Разработчик: Frogdice
Описание
The fledgling Alchemy Guild of Primordiax needs you to help restore its former glory. To that end, you will:
- Explore 3 continents and 45 different dungeons.
- Defeat 56 different enemy types and 12 bosses.
- Enjoy a combat system inspired by classic puzzle games like Dr. Mario and Tetris.
- Discover hundreds of crafting recipes through experimentation.
- Craft legendary weapons and armor.
- Customize your character with a tremendous variety of equipment options.
- Find and befriend pets.
- Unlock Achievements.
- Collect scrolls to fill your Bestiary and study your foes.
- Progress through the story and choose your own path.
- Compete with your friends and other players to clear dungeons or the entire game fastest.
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP
- Processor: Intel Core Duo or equivalent
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: onboard graphics
- Storage: 800 MB available space
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: Intel i3 or equivalent
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: discrete video card
- Storage: 800 MB available space
Mac
- OS: OS X
- Processor: Intel Core Duo or equivalent
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: onboard graphics
- Storage: 800 MB available space
- OS: OS X
- Processor: Intel i3 or equivalent
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: discrete video card
- Storage: 800 MB available space
Linux
- OS: Any
- Processor: Intel Core Duo or equivalent
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: onboard graphics
- Storage: 800 MB available space
- OS: Any
- Processor: Intel i3 or equivalent
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: discrete video card
- Storage: 800 MB available space
Отзывы пользователей
Recommendation: A decent Dr. Mario-style matching game with crafting elements that allow you to improve various power-ups.
Review: I enjoyed this game. The base gameplay is great: one at a time, "capsules" drop from the top of the screen and descend as time passes. They have two halves, and each half can be any one of four colors: blue, orange, white, or green. These are meant to represent alchemical ingredients, as you are playing a neophyte alchemist who is just starting to learn how to craft potions. Using the keyboard's arrow keys (or WASD if you're a freak), you can maneuver and rotate the capsules as they drop, to line them up with enemies and/or targets of different colors on the level. When four or more of a given color are touching orthogonally, they all disappear and any colors stacked above them drop down through the space they vacated. Clear all the targets, and you win the level. If the colors ever stack so high that a new capsule can't fall, then you lose the level.
Sometimes, there are obstacles: pits and barriers. You'll often have to "build backwards," stacking capsules up from the bottom of the screen in a tower in order to approach a target from behind.
Popping colors often leaves behind an item. The item stays on the screen until you click on it (or a pet retrieves it), making an additional obstacle. These items can be energy, items, or pets. Energy and items can be used in crafting to discover new "recipes" for crafting better gear. You have items slots that unlock as you play the game: a weapon slot, a shield slot, an armor slot, a boots slot, and a pet slot. Some items affect overall gameplay, while others enable special abilities. Each recipe consists of just two ingredients, but there's dozens of ingredients, and nearly all of the recipes have to be discovered through experimentation.
The game follows your alchemist as she gains levels, improves equipment, and learns recipes while a story that loosely connects the levels tells of a monster terrorizing the countryside and a schism in the alchemists' guild (at one point, you need to choose which side to support, but I don't think it actually affects gameplay or level choice at all).
Critique: As I said, this game is good, and I've enjoyed my time with it. There's a bunch of weird choices that were made in this game, even though the core concept and base execution is solid.
Weird choices:
- the enemies and objects on the board are all 3D renders. OK, but all the levels of the game have a fixed perspective view looking down on the action. All you ever see is the top of the model. The game could be a lot smaller and less taxing on video resources if it used 2D sprites on the levels. The game locks up and crashes every once in a while because it can't handle tracking all the 3D objects - this happens for me most often when I ALT-TAB to another screen and then try to come back to the game.
- the obstacles on the board are very flat in appearance, so it's very hard to tell what is background and what isn't. Again and again in the game, I would avoid something - like a torch sconce - that my capsules actually pass over/under, and run into something - like a hole or a column - that was actually an obstacle. It happens constantly.
- there is no explanation of how to use the equipment you craft. You have to experiment to figure out that they CAN be used. Even so, I never figured out how to use the boomers in a level.
