Endless Dungeon Preview – A Promising Roguelite Blending Tower Defense With Twin-Stick Shooting

Endless Dungeon, the successor to 2014’s Dungeon of The Endless, is a tower defense twin-stick shooter created by French developer Amplitude Studios; and after my hands-on session at Gamescom 2022, it has the potential to be the next big roguelite. 

This upcoming roguelite, however, is more of a reimagining and less of a sequel. The first game featured point-and click navigation and automatic combat. Now players can directly control weapons and characters in real time. Endless Dungeon reimagines its predecessor’s pixel art dungeons into larger, gorgeously-lit 3D spaces. You can also play with up to 3 friends. 

Each member of the crew represents a Western cowboy trope. They are stranded at a mysterious station and you play them as a group. Your squad may have an opportunity to escape, unlike other star-struck souls. To do so, you’ll have to fight your way deeper into the terminal. 

Endless Dungeon serves as both a twin stick shooter and tower defense game. The safe area in which every dungeon is started has a crystal as its central point. The crystal must be kept safe as it can cause death if broken. The goal of your mission is to get the crystal safely to an unidentified exit within the zone. You don’t know how many doors are between you and the exit, so you better get to opening them. 

But what lies beyond each door is a total mystery – it could be new weapons, gadgets, or possibly a nest or swarm of enemies. You cannot keep the crystal from following you so it is important to protect and explore new areas. Building turrets is the best way to safeguard crystal. 

Each room is lined with construction nodes, which can be used to place many types of Turrets. Some modules create a slowing zone, while others provide protection for everything around them. Basic turrets can also be used to automatically fire on enemies. This may sound obvious but there is a challenge. You must position turrets wherever they are most useful. Exploring rooms and building extractors can help you find more resources. However, each extractor is limited to producing one type of extractor at a given time. All you do is expose yourself to hostile aliens, robots, or other enemies.

The crystal will start its journey through the station once it has found the exit. However, the crystal becomes uninstalled and can no longer move. It will trigger waves of enemies who will spawn or hunt it down. It is your job to defend it. 

Endless Dungeon has unique active and passive abilities for every character. Bunker, the robot sheriff who stands against enemy fire, is protected by its shield. Blaze can be used to throw explosives and zoners. The newly revealed Shroom has potent healing remedies that will boost the team. The ability to switch characters at will allows you to order your party members either stay or go. Endless Dungeon also offers multiplayer support, so that three players can pick their preferred character. 

I’ve played many excellent games at Gamescom this week, but Endless Dungeon might be my favorite. Twin-stick gunplay with this game is flawless, and the tower defense elements work well together with dungeon exploration to create tension. I see myself sinking dozens of hours into the final release – whenever that may be. 

But the studio only recently “found the fun,” a phrase often used to denote a successful prototype design. The team used to be frustrated, and they were pulling their hair out. 

“Up until two months ago, I have to admit, Endless Dungeon was not that fun,” says Creative Director Jean-Maxime Moris. “We were a bit wary of straying too far away from the original.”

It wasn’t until roughly six months ago that the team decided to control characters and weapons in real-time. Moris continues, “When we introduced real-time, that made it, so you were on your toes the whole time. And even if you have to traverse the entire level, it doesn’t feel that long because you’re always looking for danger.” 

“We came to a place just a few weeks ago, where now I can play the game. My vision was to make the game easy. Once you are proficient at placing your turrets, upgrade them as necessary. I take great pleasure in not having to fire a single bullet, just watching the carnage unfold and going through the level while watching the turrets do their jobs.”

Now that Amplitude has established a core gameplay loop, the studio focuses daily on level designs to vary the game’s pace and amount of challenge. The project doesn’t currently have a release window, but Endless Dungeon could be a breakout hit if it continues along the same trajectory.