We delve into an early build of Wisewonky’s upcoming roguelike Kraden’s Crypt
I recently had the chance to sit down with the demo for UK developer Wisewonky’s upcoming indie game Kraden’s Crypt. Though still somewhat early in its Kickstarter phase, Kraden’s Crypt has graciously presented perspective donators (or anyone, really) the chance to download the Pre-Alpha of the game in order to get a better feel for how the game works.
<Kraden’s Crypt is presents itself as a fun, albeit dangerous, Rougelike Dungeon Crawler. Players are tasked to delve as deeply as they can in the hopes of finding the legendary Kraden’s Crypt. Things aren’t easy however, for the journey presents itself as a perilous one filled with dangerous monsters and fiendish traps.
Players can customize their character to their liking by finding and equipping various weapons and pieces of armor throughout their venture to both power up, and define themselves as one of several “classes” such as Archer or Mage. While this alone was different than many games similar to or of the same genre, there was yet one more feature that further drove the game into its own grouping; physics.
That’s right friends, this is a physics-based dungeon crawler; and honestly it’s done pretty well. While there is still tweaking to be done here and there, the mechanics currently set in place are pretty solid. Rather than pressing a button to attack, players must use the mouse (or joystick, on a controller) to swing their sword, draw their bow, cast their spell, and so on. This means that things such as knockback, trajectory, and even damage done are entirely controlled by the player. While the attacking seems to be a bit finicky at times and I, for the life of me, can’t get the controller to work properly, the controls are largely very promising. It feels good mastering a new mechanic and, once one is properly able to pull things off, promises to be a fun time.
On the more aesthetic side of things, the artwork of Kraden’s Crypt seems very reminiscent of the Beat ‘Em Up “Castle Crashers”. Rather than serious and gritty, Kraden’s Crypt goes for a more lighthearted, cartoony look and is very fitting for the game. Enemies are a bit crazy and random, making it exciting to see what creature you may run into next. The music, while not a focus point for the game, fits the theme quite well and blends together with everything else in order to create a more well-rounded experience.
While far from finished, Kraden’s Crypt is shaping up to be a very promising game. Things are not set in stone for the game’s release however; Wisewonky’s Kickstarter goal has yet to be met! I heartily encourage any and all to check out the demo and make a donation. Kraden’s Crypt has the potential to be a highly unique experience, they just need a little help getting to the end.
You can check out the Kickstarter page for Kraden’s Crypt here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/67217290/kradens-crypt
