Din’s Curse Review

Over the past years, numerous Diablo clones have popped up everywhere. Since Blizzard released Diablo, there have been a lot of games featuring dungeons and loot collecting.  On rare occasions, one of those games is really enjoyable. Today we are looking at a one of those gems that are actually fun to play: Din’s Curse. Soldak Entertainment, an indie developer, recently brought out the dungeon crawler Din’s Curse. On first sight, the graphics might be a turn-off, but don’t be fooled; the gameplay is absolutely amazing. While the game obviously took elements from Diablo and Torchlight,  giving it a nostalgic feeling, Din’s Curse has alot of unique features that create a fun experience for the player. The story of Din’s Curse begins in Aleria, a mysterious world that is generated randomly each time you start a new game. You are cursed with a second life full of hazards, because for some unknown reason you’ve wasted your first one. You begin as a nobody, but as you progress further into the game by solving quests and shattering monsters, you slowly build a reputation with villagers, getting in favor with  the god Din in the meantime. The goal of the game is solving quests and gaining enough reputation to free you from the curse. Of course, you can always replay dungeons, or even start your existing character in a new world, which helps a lot with the game’s longevity. Each town is generated, meaning you will never play twice in the same world. There are plenty of environments, so each world or town can have a totally different look than the previous one.

As you start out you can choose from various classes, ranging from mages and conjurors to warriors and rogues. You start off in a randomly generated town, ready to defeat monsters, solve quests and collect epic loot. As if that isn’t enough trouble, towns can be under siege, meaning you will have to defend the town to avoid it being burned down to the ground. On top of that monsters are smart enough to create an uprise against you. These events are random, amazingly fun and avoid constant grinding. Quests are generated aswell, so no world is the same in any way, meaning the game can be replayed countless of times without getting too bored. While there are always some vendors and merchants in a town, many come and go, so you will have to be quick if you’re looking for a specific type of npc. Quests can vary from collecting scales from fallen beasts to saving a girl who got lost in one of the dungeons. Sometimes you even find mercenaries who assist you in battle for a little while, before vanishing into nothing. The loot is often class-specific, meaning you won’t be able to use a lot of the stuff you find. That being said, the game has an ingame shared stash, so if you want anything rare you’d like to give to one of your other characters, this is possible. You have to be picky with grabbing loot, because you only have a small inventory. However, you can find bags and pouches that increase your inventory space. The leveling system is fun and thought out well. Each time you level you get a number of points, which you can spent in skill trees.  You can get any skill at any given time, but the better skills obviously cost more points, forcing you to make choices. When you start the game there is an interesting number of options you can choose from before exploring a new world. Apart from the difficulty you can make the game harder in various ways, ranging from faster spawn rate for monsters to hunger and hardcore mode. On top of that you can choose to be cursed, making gear less effective.

Apart from a bunch of monsters, each dungeon floor comes with traps you can disarm. If you fail to do so you will receive some damage. The dungeons also have various shrines,  giving you a short-times stat boost, miniquests, and hidden rooms full of treasures. The game does have a downside: the graphics. The graphics are really disappointing and by the looks of it you would think you are playing a browser based rpg. This is a shame really, because the gameplay is amazing. Once you can overlook the crappy graphics you can have hours of fun with the game though. The sound is decent, as the game comes with a lot of different music that gives you a nostalgic feeling. If you’re a fan of dungeon crawlers and are looking for a cheap game,  I would certainly recommend the game, unless you’re really bothered by the graphics. I must say this is one of the best Diablo clones that I have ever played, and I must say I rather enjoyed beating monsters in the world of Aleria.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.