Dark Delve Demo

Whether you enjoy RPGs or not, you’ve got to admit that the genre did quite well for itself over the decades. Starting from the basic rogue-like adventures back when text-based graphics were the usual, all the way to stunning works of art such as The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, the long was long and fruitful, with many gems in between.

Dark Delve is a classic role-playing game that feels a lot more like a dungeon crawler instead, especially when you consider the gameplay and the way the action kicks off. Hence, you are free to create your own characters and party at the beginning of the campaign, which is a much more Wizardry approach to the genre than Baldur’s Gate or something similar.

The story revolves around clearing dungeon after dungeon, so it’s not that exciting to an outside observer. However, given the fact that the environments are automatically generated every time you start a new campaign, that should encourage multiple replays, at least in theory. Unfortunately, the experience is not that pleasant even the first time around, which is mostly due to the repetitive gameplay and the general lack of polishing when it comes to mechanics.

The game is played from a first-person perspective when you are exploring, but the actual mechanics are very basic and annoying. In essence, you can only move in fixed increments, so there is usually exactly one path you can follow to get through a corridor. Sure, the levels usually have multiple rooms and halls, but that’s hardly the point. It just feels very restricted in an age when nothing really is restrictive anymore, especially in video games.

Moreover, the same can be said about the technical aspects of the game, because they are subpar in every regard. The most obvious one is the visual quality, because the characters seem to be drawn by hand, but not by a very talented artist, unfortunately. Barely any thought went into the level environment as well, given the fact that every dungeon is basically just a succession of gray corridors and gray rooms.

All things being equal, Dark Delve may serve as one way to relax after a tough day, when you don’t need anything complicated to keep you distracted. However, for RPG fans out there, this is just too unrefined and silly to be worth a shot, because there are much better alternatives out there.