- One of the reasons that it's hard to figure out how to use your equipment is that it is only used in the levels...and in the levels, you are frantically rotating and maneuvering capsules. To use your weapon (damages a target object) or shield (slows down the capsules), you have to click on an icon with your mouse!!! To do that, you have to look away from the action. This almost always results in one or more capsules landing in a terrible orientation/location on the screen, which could easily cause you to lose the level. Why? The weapon and shield controls should be mapped to keys on the keyboard.
- The armor has absolutely no effect on gameplay. They're dress-up outfits for your 3D-rendered character...who never appears in the levels.
- the interface for equipment crafting is largely counter-intuitive. There are two screens where you can view equipment and components: crafting and character log. In Crafting, there are two lists, "Recipes" and "Inventory." For much of the game they look the same - you'll have "Air Boomer" listed in both lists, for example. But it's important to understand that the one on the left lists only the understanding of how to make an item, not the item itself, while the one on the right contains your components (which includes a lot - but not all - of your equipment). On this screen you put two components into the cauldron to see if they will combine into another item. Or you can select a recipe that you've already discovered and make that item again. But there's a bunch of interface issues. Once you've understood where the actual components are (as opposed to the recipes, which look exactly the same), you have to figure out how to put components into the cauldron. Do you select an item and where you want to put it? No. Do you drag it into the cauldron? No. Is there an "add to cauldron" button? No. You have to double-click the component, and it will be added to the cauldron if a slot is empty. If both slots are full, double-clicking an inventory item will do nothing. But if you click on a recipe, it will pull both of those items from your inventory and put them in the cauldron's slots, no matter what was in them already. If you single-click on a recipe for which you do NOT have the components, nothing happens. If you double-click on a recipe, nothing happens. This inconsistent behavior is irritating, but what's maddening is that the cauldron is in the center, with two slots. Next to each slot, on either side, is a list of items. Again and again, this arrangement of the interface led me to instinctively think I was selecting an item from the left column for the left slot, and an item from the right column for the right slot. This is exacerbated by the fact that the recipes list defaults to showing you the elemental components first, and the inventory list defaults to showing you the equipment first. Since most recipes consist of an elemental component combined with a piece of equipment, it really feels like you select an elemental from the left and a piece of equipment from the right. But that's NOT how it works, it's just arranged that way.
- The Inventory in Crafting only shows you the Inventory that can be combined in the cauldron. So if you craft a piece of gear, the screen tells you "Congratulations! You have crafted fiery platemail boots!" but those boots do not appear in your inventory! The game never tells you this, but items that you craft disappear from your Inventory on the crafting screen and appear in your "Character Log."
- the map in the game has dots that represent locations, but they aren't named and they're connected with looping trails that don't have a clear beginning. The locations aren't numbered, and each location has its own set of levels that use the same numbers, so you don't know where to continue.
The game could have greatly limited the 3D modeling to improve performance, appearance, and gameplay. It could have implemented keyboard controls for the powers/special abilities. It could have named the locations, numbered the levels, and indicated which levels have been completed. It could have displayed the recipes in a way that visually distinguishes them from the inventory. That it does none of these things astonishes me. It's a fun game as it is; it could have been a great game with a few better UI choices.
If you're familiar with Frogdice's other match game title, ReignMaker, then Dungeon of Elements and its concept won't be entirely unfamiliar to you. The goal is quite simple, which is to use the magical 'pills' you create as an alchemist to destroy various opponents on the board. The pills descend and can be flipped about in a Dr. Mario-like fashion. When they make contact with something and explode, they leave behind similarly colored smoke times which you can match up with later pills. Match enough tiles of smoke and they explode, hopefully taking a few of your opponents down with them!
As with all Frogdice games, this one attempts to inject some story into the match-3 type experience. The tale is told, in writing paired with quality illustrations, of the rise and fall of alchemists throughout the events of history on Primordiax. As an era of prosperity returns to the world, alchemists are rebuilding anew and your character is within their ranks. You get to choose your character's appearance from a variety of choices, as well as their starting attire. As the game goes along and you defeat enemies in the matching battles, you'll collect equipment. These items might have useful effects during matching fights, such as immediately killing an enemy, or slowing down the game's pace to give you more thinking time. Adding further to the atmosphere, in addition to the unfolding story, is that the above mentioned items change your character's attire whether the pieces have game effects or are simply cosmetic.
