Written by Jonathan Lee, June 20, 2018, 10:24 PM. Tweet to: @Writerscube
From Stand Off Software (and thanks to the kind folks there for providing me with a review copy!) comes a tongue-in-cheek fantasy satire of a knight, Sir Typhil, embarking on a virtuous quest after the king of the land falls ill. A combination of click-and-play adventure gaming and 8-bit rogue-based dungeoneering, Unicorn Dungeon tasks you with finding and acquiring the game’s namesake: the unicorn.
Gameplay
It is important to know that Unicorn Dungeon is the first of a series, and so I believe the game was designed to be a quick play. The control scheme is as simple as it gets. Exploring the world only requires that you click to move Sir Typhil, interact with objects, and use objects you acquire with other objects in the world. When Sir Typhil enters the dungeon, however, it changes to a keyboard-based rogue-like minigame as you battle gratuitous numbers of jackals and spider hordes (and a couple tougher enemies) all while trying to acquire items, or move on with the story. I found it easy to forget at times that there was a character inventory that you’re supposed to use, and can use both within the goblin shop and the dungeon. So don’t forget!
The charm of this game lies not with the simplistic gameplay or minimal graphics, but in the satirical absurdist humor that accompanies it. You have goblins who manage a dungeon like it’s an escape room attraction. There’s a princess who willingly locked herself up in a dungeon so she could sneakily pillage a goblin of his food. And the game is hilariously self-aware of the tropes that its genre often caters to. There’s a shortage of ridiculousness in the fantasy sector of gaming, an itch that this game managed to scratch. And it’s a shame that it’s for so brief a time. But with luck, there will be more.
Final Thoughts
Unicorn Dungeon isn’t the most complex of tales, but since it’s supposed to be the first of a series, who knows where it’ll take us next. It’s a quick game that’ll give you a few chuckles, and nudge you in the ribs with the nostalgia stick. Is it worth the five bucks in the Steam store? I believe so. If Sir Typhil’s story really takes off with more game episodes, then there’s a real potential for this series to become something hilariously wonderful. And I, for one, am looking forward to seeing that happen. There are not too many games out there that tap into this sort of peculiar comedy anymore, (ah, I remember the days of King’s Quest and Sam & Max…) so there is plenty of room for Stand Off Software to stake its claim if it pushes forward with this series.
