, and eager to escape. You start with a limited roster but more unlock naturally as you play.
Thus you’ll bring different configurations of them together, balancing their various skills to make the most effective squad possible. Starting stats and weapons define the overall playstyle of each character, and higher-level play will require you to find synergies between them. This applies when playing alone or with friends.
Endless Dungeon: tactics and gunplay
The gunplay is nice and responsive, and there’s a real shift in feel when switching between weapons, which makes for some interesting decisions as you progress through each run. New weapons will pop out of chests and you can buy them, too. Get ready to try different tactics as you feel out the different characters and their respective strengths. Each of the heroes sampled so far felt different thanks to their starting stats, and it’s easy to lean into their individual specialisms, upgrading as you delve deeper.
When you’re out on patrol there is a lot to think about. Each dungeon is procedurally generated, and thus you never know where anything is, ensuring that exploration is always the order of the day. There are three main currencies in the game and there are terminals dotted all over that can increase production of them, as well as offer upgrades and level up your characters.
Later on, you’ll even discover terminals called Steles that have fluctuating effects on the area around you, or that you can switch off for Dust, the game’s fourth main resource and something Endless fans will be all too familiar with. I think my main critique so far is that I wish it was easier to parse when my resource terminals were going to pay out as I always feel like I’m waiting, waiting, waiting to get paid.
Space monsters in the Endless Dungeon
Anyway, tending to your science production isn’t why you’re here, Dear Reader. As hypothetical You progresses through each level, there are frequent waves of creatures. There are four different types as far as I can tell, with each one particularly vulnerable to specific weapon classes.
The monsters spawn from different points that you’ll discover as you explore, which adds to the tension every time you open a door as you might be about to reveal a new spawn point. Once uncovered, you must then put down your turrets and marshal your resources in preparation for the incoming onslaughts. Waves are triggered for a variety of reasons, and the bigger the levels, the more difficult it can be to keep track of everything.
Thus it helps if you bring a couple of friends to the fight. Endless Dungeon offers online co-op, so you and two friends (or strangers) can work together. Resources earned are split two or three ways, so nobody misses out. It does help if you’re playing with friends – as you can imagine communication is harder between strangers. What’s more, an erratic co-op player (like me) can be a distraction.
An Endless gameplay loop
In some other games, it’s possible to get bored of playing the same opening area over and over again. This malady is avoided altogether in Endless Dungeon thanks to a selection of three different biomes that are unlocked in pretty short order at the start of the game. This ensures you can mix things up while learning the ropes.
Furthermore, these biomes connect to lower floors differently, so depending on which route you take, your run might skip whole sections. I appreciated the variety and I also really enjoyed the level of detail in the environmental design. This mysterious space station has a history that you uncover piece by piece, and you’re constantly picking up scraps of the story.
Similarly, the different characters have individual pathways that require them to visit different parts of the station and complete certain objectives. The clever environmental storytelling, the character progression, and the various unlocks give each run extra substance, enhancing and reinforcing that all-important gameplay loop.
Controlling the chaos: co-op roguelike action
It’s not too long before you’ve unlocked the ability to play with a full squad. You move your team around each level, constantly on the lookout for where to leave each of your characters so they can react to the various beasties that you encounter. There isn’t much nuance when directing your AI-controlled colleagues in single-player, but it is at least intuitive to direct them during quieter moments.
I found myself gravitating towards moving around during the prep phase with the more nimble characters just so I could get around the place quicker, while my tankier characters were left to mind the spawn points until things kicked off. Once all hell broke loose I would then switch to whichever situation needed me.
With enough turrets and a playable character nearby, you can suppress one or even two spawn zones, but it’s a constant balancing act and I always felt like I was putting out fires. It was almost worse in the co-op mode when playing with strangers online, because communication was strained.
Things get really frantic later on during bigger levels, where the intersecting rooms and corridors can start to get confusing and the distances between your units start to stretch. It can get really chaotic in co-op mode, too, especially if not all players are working in tandem.
Say hello to my little friend…
I’ve not mentioned the Crystal Bot yet, but you’ll have to protect this little fella the whole time because if he gets taken down it’s game over. The bot will slowly plod between specific locations on the map when commanded, and it’s up to you to keep him safe. This can create even more confusion during epic boss battles when you’re firing this way and that, frantically repairing turrets, and just hoping that your bot will get out of the way of an incoming attack in time.
The studio’s trademark visual style has been deployed throughout; that means elegant cel-shaded graphics, with plenty of detail to be seen across the enemy and boss designs, the various biomes, and the characters that make up your party. The music is great, too, and any concerns I have about the overall audio-visual design are minimal and inconsequential.
If you haven’t read between the lines already, I’m enjoying my time with Endless Dungeon, and I’m going to keep playing for a while longer (not least because I’m going to make one or two guides to help a few folks get started). Amplitude has already committed to its ongoing development, so there’s every reason to be optimistic about its long-term future and increased replayability. What’s already there at launch is excellent, however, and I look forward to exploring this roguelite genre mashup more deeply in the days and weeks ahead.
Available on PC Steam (tested), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S.
This article has been edited to remove some of the earlier bloat, and to add details about the multiplayer. For more great games just like this, check out our best roguelike games toplist…
