Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: Amulet of Chaos is a value-priced game that packs serious quality for its price point. If you’re looking for a challenging tactical RPG that doesn’t take itself too seriously, you’ll probably get plenty of mileage out of this game.
Believe it or not, I actually had to force myself to stop playing The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos to be able to sit down and write this review. It’s been a long time since I’ve found a great turn-based tactical game with unapologetically authentic writing that I seriously didn’t want to move onto other games.
The Dungeons of Naheulbeuk is, before all else, just a lot of fun, both regarding the gameplay and its humour. It is made for people who love pen & paper, and it does this job quite well. There are some hiccups, however, especially concerning the controls. But this doesn’t keep the game from being a success.
The biggest problem with The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos — aside from it desperately needing a ruthless editor to excise some of the weaker jokes — is that this approach to parodying the tropes of RPGs has been done many times over the years, and often better. The deliberate and sometimes genuinely challenging combat seems at odds with the tone and pace of the game, but The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos can be entertaining for those with a high tolerance for unfiltered humor in indiscriminate quantities.
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is altogether an enjoyable romp that will land with you about as far as you can tolerate cringeworthy humor and a lite XCOM layer set in a Dungeons and Dragons setting. Also, do yourself a favor and mute the Elf. Permanently. The game has it as an available option; it’s like they knew how bad the humor might be. So do it and you’ll thank me later.
For as awful as the script and plot are, the gameplay itself isn't that bad. It's a more than passable take on the XCOM formula that adds some unique and fun mechanics, but there are dozens of tactical strategy games out there right now that play just as well and are ten times less agitating. It's possible that your sense of humor will align with the brand of comedy that this game is putting out - and God help you if it does - but even decent strategic combat isn't enough to make the experience of playing The Dungeon Of Nabeulheuk any more palatable. I am so happy that I don't have to type that word again.
Altogether, this makes Dungeons of Naheulbeuk a real mixed bag. Its slick and well-observed aesthetic is undercut by rote humour and tired cliche, and its combat has great potential smothered by layers of random chance and obfuscation, with the great swell of combatants meaning that you can sit helplessly as a cavalcade of attacks all target and take down a character before you have a chance to act. There’s definitely something here to enjoy if you’re a diehard tactics fan with a keen eye for optimum strategy and luck mitigation, but it feels like a lot of effort for little reward.
The comedy tone is fun, but don't let that fool you into thinking it won't have challenging combat, because it does. I just finished a battle where I was so much in flow, there was so much to keep in mind, that I lost track of time as I just had to finish that battle. There were so many enemy that I thought there was no way I could win, but I did. Perfect.
Game is reasonably bug free as of October 2020. (3rd patch or something)
Solid turn based crpg with an emphasis on combat and nicely voice-acted silly dialogue. Both of which are executed expertly and represent the main selling point of the game.
The UI on PC could be better but other than that its quite good for an indie crpg.
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk es un juego que está bien, pero con luces y sombras fuertes. La primera sombra está en la historia y es que, en general, no solo no es una buena historia sino que no consiguió hacerme reír en ningún momento; alguna sonrisilla puntual en algún comentario si, pero nada realmente hilarante, por ser todo demasiado obvio y previsible. El humor, sin duda, es algo muy subjetivo. Pero lo que sí que funciona muy bien es el sistema de combate, donde las acciones con los distintos personajes, las configuraciones del entorno y la variedad de enemigos hacen que los combates sean realmente interesantes. Unido esto a un sistema de progresión de personajes que se nota su impacto en la partida, hace que la jugabilidad esté muy bien. Aunque, eso si, de rol tiene poco, es casi más un juego de estrategia por turnos a lo XCOM que realmente un juego de rol, ya que apenas hay decisiones que tomar ni personajes que interpretar.
El apartado técnico es otra de las fuertes sombras. Gráficamente es un juego, en el mejor de los casos, discreto. Y lo mismo se puede decir del sonido. El verdadero problema está en la optimización del juego, que da problemas de VSync en monitores de alto refresco (hay que desactivarlo) que llevan a sobrecalentar el ordenador y reiniciarlo si juegas demasiado tiempo seguido; y como eso, en general, todo el apartado técnico del juego funciona menos fluido y bien de lo que uno podría esperar de un juego con este aspecto, con unos tiempos de carga algo más largos de lo esperado y una tasa de FPS menor de la que debería tener.
Por todo ello, Dungeon of Naheulbeuk es un juego con luces y sombras fuertes en ambas direcciones. A mi me ha entretenido más que frustrado, así que lo recomiendo, pero sin duda dista mucho de ser un juego perfecto. Un 6.
Very nice sense of humour. Stereotypic races shown very funny. Often I laughed out loud. Especially from Dwarf voiceover. "Dont stand so close to meh". Warhammer and russian references could be seen and I like it too.
Very nice anf funny RPG game.
SummaryStep into the wacky heroic fantasy universe of the Dungeon of Naheulbeuk. Lead a team of unlikely and clumsy heroes in an epic and challenging tactical RPG. Live an adventure filled with humor, surprises and silly encounters.