Dungeon crawlers are a genre that ever since Dungeons and Dragons, little by little have increased in popularity. Due to the fact that they typically don’t follow a set history, they get straight and to the point: get into the unknown dungeon in search for riches while fighting hordes of enemies, puzzles, and traps. I personally don’t like them, but this is only because I like a good story. However, their simplicity is what makes them so appealing. Now we have before us Unexplored: Unlocked Edition, following a tried formula of dungeon crawling with some twists that try to shake things a little. The objective in Unexplored is simple: enter the dungeon, explore it until you get to the deepest, darkest depths until you find the Amulet of Yendor and escape with it. the game is simple; however, it is not easy.
Unexplored has procedurally generated dungeons That is a good thing since you never play the same dungeon twice, and it keeps things new. However, on each run, there are some long loading times, while the dungeon is being generated. Once it finishes loading, it is smooth sailing. I like the conversation that you have before entering the dungeon (text conversation) with a drunk that ask you to “wet his throat,” and when you do he gives you hints and a little background of what you need to do here. I spent my 20 gold coins and got three good hints and 1one dud, but in any case, I felt satisfied with my transaction. Being a roguelite means that you can learn from your deaths, so each run is a learning experience, be it to learn enemy tactics or how to interact with certain traps or objects. However, it’s not always the case. In some runs, you could survive long enough to have good advance in clearing the dungeon. In others, you could find yourself surrounded by enemies and no way to turn the tide of battle in your favor and just die. It is a good learning experience, but the difficulty curve could go so high sometimes or the other way around.
Now this wouldn’t be a complete dungeon crawler without combat. Well, this is one of my least favorite things in Unexplored. For starters, you are able to equip two weapons: a principal and a sub weapon. The principal weapons are mostly heavy attack weapons like swords, and the sub weapons are throwable weapons like daggers, throwing knives, and hand axes (found a really good one in a run). My main issue here is that the developers decided to implement a cooldown period to weapons. This is by far a really bad idea because if you are surrounded by enemies after doing your main and sub weapon attacks, you are susceptible to receive damage because enemy attacks are not bound to cooldowns like you. While the weapon is in cooldown, you can’t use it to defend. Also, if you move around and your weapon hits an enemy without hitting the attack button, you guessed it: cooldown. If you are trying to escape to give you a better chance, you might lose both attacks for a couple of seconds. Combine this with low health and you might find yourself frustrated and doing another run. But even so, Unexplored is packed with content, since it includes all previously released DLC on PC in a single package, each with a different theme that for real fans of the genre its a good deal.
Graphically, Unexplored is simple. The dungeons are full of color. Ilike how they look and how different they are thanks to being procedurally generated. Your character is represented by a circle wearing a cape with weapons protruding and his single eye. You can customize how your character looks. However, this takes a lot of time and ends up being a waste of time, since you can just randomize it.
The music is really good, and the fact that it changes to reflect the current situation you are in is a stroke of genius.
Bottom Line: Unexplored Unlocked Edition is a good entry game for dungeon crawling beginners. If you can overlook the combat issues and how it works, the procedurally generated dungeons will keep you coming back for more. While there are some issues with the combat (for me at least, since I like fast paced combat), it has enough content to justify a purchase. I definitely recommend it to fans of adventure.