Crypt of the Serpent King Review

Review: Crypt of the Serpent King  | A Hack & Slash Dungeon game with roguelike gameplay for only $3? It seems like an early Christmas present from developer Rendercode Games. Let’s take a look in this review if you should spend your three dollar on this game or a Besos-drink. 

THE GOOD!

  • The cheap price tag is very tempting, in all honesty asking more would have been a mistake so I’m glad the developer decided to go for $3.
  • I’m not really the biggest fan for Roguelike games, it’s a personal opinion of course but I don’t really like losing my progress. Crypt of the Serpent King solves this perfectly though, you get to keep all your Gold and Experience and you just need to replay the level. You’ll die quite a few times, trust me… and every time you can level up your character or buy a new weapon. I suggest buying a ranged weapon ASAP, this makes the game much easier.

Mixed Feelings

  • A little bit more creativity for the Achievements would have been welcome, finishing each level on easy, normal and hard difficulty isn’t mind-blowing original. The same can be said about the Achievements art.
  • Crypt of the Serpent King was a XBLIG (Xbox Live Indie Games) title on the Xbox 360, so I wasn’t really expecting much about the visuals. While it definitely isn’t going to win any graphics awards the game looks better than I originally expected. Textures look sharp and detailed, although everything looks a little bit too clean.  Environments look empty and shallow too, the same can be said about the enemies. Anyway, considering the price tag and history I was more positively surprised about how Crypt of the Serpent King looks than negative.

THE BAD!

  • Repetition, repetition and repetition. This sounds really harsh but it’s been ages since I have played such a repetitive game like Crypt of the Serpent King. Even though the game has randomly generated dungeons you don’t really notice it because, besides a level theme and basic lay-outs things don’t really change. The few monsters, that all have the same look doesn’t really help either for keeping things fresh.
  • The combat system doesn’t have any weight and feels unpolished and broken. While it’s fun to try out new weapons, you never have the feeling that you are fighting a great battle, even against boss fights. It all comes down to attacking first so the enemy abruptly stops a fighting animation.

Score: 43% | It’s cool to see cheap games on Xbox One but being cheap doesn’t mean you should bring out something unpolished and repetitive. It’s far from the worst game I played on Xbox but falls short to be better than average. You could still try it out for yourself, it’s only three dollar for the game.