Dungeon Crawl

Genre: Roguelike
World map: No
Permadeath: Yes
Races: 26
Classes: 25
Religion: 12 advanced gods
Spellcasting: Advanced
Persistent dungeons: Yes
Version: Tile Version
Latest version: Stone Soup
Graphics: ASCII/Tiles
Mouse: No/Yes
Sound: No
Resource: Hints and Spoilers

Linley's Dungeon Crawl is one of the deepest and most popular of modern roguelikes. You descend a deep dungeon to retrieve the Orb of Zot. On your descent you will need to make side trips to branch dungeons to acquire "runes", keys needed to enter the Realm of Zot. Dungeon Crawl offers a multitude of playstyles depending on what race and class you play. Religion also affects the playstyle because of the many gods with different likings.

Jump to the story about Heala the Elf Healer
Jump to the story about Crawler the Ogre Mage
Jump to the story about Killer the Deep Elf Monk
Jump to the story about Deathbringer the Halfling Crusader
Jump to the story about Rogge the Draconian Reaver
Jump to the story about Crawler VI the Spriggan Transmuter

Review

The Early Game

The early game in Dungeon Crawl is an exciting, well-balanced exploration into the different character races and classes. Large levels and a lot of items give the player room to develop the character in a slow pace. Although the many items soon overload an inexperienced player and can become a nuisance, the player after a few plays will know what to keep and what to leave. Because shops don’t buy there’s no need to haul class-restricted or obsolete items. Another positive thing for the inexperienced crawler is the items quite harmless nature, beside cursed items that can lead to dangerous situations when they stick to the unwary crawlers hands. It is best to test all items with a scroll of reveal curse before trying them.

The large levels sometimes are disorienting when running up and down stairs to check if they lead to an unexplored section. This very easily leads to quick and unfocused play and suddenly the incautious adventurer is locked into a deadly situation. When a character starts with a religion the interaction with the God can be interesting already from the start depending on the gods preferences. The god of death, Yredelemnul, for instance appreciates killing in his name (while praying).

Although it is fun to check out random races and classes it can lead to characters that is quite difficult to play. It is recommended to play a few fighting classes first, and then maybe let random choose the race and then choose an appropriate class.

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