Many users are used to the fantasy MMO on which your character has a combative role and that, for some reason, you are on a higher purpose quest that will en light you and take you to the edge of power that a being under the paradigm of the background can go. In the meantime, you will slay hordes of all kinds of monsters, kill fellow heroes and fight for some kind of territory, prestige and mostly a castle or keep. Now, you have seen this before, no? And if you were told about a fantasy setting on which you have a wizard, a brute (which also answers for the complicated "executioner" name) and a thief: they go into dungeons and emerge victorious and full of valuables after fighting hordes of monsters, one stronger than any of its fellows. I also guess you have seen this before, no? LIES!

Dungeon party is different than most games i have seen in the last years, for it takes a more than old setting and gives it fresh air with a new idea and lots of humor and madness. Yes, this is madness! Nope, it's a completely dumb fighter, a good for nothing thief that steals for lack of any other skill and an illiterate wizard that decided to pay for his college fees exploring dungeons! Now tell me if the good and old fantasy theme doesn't seems a little less "more of the same"?
Produced by Cyanide, a French games developer, Dungeon Party is a fast paced action game on which you have to co-operate with your teammates and take a living and sadistic chest outside of the dungeon to win the match. Easy? Maybe, if it weren't for the fact that, among other things, the chest won't allow his prized content to be taken by your team unless he likes it! How? Killing monsters and another players makes the chest like you: if you run all the way to the exit and the chest, upon your arrival, doesn't likes your team, you don't win. Amazing? No, but very cunning, i'd say.

Aside from the co-operative team play, we have a top-down camera that can be rotated and beautiful 3D scenarios. The gameplay is kind of clumsy, for it doesn't allows movement through the keyboard, only by mouse clicks. Spells and items can be used through our traditional numeric shortcuts. And since we are talking about numbers, Cyanide has a game shop that will be able to buy new outfits, weapons and more in-game use items, like potions. Other than the consumables, everything has to be paid with real money. But hey, wouldn't you pay 10 bucks to see your Wizard wearing beach clothes and handling a marshmallow stick that throws marshmallows? Ye good old Orwin is sure that you would! Now, setting my madness a little aside, i can state that this game is fast paced, fun, very adequateate to the casual player, colorful and, if not for the problems with the movement, it would be great. The Steve Jackson's Munchkin idea of "screw your mates and run with the treasure" works great on it. Actually, it's the closest to a computer version of Munchkin that i have ever seen. For a client of, say, 400 MB, Orwin is sure that you will have lots of fun. The action can get quite repetitive, since it's unpredictable but very straight foward. Because of this, i recommend it for the casual gamer. Playing this too much without swapping it for other games can make it bland too soon.

I'd say that Dungeon Party has everything to be a big among the free MMORPG´s, it just needs a little extra content to make it more diverse. Oh, i forgot to mention some problems with high ping for anyone who's not close to the match's host, since it works in a P2P matchmaker style, the impossibility of joining an ongoing match making quitters or disconnections almost match-ending events, since, in this game, every man counts. Some issues with finding new games due to the small gaming community are also present, tough it's nothing to obfuscate the game's shine. Oh, don't forget that new characters and map skins should be on the way.
Good luck on trying it, mates. I just hope that the Mummy doesn't farts on you. It's bad, i've been through it.

The Good: Innovative - Fun - Fast paced - Needs strong teamwork - Lots of potential for add-ons - Light hardware requirements

The Bad: Gets repetitive pretty fast - Lack of many maps - Character outfits don't have a gameplay purpose - Matches are created based on the host's location - High ping for most non-europeans - Lack of more in-game interactive objects.


Review by Orwin, Freemmogamer.com - Posted Mar 6, 2009