Gamer reviews for Paper Dungeons
Jot It Down the Dungeon
Paper Dungeons is a dungeon RPG crawler / puzzler, sounds really complicated but it is actually not. This game is very simple with its game mechanics, its art style, and control schemes, but its simplicity does not hinder the enjoyment you might get out of playing this game. For a certain audience (RPG enthusiasts), the difficulty of this game is on the very easy side. For those casual gamers, they will find the early levels intimidating and might give up in the first few minutes of constant dying.
Paper Dungeons is priced at $2.99, it seems like it is priced on the high side, but do not worry, you will get more than what you paid for. There is a plethora of gameplay options in this game. Campaign is divided into three being Official (developer made), your creation, and other people’s creations. These downloadable levels be it campaign scenarios, user-generated levels, or additional content from the developers are all free, no additional in-app purchases needed. Any further updates or content from here on should remain free too as Paper Dungeons follow the traditional “pay-once-to-play” scheme.
This is a role-playing game first before anything. You manage and build your stats and equip gear to further improve your character. Equipment are mostly bought off the store, and spells are mostly given by the NPCs or found in treasure chests. Like the old-school pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons games you are familiar with, you do have to roll the dice for every attack turn to determine both you and your opponents damage output. It will still largely depend on your stats how much damage you can receive and how much damage you can dish. Still, luck factors in when it comes to tight situations, and it may even turn the battle into your favor in times that you are being dominated.
Graphically, Paper Dungeons is not technically impressive, but still is endearing. The art direction employed in this game is indeed nice. Like its gameplay, the art direction is pretty simple, staying in the spirit of “paper” with its flat, colorful, cut-out paper-like illustrations.
Your progression only is saved for that particular scenario. If you are playing as a level 10 Archer in a puzzle scenario, your items, stats, and loots do not carry over to any of the Campaign scenario, even to the other puzzle scenarios! Add to the fact that you are limited only to a few saves per level, life will be harder if you are not really careful. For a non-twitch based game, you are going to get surprised of its ability to take you to a zen state and you’d be totally unaware of your environment. Friendly reminder, do not play this game when driving, or any game at all, for your safety.
The longevity of this game is not anchored on those official scenarios, it is on you, as you can create your own scenarios and share them to the world. Creations of other players can also be downloaded and played. For its base game, Paper Dungeons already offer a lot of content, from multiple classes, dice sets, equipment, spell, among other things.
Sound effects and music are limited, but I usually play this game with music on, so they are effectively muted. Besides that, sound is not involved as a gameplay element for this game since you can't hear footsteps or hear alerts for hints.
The UI of this game retains the UI of the PC version. There are even Function keys plastered all over the menus. This game should be difficult to navigate in smaller gadgets, as I played this on an iPad Mini, I tend to register the wrong actions often. Just imagine working this game on an iPhone.
Paper Dungeon should be loved by its target audience, and if you are not really into board games, you will be bored in the first three minutes of playing the game. This might not be the best representative for its genre but is more than serviceable with a good hold for the fundamentals and engaging RPG core. This might not be the best entry for those who are curious of hardcore role-playing, but this is the easiest.