All images and gameplay courtesy of RadiationBurn
Gameplay: Featuring Odiumar as a number of intrepid dungeon crawlers!
The Living Dungeon was published and developed by the team over at RadiationBurn, creators of the award winning Newton vs the Horde.
RadiationBurn’s offices are in the UK and in case you don’t feel like walking that far, they can be reached via Facebook and Twitter. Based off of the entertainment value of their website alone, I know I’d be dropping by if it weren’t for the small obstacle of the Atlantic Ocean. These guys n gals just seem like a lot of fun to hang out with. The Living Dungeon was released for PC in January 2016 and migrated to the Xbox One in late October of the same year.
The Living Dungeon has a fantasy theme: swords, bows, warriors etc and the action takes place inside of a dungeon, which of course houses monsters and traps. The difference here, is that the dungeon itself is alive. The walls appear and disappear, floors drop out from under players and enemies alike, traps move, rooms become toxic and sometimes they even switch places, taking their occupants with them. Imagine if you will, a mash up of Dungeon’s & Dragons the late 90’s movie “Cube” and the television show “Survivor.” You can take our your opponents directly, or you can simply stay alive long enough for the dungeon, or someone else to do it for you.
The Living Dungeon is first and foremost a turn based strategy game. You’re going to need a good memory (or a pen and paper), great peripheral vision, a basic understanding of spacial geometry, the ability to read the mind of a rogue AI, great dice throwing ability, and likely some luck. All joking aside, you really need to be aware of the entire board, make sure you plan ahead when you position your character, know where the traps are and what lies between you and your opponents. Or you can play like me and just wing it! Either way, you’re going to die a lot. Especially if you’re going to go after all of the bonus requirements.
There are two modes to The Living Dungeon, story and multiplayer. Both function the same, but with differing objectives. Each player, whether that be human or AI, will roll five dice at the beginning of each turn. There are a number of different die categories, fighting, moving, dungeon/room influence and other bonuses. The number of dice you have for each type, changes with the character you control, for example warriors have multiple red combat dice, while rogues have no direct combat dice, but multiple movement dice. Players roll the dice at the beginning of each turn and then employ their moves within the dungeon. Players may re-roll one die on each turn if they have sufficient magic built up (which comes from the yellow die and/or the dungeon, and may be saved for future turns). In addition, there are special cards that can be played that typically have a much larger affect. Other characters are controlled by either the AI or other players, depending on the mode you opt for. The dungeon’s turn is always the last one of the round, and it’s dice are quite different from yours. Each round consists of each player, either AI or human, and the dungeon completing their turn.
In story mode, the player takes control of the characters as they try to navigate through the dungeon. Each character is here for a different reason, fleeing an execution or treasure hunting…either way, you’re up against AI opponents that take the form of other players and the “dungeon master” who controls the movement of the dungeon and the monsters wandering the halls. Players are given a main objective, and bonus objectives for each chapter of the story. These range from escaping the current section of the dungeon, to taking out all opponents in a single turn. It can be very challenging, and I frequently found my characters were being separated by the movement of the rooms and/or the need to run for their lives with only a single route open to them.
Multiplayer is more cat-and-mouse as players and AI will hunt each other, while attempting to avoid those that are hunting them. In this mode, the Dungeon can be controlled by a human player, making for some very interesting gameplay. Multiplayer can be played online, or locally as a pass-and-play game. The multiplayer that I engaged in was not a single elimination, even when I was assassinated, I returned the next round in an attempt to keep building up my body count.
RadiationBurn really put some effort into this game. They’ve included two modes, one that replicates playing a turn based table-top game, for those that are feeling nostalgic for their D&D days, or the slightly more immersive dungeon mode. Both modes are really clean and crisp with their visuals, my only complaint is that the camera is sometimes a bit far from the action. The idea that this is a representation of a turn based miniature table-top game, is never lost. Cut scenes are not fully animated, relying on shifting static pictures and dialogue to drive the story. In a strategy game of this type, that does not at all distract from the immersion. Unfortunately, fans of big flashy graphics, are likely to be disappointed. The sounds of The Living Dungeon vary, as does the voice acting. Sound effects and music are well done, delivering when necessary. The voice acting of some characters sounds a bit, hollow and could benefit from some re-recording that includes all of the ambient dungeon noise in the background.
The Living Dungeon’s gameplay is solid and easy to catch on to. Applying it is the real challenge as I found myself making mistakes repeatedly until I got used to surveying the entire board before committing to my final move. Even now, after I’ve lost count of the number of matches I’ve played, I don’t feel like I’m always making the best choices, but that’s part of the fun of strategy games. As in most strategy games, matches can be slow. RadiationBurn must have recognized this, as each player does have a time limit to make their moves, which functions well to keep the action moving. Unfortunately, the online community for the Xbox version of this game is pretty quiet. I may just have to start up a club for this one as it’s going to be on my Xbox for quite some time.
Most of the achievements on this game are rare due to the challenging nature of the game. If you want to complete all of them, you’ll have to cover all of the bonus objectives, for every map. If you’re like me, you’re going to have to play the same maps over and over trying to find the right strategy, combined with the luck of your dice rolls to make it work out. Even though I don’t have them all yet, I’m confident that given time this is one title that I will see in my 100% completed list.
As to the future, I don’t know that RadiationBurn is planning any expansion and/or sequels at this time, but that would be something I would look forward to. There are a number of options I would love to see done in the same manner as The Living Dungeon. Licensed products like Warhammer, or Neverwinter come to mind, as does a genre change, maybe pirate ships or an epic space battle. I’ll certainly be combing the news and bugging my editor, just in case. 
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