Have you ever played a game that had an interesting concept that wore out its welcome after a couple of hours, but you continue to stick with it because you think something special will happen later, except it never does, so with a heart full of spite, you spend another 10 hours just trying to reach the end, only to completely fall apart and spend the next week wallowing in self-pity?
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Grounds asks way too much while offering nothing in return. If I'm spending all of my free time constructing a dungeon, then the monsters that populate it could do me a solid by actually dropping some decent goods. Wolves. Goddamned wolves. Their fangs can be used to strengthen this attack-booster called a root. I've slaughtered hundreds of packs and never saw a single tooth. What the fuck am I doing here?
Constructing a dungeon is an unbelievable investment. In order to achieve a high rating - which is apparently decided by literal monsters - its corridors must be sufficiently twisty. It makes sense. Adventurers have a better chance of getting lost and ambushed if they can't see what's ahead of them. However, as time goes on, I realized that building a monster haven is creating the underground equivalent of Four Seasons, only arranged to look like somebody's intestines. Marble walls, lavish bedrooms, grand libraries, and countless other luxuries dot what was supposed to the dankest ten-floor hellhole just outside of a defenseless village. In return for all of my time and gold, I'm treated to gobs of the most annoying creatures under the earth. What the f- nevermind. Ending every sentence with question is already annoying the piss out of me.
I'll get the one positive of combat out of my system; friendly fire is very neat. Large groups of monsters will decimate each other if one fires off a massive spell or swings their sword recklessly. This can be used to great advantage during the ninja boss fight. This so-called chief can't keep his own shadow clones from eviscerating him. I'd laugh at him if I wasn't already the bigger embarrassment for giving Dungeon Maker 23 hours of my life. When they aren't accidentally destroying each other, monsters are brought down with a relentless series of circle, triangle button combinations. Each weapon-type has unique moves, though most players are liable to get by with the sword and its AOE-like circular swing. The damage stinks, but that's because the game is far too stingy with meaningful upgrades. A new sword or axe can take hours to materialize, and the other character-building methods are exorbitant timewasters. In lieu of traditional experience points, permanent stat increases are limited to daily meals (with the ingredients provided by monsters). I'll spend an entire in-game day hacking through one floor of my dungeon while constructing the next, then go home to a whopping +1 strength and enough hit-points to fill a thimble. What a selfish fucking game.
The worst part is that Dungeon Maker regularly undermines itself by providing portals to "Unknown dungeons". These were created by some mystery entity and are semi-randomly generated. It doesn't take long to memorize layouts and rush straight for the one consistent source of treasure in the entire game. Yeah, something I didn't mention earlier is that treasure rooms have to be built. They're expensive, must be placed in the deepest corners of the labyrinth, and obtaining the keys could require slaughtering every beastie on the entire floor. Unknown dungeons skip all of that nonsense and tend to provide better (but still shitty) gear. The irony that I'm getting more out of the dungeon that I didn't create is going to bury me.
Also, there are like three fucking songs in the entire thing, and this ain't a Cleopatra's Fortune where one track is an all-timer that's listenable for years.
I'm done.
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