Monsters And Heroes
GameCoaster’s pixel-style action game combines wall defense gameplay with the realm of magic. In this aesthetically pleasing development, you take on the role of commander and lead a group of monsters that are deployed to defend what is called a Devil Stone while waves of heroes come to try and destroy it. It is a simple point and shoot game with fun elements that add hints of complexity to an otherwise basic action format.
Upon opening, the game greets you with a nice clean menu system and lighthearted background music. You choose a monster to play with, then hit the battlefield. The Monsters to choose from feature super villain looking women with skimpy outfits. Very interesting choice of character design. They contain enticing names such as Titan, Medusa and Diablo. Names absolutely fitting for the villainous creatures that they are. Before each battle, you are prompted to choose a battlefield reward. The options are random, but range between money and a variety of power ups that grant your characters special abilities and upgrades. Upon defeating the waves of enemies and winning a battle, you collect the rewards and strategically choose how to proceed in leveling up your characters. The game contains a simple but effective shop system, where additional items and upgrades can be bought with the money collected.
The Gameplay
Fairly easy to get the hang of, battles consist of a simple point and shoot mechanic. Simply mash your finger over oncoming enemies. Your monster will shoot their projectiles in that direction dealing damage to the enemy. With enough damage; you guessed it, the enemies die. Seems simple enough right? Not so fast.
This game will throw a few curve-balls at you from time to time. During the actual battle, the majority of enemies running toward you have melee based attacks, meaning they need to make it all the way across the battlefield against your hellfire to attack you. There are, however, a handful of enemies that will spawn that can shoot projectiles at you. In addition, a boss will spawn among the wave you are fighting off, making the battle even more of a challenge. Although easy to spot due to its enlarged size, bosses possess a massive amount of health that is often agonizing to deplete. Your fingers may tire before you see the massive boss drop to their knees.
With that being said, make sure to time your shots. Unless upgraded, reloading your monster’s charge takes a bit of time. If you don’t time your shots right, the enemy will have a nice window to advance on you. If unfortunately your monster or monsters get killed, there’s still a chance. You may come across a battle where the opposing force is just too strong.
Once all the monsters under your command get killed, the enemies will continue to advance towards the Devil Stone. Upon colliding with the Devil Stone, enemies will die, but not without damage to your stone of course. Shown at the top left of the screen, the stone has a certain amount of health. Once that reaches zero, its game over my friend. If however the remaining enemies are defeated by colliding with the stone and the stone still has health remaining, then you win the battle. Your monsters that are now laying there defeated with the unforgiving killed status attached to their name will be brought back to life.
Upgrading Characters
Upgrading your monsters is key, and much needed to remain afloat among the sea of enemies. There are many ways to accomplish this. In addition to the battle rewards you choose, you have a chance to acquire a few extra bonuses along the way. At the end of each battle, with a little bit of luck you will capture a couple of prisoners. You can either add them to your army, or spend them to level up your characters. These level ups will grant certain abilities to your monsters in the form of extra damage, better projectiles, etc. For example, the monster Dark Pegasus shoots deadly feathers. Interesting weapon choice. These feathers can ricochet off of the enemy you attack and hit a few extra enemies nearby. There is an upgrade that increases the ricochet’s damage.
On top of collecting prisoners, you may collect random items that you can attach to your monsters for an extra boost. Shields, stones, swords, all contain a special ability; i.e. +4 attack that will give your monster just a little bit more strength. You can attach up to 3 items per monster, which fairly limits how much equipment each monster can hold.
Another great way to acquire upgrades is through the actual story. GameCoaster added a feature where in between battles, occasionally a short scenario will play out. These random events portrayed through text will force you to make decisions for your group. These decisions will either contain a reward or some type of adverse effect. So choose wisely. This feature is a great additive that helps break up the repetitiveness of the game. One thing to point out is to not forget about the Devil Stone itself. If your stone is under attack and its health is getting a little too close to zero for comfort, don’t worry. There are ways to upgrade the stone as well. Look for a battle reward called Dark Origin. This will be your best friend when upgrading the Devil Stone.
Smart AI
This game does a fantastic job at balancing out the AI gameplay. During battle, you only control your monster, the rest are NPCs. But oh are they good. The build of this game is complex enough that your program-ran allies genuinely help you. If there is a big boss coming, they will take aim at it. If there’s a group of enemies leading the charge, they will concentrate on that area. This design can easily make or break a game like this, so this is nice to see. Just make sure to show your allies love and upgrade them too.
The Drawbacks
There are a couple of drawbacks to the game. Although fun, Dungeon Squad does feel a bit incomplete. The upgrade system needs a bit of an update. Even though the gameplay itself is simple; it can be a bit confusing, however, trying to understand all of the upgrades. A combination of grammatical errors and descriptions that seem to flood your screen may cause the player a bit of confusion at first. The main menu has an index that lists out game items and their abilities so that helps to some degree, but there should also be a tutorial on how to play. Something brief could help clear up some of the possible confusion.
In addition, the storyline could use some work. The random scenarios in between battles are enough to keep the game a step above redundant. Is it enough to keep users coming back again and again for a long time to come though? I am not so sure. Overall this is a fun time-consuming game. Hopefully it will receive updates so we can lead our monsters in battle for a long time to come.
