Remaking a game is such a tricky thing because, in doing so, you risk losing some of what made it special in the first place. Games are a collection of things, elements, and if you pull even a small part of that stuff apart, the whole thing can change into something else.
Desktop Dungeons: RewindDeveloper: QCF DesignPublisher: PrismatikaPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Rleases today, 18th April, on Steam and Humble
Desktop Dungeon is a case in point, a 10-year-old Roguelike known for looking a bit like Minesweeper, and with a cult following. It’s won awards, it’s well regarded, and now it’s been remade as Desktop Dungeon: Rewind, and it’s out this week.
But it’s not top-down and flat any more: it’s 3D. And in changing that perspective, it’s lost some of its inherent charm of the original – some of app-ness and puzzle game immediacy of it, and some of the hand-drawn charm on the world maps. Now it looks like many other 3D dungeon games, and quite murky, unremarkable ones at that, and because of it, it’s much harder to forgive the rougher edges and clunks.
It’s a shame because spend some time with Rewind and get past the clunky opening, and the core of what made Desktop Dungeons is still there, and it’s as compelling and fiendish as it ever was. At its distilled purest, this is still an exercise in finding optimum turn order to clear a dungeon out. And now there’s a rewind mechanic to help.