Dungeons of Dredmor
Long ago, the Dark Lord Dredmor was bound in the darkest dungeons beneath the earth by great and mighty heroes. Centuries later, the magical bonds that hold him in place are loosening and his power grows ever stronger. The land cries out for a new hero, a powerful warrior or a mystic wizard like those spoken of in the prophecies of yore.
What they have, unfortunately, is you…
Step into the Dungeons of Dredmor! Embrace your destiny! Face evil of the likes the world has never known – the terrifying Swarmies, the undulating Thrusties, and the adoreable nest-building Diggles. Worship Inconsequentia, the Goddess of Pointless Sidequests, or try your luck as a devotee of the nameless Lutefisk God. Cast powerful magic learned from the dark business warlocks of the school of Necronomiconomics, or summon the Viking Runes of your ancestors to blast your foes with thunder and lightning! Discover the power that can be had by wielding a bizarre armament of devastating weaponry such as the Interdimensional Axe, the Plastic Ring, and the Invisible Shield (if you can remember where you left it). Wield shoes decorated by the Dwarven Glittersmiths, all of whom have now committed suicide because of their shame, and embrace the joys of destroying giant moustache-wielding brick demons with a mace decorated with tawdry, delicious bacon.
While you’re at it, be prepared to die. A lot. In hideous, screaming pain that makes you throw your keyboard out the window.
The Dungeons of Dredmor await. Are you ready for them?
Key features:
- Classic Roguelike gameplay with the sweet, refreshing taste of point-and-click interfaces. No longer must you press CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-x to drink a potion.
- Randomly generated dungeons entice you with the sweet, sweet promises of treasure and … things.
- Old-school pixel goodness. Face lovingly hand-animated monsters and enjoy the great taste of beautiful, individually rendered items on top of a sea of gorgeous, potent tile-work.
- Wield the awesome power of the Anvil of Krong, lest it wield you!
- Incredibly complicated crafting system! Wield relics of the Great Elven/Dwarven conflict; grind down ingots to make powdered aluminum and shove it directly up your nostrils!
- Hordes of monsters never-before-seen in a video game!
- Deploy cunning traps to defeat your foes!
- Infinite replay value: choose from a selection of mind-boggling skills to create your character. A new gameplay experience awaits every time!
- Did we mention there’s lutefisk?
Game Discussion
Steam User 31
Dungeons of Dredmor belongs in a museum.
As far as dungeon crawlers go, the game is fairly standard: it's a little clunky, but reasonably balanced with 3 difficulty levels, a permadeath setting and a less-grindy setting to suit your interests. You pick your skills to guess at a playstyle, you head off into the dungeon, you fight stuff and level up and get gear, and then (most likely) you die. All you get out of that run is becoming more familiar with the game; there's no persistent/metagame progress.
Where DoD shines, and the reason why I say it belongs in a museum, is how it delivers just so many references through tasteful writing. More specifically, it's delivering references from the 2000's and early 2010's. It's a time capsule, a snapshot of Internet culture and a glimpse into what everybody liked at the time. From now-dead memes to now-forgotten movie quotes to now-unused cultural phrases like "Oh snap," DoD has it all.
Being a piece of cultural history, Dungeons of Dredmor is worth picking up to witness.
Steam User 6
Played this game since 2011, and *finally* got a win on normal mode 12-13 years later. This game got me into Roguelikes and I still appreciate its humor. This is the kind of game I think is rather hard to do well at without wikiwalking, and I for one appreciate that many forum posts from 2014 are still relevant for its strategy.
Steam User 7
I remembered having a lot of fun with this game back when it first came out. Underneath the cheesy, videogamey humor is a fun, surprisingly in-depth straight Berlin interpretation roguelike. Checked in on the devs to see if they'd ever released anything else or a sequel only to find that after one other partially finished release they went bankrupt. However, as of a few months ago the devs are apparently back, so check this out if you want a straight-up roguelike with a more entertaining presentation and hopefully they release a sequel/remake/additional support for Dredmor(e).
Steam User 4
I love that the game is a love letter to old school roguelikes, as well as its modding community.
I hate that the developers promised to name an achievement after me for killing Dredmor while dead. It's been about 12 years now and I'm still bitter about it.
Steam User 6
Three hours in, including defeating a monster zoo, I died to a misclick of my own wand. I couldn't walk out of the damage radius fast enough.
I am extremely unhappy, and I can't get more than a few hours in.
9.5/10, highly recommended for masochists.
Steam User 7
Finally, now I can live out my dream as a communist pirate banker who moonlights as a vampire goth paranormal investigator. 10/10 Would blow myself up (and half the dungeon) by casting an unfamiliar wand at a Diggle again.
Steam User 1
Everything about it being a great roguelike aside there's also the fact that there's nothing quite like Dungeons of Dredmor out there, and I honestly hate that, because I love it's "everything is a bit" vibe. It reminds me of some lucas arts classics on that front, and even then, I also can't think of anything that has similar music. I think for those two alone this game deserves getting attention in 2024.