Sniff around the internet for a while, and you’ll find Dungeons of Sundaria described as “World of Warcraft without the world.” It’s an apt description as this hack ‘n slash role-player doesn’t have an overworld to connect its dungeon-like locations. Instead of rolling fields and such to freely explore, the game’s frontend comprises of dull, barely animated, menus – and this is the first thing that greets players after selecting a class and tinkering with the reasonably flexible character customisation tool.
The titular town of Sundaria is presented on a single screen, navigated by a menu driven interface. Visit the hero guild, and you’ll be met by a row of stoney-faced characters, with arms folded, standing two metres apart as if they’re still following COVID rules. Once customaries are exchanged, they no longer have anything meaningful to say. The same goes for the fleeting visits to the blacksmith and tavern. You’ve arrived in this town to dispel evil, yet the townsfolk act like they want you to leave the moment after stepping foot in their properties. So much for a warm welcome. Or a positive first impression.
Exit Sundaria, and yet another single screen menu appears. This is the world map, revealing the dungeons you’re tasked with exploring and conquering, spread across swamps, ruins, crypts are more. They’re of varying difficulty with a suggested character level and often linked to a specific quest. Each is, essentially, a raid – a single, linear, dungeon that takes around 2-3 hours to finish. Co-op play with a party of four is intended, but it’s possible to progress smoothly solo too.
You’re ushered along trap-filled hallways, into battle arenas, and labyrinth-like locations where switches must be found by scouring environments. Underwater sections and platforming feature too, with jumping irksomely mapped to R3. At the end of the run, you’ll face a Dungeon Lord with a supersized health bar to drain. By this point, you’ve likely filled the generously sized inventory with loot. Weapons with elemental powers are common, along with stat-boosting helmets, capes seemingly made from rigid cardboard, rings with various boons, and all manner of improved armour.
Checkpoints are reasonably well spaced, and I was also surprised to find that it’s possible to exit a dungeon, return to the town, and then resume progress. Another thoughtful touch is that blacksmiths appear periodically throughout a raid so that unwanted gear can be offloaded.
There’s a long list of options to tinker and toggle too, including the ability to alter the camera positioning, which is largely beneficial considering larger characters can obscure anything directly in their path.
Indeed, it puts a lot of ticks in a lot of boxes when it comes to the features you’ll expect to find in an RPG; characters level up every hour or so, with new skills automatically assigned to the hot bar along the bottom of the screen. Different classes are available to experiment with, and there’s a surprising number of enemies to defeat – although some are simply ghostly variations of stock foes.
Conquering a dungeon feels like an accomplishment, but this can be partly attributed to them being a bit of a slog, often leaving you wondering if you’re still a good hour from completion.
Many of the game’s positives are also undermined by the lacklustre presentation and technical hiccups. While researching for this review, I found claims that Dungeons of Sundaria isn’t exactly the freshest of experiences, allegedly being a retooling of Kings and Heroes – an incredibly similar looking RPG from 2017. It’s no longer available to purchase, so I can’t make a direct comparison, but this does explain why it’s visually dated. For the most part, it resembles a late Xbox 360 game – perhaps an early Xbox One title at a push. You’d think that the angular, last-generation, graphics would assist in making the action run smoothly, but even on Xbox Series X it frequently stutters and freezes, to the point of giving the illusion that it has crashed, only to spring back into life several seconds later. Speech also has the irritating habit of playing several times over.
Being a remarkably lengthy experience, as RPGs typically are, Dungeons of Sundaria isn’t a brazen bait and switch. To beat every dungeon, especially on the harder difficulties, requires considerable time and effort. You may even need to seek assistance from other players online. It’s just a shame that the action rarely enters the realms of exciting, being mostly repetitive and mundane. I spent almost as much time searching for room exits and switches as I did slaying.
I don’t want to falsely speculate, but something has clearly happened during development. To play a game this visually crude and technically unstable in 2023 is quite a jarring experience when compared to similar games that have launched recently. It could almost pass for a retro-style RPG, harking back to World of Warcraft’s glory days. A missed trick when it came to marketing, perhaps.
Industry Games’ Dungeons of Sundaria launched 12 December on PC and consoles. Reviewed on Xbox Series X.