Developer: Stand Off Software
Publisher: Stand Off Software
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Unicorn Dungeon – Review
Talk to goblins, kill jackals, ‘save’ an obnoxious princess, figure out portals and so much more all in order to bring a unicorn to a dying king so you can be crowned the next king of Artovya? Yes, that is exactly what Unicorn Dungeon is! Stand Off Software is bringing you the first in a series of absurd comedy games where the next one is surely weirder than the previous one.
Story
King Haldrin ruled Atrovya for almost half a century but no one lives forever, not even in this game. Since the health of the beloved king is getting worse and there’s no heir to the throne, the king sent out a message that whoever brought a unicorn to his castle, would be crowned king. The king chose a unicorn because only a person clever enough and pure hearted could secure the company of a creature so difficult to find. Enter Sir Typhil of Creulor, the character you’ll be playing as. He is one of the knights on a quest to bring a unicorn to the castle in order to become the new king. Unicorn Dungeon is only the first in a series of games which will follow the adventures of Sir Typhil of Creulor.
You’re promised an absurd comedy point and click adventure so that’s what you get. The story is, let’s say a bit weird at the least. It’s an easy story to follow without too much background and hopefully more elements will be added to the story in the rest of the series.
Graphics
The graphics in this game aren’t too great, we’d rather call them rather basic. You can enjoy your surroundings without too much detail, which is fair considering it’s a cheap comedy game you can buy for only 3.99 Euros/4.99$. You will however become very familiar with the loading screen, which is also very basic. A unicorn with ‘Loading…’ underneath? The developers could’ve made this page a little more interesting since it seems to come up quite often. For example, when you die the loading screen appears before you get the message that Typhil his life has come to an end. Then another loading screen is presented before you get thrown out of the dungeon. More creativity here would be welcomed.
Sound
Where the game lacks in great graphics, it scores highly in music and voice acting. The music is very enjoyable without being too overwhelming. It changes per room so you don’t get bored with it too soon. Now the voice acting is terrific. The narrator at the beginning of the story sounds exactly like you would expect of a medieval story teller. Besides this it’s especially the voice acting of the goblins that’s brought in an amusing way.
Gameplay
Unicorn Dungeon is an absurdist comedy point and click adventure game. You play as the brave Sir Typhil of Creulor. If you’re not too sure if you want to spend money on the game immediately, there is a free demo you can play. This demo is actually the tutorial of the game, and to be honest, there isn’t much to it. It lasts a few minutes and you barely have to do anything, but it gives you an idea of what a part of the game looks like, so you might want to give it a try anyway.
Now, the actual game. You start off with meeting a goblin after which you walk down a long corridor. And that’s pretty much it, nothing happens there and it takes a while for you to get to the next door. And you find your unicorn rather quickly, it’s just standing there. But in order to get it to follow you, you need to feed it a rutabaga so you start searching for that. Along the way you’ll have to figure out some stuff like how to kill a giant rat, how to ‘save’ the princess, how to get some gold, etc. It’s a lot of running back and forth and using your mind. There aren’t too many rooms though so that makes it easier to find what you’re looking for. The developers tried to throw in some jokes. They sometimes throw in some dry, funny jokes or comments but fail at being humorous most of the time.
Unicorn Dungeon is mainly a point and click game but it also likes to mix things up and includes elements of other types of games. In this game of the series a rogue-like dungeon crawler was added. Yes this means that in the next releases other elements of different types of games will be included. Now, you will spend quite some time in this particular 8-bit dungeon, probably figuring out how to beat all the jackals, spiders, etc. Here is a hint: you just have to run into them. That’s it, very basic right? It’s a more old school approach of combat and it’s taking away a bit of the challenge. If you die, you get thrown out of the 8-bit dungeon and lose everything you found there. You also lose the flashlight the goblin from the shop gave you, which is quite annoying since you have to talk to him each time you die in order to get the flashlight again, because without it you can’t enter.
No need to save your progress yourself. It automatically saves when you enter a new room, which is a good feature since the rooms are never very big so you can just walk out quickly if you want to save your game.
Conclusion
Unicorn Dungeon categorizes as an absurdist comedy game and even though it succeeds at being absurdist, it falls short on comedy. Besides few good jokes, there isn’t really much to laugh about. The intended humor aside, the game is quite enjoyable but the overuse of loading screens ruins the experience a little too often. The mix of different game genres and the suitable music are definitely worth a big thumbs-up but looking at the big picture Unicorn Dungeon it isn’t a big success. Hopefully the next episodes in the series will have more humor and less loading. Speaking of the next game in the series; it’s already being developed as we speak and will be called ‘Poltergeist Treasure’. Fingers crossed!
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