izigame.me

Same core gameplay mechanics but a change from strategy to action

To be honest, I'm not sure how i feel about this one. I loved the original DotE and have probably 95% the game with a lot of extra play time. DotE and Risk of Rain 1 were my go to replay value games and I loved them both for it.
The change of direction in this one to put more direct player interactions/actions as well as action oriented spin on it as opposed to the hardcore strategy/tower defense style of it's predecessor has made this.... unique, to say the least.
As a standalone game ignoring the predecessor, this game is an absolutely blast and chock full of interesting tidbits/lore, characters, secrets and unlockables! The gameplay loop is pretty much the same save for the genre change.
In comparison with it's predecessor however, there are several things that stood out.

Despite not being voiced and basically being pixel characters with a face potrait, I found DotE characters to be much more interesting than the current one. Of the 6 characters ive unlocked (out of 8), I only really care about 1 (Cartie obviously).
How come almost nothing from DotE lore or people carried over? There were very iconic and cool characters in the original DotE and i feel like borrowing the franchise's namesake but not utilizing anything beyond gameplay loop is quite bizarre to me. Then again, this isn't DotE 2 but rather Endless Dungeon, so it's like a reinvention of the game rather than a direct sequel (Though i do hope the older characters make an apperance in this one!)
Passives used to play a fairly huge role in the previous games which could literally change a losing run to a winning one or vice versa (Scamper being one of the best). You get hero upgrades and chips now which is more rogue-lite but lose out the more impulsive/luck finding of random passives.
Stats and calculations seem to matter a lot less now compared to DotE and a majority of what you'd need to pay attention to is the rock-paper-scissors of enemy weakness, which for me was a change i didnt like but i wouldnt call it bad.
The same goes for resource production, dust management, and research. A lot of the changes aim to simplify the processes which to me feels like a step down again. Im guessing it's to overwhelm the players less considering they have a more hands on approach than DotE.
Boss fights are an odd addition to the game considering DotE had no such thing. The enemy swarm and limited resources the further you progressed were your "boss fights" at later stages sometimes going so far as to only having enough dust to light up maybe 3 rooms. I do admit however it ties in to the lore well + fits thematically to the action oriented gameplay.
The iconic sound bites/effects (Such as death) or music (Moving the crystal) make a return in this game and i'm shocked at how much impact it leaves behind despite being from a game that was released over 10 years ago. (Suppose this can be ignored for people who never played DotE, unless you go back to it, then it would be reversed impact)

Another thing i found was due to it's action oriented nature, the game becomes a bit unforgiving to solo. As a strategy, you could easily control all 4 heroes as you mostly gave instructions like defend here or go there (Also you could pause the game). Now, having to control the movement to send someone somewhere individually it becomes very hard to keep up. Some examples:

I've had instance where the AI would leave the room i specified them to defend to attack a slightly out or range enemy despite having passives that would severely buff the turret room i set as a chokepoint.
In another instance, my crystal got attacked after leaving a hero to defend it. After going back to provide support i found out the AI was blatantly shooting an enemy shield disregarding the fact it does nothing allowing other enemies to swarm in.
Certain characters, much like it's predecessor, make for very powerful turret support as opposed to active fighter. Unfortunately it looks like the AI is only aware of being a active fighter as they do not seem to shove the turrets to buff them despite being a character very obviously suited to the role.
Boss fights are unbelievably hard as a lot of coordination is required. A boss had a mechanic where you basically had to get behind cover to avoid damage, wait until it ends, then shoot it while it's on cooldown. The AI instead walked out of cover, saw it was in the boss attack area, and ran even further away out of cover as an attempt to avoid the damage (The AI died).
For some odd reason, despite holding a weapon an enemy is weak too, the AI will not swap to it, instead opting to use whatever was held at that point in time. Seems like a jarring oversight. The only exception to this is the alternate weapon is really weak. Either ways there should be more AI control over minor things like this.

That being said, be warned that playing solo is a fairly frustrating experieince at times compared to playing it in a group.
Either ways, a great game overall and a definite recommend for me so long as you're fine with the action genre it has taken more inspiration on!
Side note: Bring back the PUG (Ayairi Whairydd) dammit.