There are various other aspects of the game to play around with. A crafting system helps you to learn new pill recipes for the matching game, or to create new items. On occasion, in my experience, random events would also pop up;. I received a visit from a merchant who offered to expand the capacity of my item belt for a sum of Triads.
This is a great game for those of you who like the matching genre and want to spice it up with some story and side elements. For those who may have found ReignMaker too challenging, I also thought that Dungeon of Elements moved at more of a beginner's pace. The speed of the matches was certainly toned down and had fewer elements to pay attention to, giving me time to think about how I wanted to flip the alchemic pills and place them to best effect. Another great outing by FrogDice which tries to mix up the matching concept with some story and side goals.
It's right there in the description. It's Dr. Mario, by the way of Puzzle Quest. More or less. Not at many abilities as Puzzle Quest, sure, but it has the same feel of "take X puzzle game and make it an RPG." I'd like to see the devs take this idea a step or two further in the future, but it's a fun game as it is.
This is a fun game to pass some time with if you like old school Dr. Mario or Tetris. It also has some extra flavor in the form of RPG elements that let you improve over time.
Puzzle game goodness plus I get to kill monsters for loot?
Yes please.
cute, casual puzzle game. Digging it.
Charming little game.
I bought this so I could learn more of the backstory of an mmo I am playing from the same company, Frogdice. I enjoyed the branching story and I am glad I know more about the world now.
The puzzles were challenging and I liked gearing and leveling up.
I love puzzle rpgs and this one scratches that itch nicely.
The combination of Dr. Mario/tetris with fun rpg gear and killing monsters is a great combination.
The story is a big surprise. I was really immersed in it and loved that I had a branching choice.
Cute interesting game that reminds me of Dr. Mario. The RPG elements are nice twist and I find it very relaxing and challenging at the same time.
It's funny, if you look for this kind of puzzle game in fantasy setting well it's for you.
Basically it's Tetirs. With a story. And bosses to kill. And special powers. And a main character with equipment. And crafting.
Its fun.
I don't reccomend this because it makes it sound way better than it is. Especially for £6.99 if this was like a £2 game then yeah, I wouldn't disagree with this game. But to me after 30 minutes this just got insanely boring 3/10
I was a huge Dr. Mario fan back in the day and was hoping to recapture some of that with DoE. I was horribly disappointed. The female character art is offensive, parts of the interface are never explained (and *of course* there's no manual), and the "storyline" is shallow and insipid even beyond my modest expectations.
Also, only close the game using the in-game menu. That's what triggers the game to save, so If you use the window chrome instead, you lose all progress since the beginning of that session, including achievements earned.
The game is rather slow paced and the boards lack good theme music and a reason to complete them.
All of the puzzle you'd expect in an RPG combined with all the classic RPG elements of a puzzle game.
This could possibly be one of the worst games in the history of gaming - not just here on Earth, but in the entire universe.
Blegh. Worst of the worst "stripper armor"
Unplayably bad.
The gameplay is wonderful. It's simple, classic Doctor Mario. Enjoyable RPG elements allow you to craft and find new items that provide play affects like dispatching enemies stuck in corners, or slowing the fall rate of your pills. Terrain details provide a nice twist that brings the play-area to life.
The sound design is abominable. The music is genuinely obnoxious and distractingly bad, while the sound effects are wispy swooshes that don't connect with the action, at all.
Menu animations are pointlessly long, reminding me of Puzzle Chronicles, where half the game is spent waiting for the game to start. There should have been an option to skip these animations.
It's rare that sound design works against a game. I can't remember ever responding so negatively to the way a game sounds, but it's distracting at its best, and flat-out aggravating at its worst. If you turn down the sound effects, turn the music off, and think about what you're doing with your life during the animations, it's a wonderful game. If you try to listen to it? You'll probably go mad.
Having a Twitter account increases your loot drop chance
10/10
This game is excellent. Love the music, and gameplay makes me think of Dr. Mario from classic Nintendo.
I was lucky enough to play this game in pre-release alpha, and beta. I liked it a lot during beta. The game mixes a lot of things that someone like me can enjoy, puzzle and strategy. I can play it hard core for a few hours and then come back. I can pause it and take care of my crazy kids, and then come back and not have missed a beat. The different levels make it a challenge, the way the game is set up makes each play through completely different. I highly recommend.
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Frogdice |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 19.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 75% положительных (24) |