Super Dungeon Bros Review

Join Freddie, Axl, Lars and Ozzie as they bulldoze through monster-filled dungeons and unleash their fiery rock 'n roll skills on endless hordes of minions. Super Dungeon Bros is a simple hack-and-slash dungeon crawler with very little getting in the way of the action. Simply choose your bro, pick up a devastating weapon and wreak havoc!

Super Dungeon Bros Review

INTRODUCTION

Super Dungeon Bros is a simplistic hack-and-slash game centred around a rock 'n roll theme. You play as one of four wild characters who've been named after rock legends like Freddie Mercury and Ozzy Osbourne, each of whom comes with a little back story and a lot of attitude.

After playing a record backwards and receiving a message from a mysterious voice instructing you to save the world, you make your way through three dungeons, killing bad guys and collecting loot. The game has a solo option where players will face the danger alone but as can be expected, multiplayer is where it's all at. Connect online and play as a party of up to 4 players for maximum chaos.

After seeing the trailer for Super Dungeon Bros I was ready to fall in love with this game. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver in just about every department. The result of React Games' labours is a repetitive, unbalanced game that you'll forget as soon as you put down your controller.

Super Dungeon Bros is available on Steam for $19.99. Here's the trailer that got me so excited about this game.

THE BROS

As mentioned, the game offers you 4 awesome characters. Unfortunately, despite being such likeable guys, all of them play exactly the same. You have 3 different attacks which are determined by the weapon you carry and not the character you're playing as. There are 4 additional characters available to be unlocked. Unfortunately, after making you pay $19.99 for the game, they have the audacity to make you pay even further to unlock these characters as separate DLC's, despite the fact that they don't add any variety to the game.

As far as the attacks go, you have a basic and heavy attack and a special ability. Combo consists of 3 basic attacks followed by a heavy one and your special ability can only be used twice during a level. Not much in terms of diversity then. Although you have the option when playing on PC to use your mouse and keyboard, this game was definitely meant to be played with a controller. The awkward controls and the constant need to either jump or dodge to avoid the never ending projectiles coming your way makes a keyboard a highly impractical and frustrating tool for this game.

Freddie makes a rock star entrance in Super Dungeon Bros

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is exactly what you'd expect. Run through the levels and kill everything in sight while trying to take as little damage as possible. While this is supposed to be the fun part that keeps you glued to your screen for hours on end, the limited attack options and the fact that all enemies are pretty much the same, means that you'll grow bored rather quickly.

The game offers you two types of loot, namely gems and gold. You also pick up pints of beer which acts like health packs, a nice touch I think. Gold can be used to upgrade your character at the end of each level or to purchase health or additional lives at the shops you stumble upon. The gems will be used to purchase additional weapons, each of which offers new stats, and you can also buy fantastic looking helmets ranging from your basic horned helm to traffic cones. Unfortunately, the helms are purely cosmetic but they look so good they might still be worth the purchase. There are a good number of weapons available in both melee and ranged formats. However, many of the weapons are simply too awkward to use and the ranged weapons have the added burden of having to be reloaded too frequently. The very first weapon is a basic sword which was actually my favourite among those I tried out.

The dungeons are randomly generated and although there are three varieties, they all feel pretty much the same. They're littered with traps like blades swinging from the ceiling or spears shooting from the floor. These can be tricky to navigate but can also be used to harm your enemies. Don't take too long getting past these though because the longer you remain in the dungeon, the higher your threat meter grows. This is basically an indication of how difficult the level is becoming and it goes on to the point where minions are endlessly being summoned and you're just darting past them to try and reach the end. Every now and then you'll be presented with a boss fight but these are just larger versions of the minions you fought up to that point, who takes much longer to die.

Rising undead in the lobby and slicing death traps on the first floor. It's all rock 'n roll in Super Dungeon Bros.As mentioned, the main attraction in this game is the multiplayer mode. Playing solo means you don't even get AI controlled assistance. Playing solo means that all the additional lives available are yours to use, though, while in multiplayer you have to share them with everyone. You can revive a fallen bro before needing to use a life, but you only have 10 seconds to do so.

DESIGN

The theme behind Super Dungeon Bros is fantastic fun. The rock 'n roll warriors are good for a couple of laughs and the graphics compliments the rest of the game well. It's disappointing that this is the only truly positive point to mention of this game.

They also feature a rocking soundtrack with a few more available to unlock. Unfortunately you once again have to take out that credit card for these since they are also bundled as DLC's.

Super Dungeon Bros has you breaking all objects in your path, like a true rock star.

CONCLUSION

I desperately wanted to love Super Dungeon Bros. The characters are phenomenal and the game's design is something to remember. Unfortunately, the rest of the game is let down by sub-par gameplay mechanics, unbalanced weapons and a complete lack of variety.

Playing the solo campaign starts out too easy and quickly becomes way too difficult for one person to handle which means you'll need to play with your friends to get the most out of this game. Unfortunately, there have been numerous reports of issues with the multiplayer mode such as no players being available to join a game or the game itself constantly freezing up. It does seem like the developers have cleared most of these up but even when running smoothly, the multiplayer mode does little to excite.

PROS

CONS

  • Entertaining character designs
  • Fun graphics
  • Little variety makes for dull gameplay
  • Solo play is too difficult
  • Unbalanced weapon choices
  • Way too much bundled as additional DLC's
3
Bad

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