The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (Here on out referred to as DoN) was originally a French audio series (then graphic novels), created in 2001 by John Lang under the name "Pen of Chaos" and freely distributed online.
DoN is an isometric turn based, strategy RPG. Think XCOM with Orcs but a little more forgiving.
Your party is pre-set based on the characters from the series. A Ranger, Dwarf, Elf, Enchantress, Thief, Ogre, Paladin Minstrel and Priestess. Seems a lot to manage but you only really have a party of 6 on the go at any one time.
Your group has been commissioned to retrieve a statue from a dungeon, but things quickly go astray upon the discovery of a cursed amulet.
From the get go, its important to realise that this is a satire/comedy title. It's very Terry Pratchett in it's approach to the fantasy genre, poking fun at its roots and tirelessly milking RPG memes and tropes.
The game itself is quite a basic setup, you have a main quest and side quests, centred around the hub of a Tavern within the dungeon.
Every now and again along your journey you will enter into a combat situation. Even though the game is very tongue in cheek, the core combat mechanics are serious business. Intuitive controls coupled with a slick UI really do make the encounters genuinely enjoyable.
The USP of DoN is the humour and character interaction. As you explore the dungeon, the characters automatically chat to each other, bicker, curse and mock each other, while the whole time advancing the plot.
There is an incredible amount of recorded dialogue, much of which is from the source material and it its voiced with varying degrees of success. Some of the characters are brilliantly voice acted while others fall flat and don't seem to fit their respective toon.
A similar feeling accompanies the humour which can seem quite arbitrary at times. The characters are almost constantly interacting and from my own perspective, probably about 70% of the comedic material hits its mark.
Ultimately though, it wins through. At any point where I was about to curl up and die of second hand embarrassment, a witty one liner (usually from the foul mouthed Dwarf) would put me back on track.
Graphically its a really attractive game, cartoonish characters and enough variation in the environment to make the different locations stand apart. Pleasing combat animations and spell effects bring the whole fantasy element together and round it off nicely.
Overall DoN is a really enjoyable game, gratifying, quirky and accessible to anyone new to the genre.
Ultimately though, humour is very subjective, so everyone's experience will vary. As an old school D&D nerd I really enjoyed playing and found it a really fun, light hearted approach to a tactical RPG game.
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is avilable now on Xbox Store for $44.99
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