Pangeon Review

Developed by Mr Ciastku and Published by Ultimate Games, Pangeon brings you back in time to play dungeon crawler like many classics in the past. The game looks like a medieval Doom with graphics similar to Minecraft. I am a big fan of games with a retro feel providing they capture what made the retro era great and add a modern spin to it. At the start, I felt like they had captured the old-style well, but then bugs and a lot of confusing choices just flushed it all away.

               When you start a new game you are asked to choose your difficulty and character. The character select screen held the first minor bug I came across. You have to press right 3 times before you can see the other character options. I am sure it could be patched out but I didn’t actually notice there were other character choices until my second playthrough. The character screen was also quite gutting as the four choices were drawn quite nicely., but you never see yourself in-game, so the nicely drawn characters were a bit redundant. Also, this game gives you almost nothing in terms of the story.

               You are dropped into the dungeon on a level called… the dungeon. You grab your starting gear out of a chest and begin exploring. It’s important to familiarise yourself with the inventory and quick slot menu as it’s a bit clunky. In the room you start out in I noticed a lockpick hidden under the table and thought “OK, my first hidden area already”. Little did I know that was the second bug I came across. It seems that lockpick may not have meant to be on the floor. Every item you seem to come across is placed under the table. But item bugs don’t stop there either, as occasionally breaking a barrel or killing an enemy causes an item to drop out.

Unfortunately more often than not the item either falls through the floor or into the wall and you are unable to claim it. The attacking in the game is a bit mixed, as it’s simple enough in that you just use the one button, but the different weapons have different ranges and the hit detection feels a bit random at times. The enemies in this game are quite generic. Slimes, bats, skeletons, goblins and fire demons. The bosses are unique but they are not too difficult to beat. Enemies that are high like bats or low like slimes are harder to hit unless you are at just the right angle.

               After you find the exit to the first dungeon you are exposed to the first and only hint at the story. A couple of guys called Oberon and Aron say the dungeon is full of evil and that you should be afraid. But then his next sentence says you should kill the Reviver and he will reward you and gives you a sabre. Once you beat the Reviver Aron says Proteus needs to be stopped and creates a portal for you. Also in the room is the trader where you buy some gear or potions. Although you don’t see Oberon again for the rest of the game you do see the trader appear on different levels. Every time you speak to the trader he gives a weird sassy groan which was amusing.

               There were other signs that the game was rushed and unfinished; you are given a key and some lockpicks, yet there was only one door which required unlocking – which you can use the key for. So the lockpicks are worthless except for the fact there is an achievement for using it successfully. But sadly the lockpicking minigame is harder than the actual game as it requires timing to stop the block in the correct spot – although considering the other bugs it might not be that my timing is off that I didn’t get the achievement. Another sign is that the final two bosses in the game are mini-bosses. Not just any mini-bosses, but one large skeleton and one large fire demon, which is a massive let down. The last sign was that I noticed I levelled up whilst playing, and the words ‘new level’ appear above the health bar, but that’s it. The first time I played the game through I didn’t notice you could increase your stats when you level up. It was only through noticing when you pick the character you can increase certain base stats that on the inventory screen all the way to the left-hand side is where your stats are. Here you can increase the stats when you level up but it is not mentioned anywhere in game.

             Pangeon only has about 8 or so levels and each of them are quite short. It could be speed-run in 15 minutes on both easy and normal difficulty. The other character classes are made pointless by the length of the game and lack of supplies. The wizard and archer rely on mana and arrows to be effective and both mana items and arrows are at a premium. You have to be very accurate in your aiming or you will have to revert to the melee weapon anyway. I didn’t try playing as the thief as there is only one door you can pick which you get a key for anyway and there was no specific thief weaponry so it seemed pointless. The game does have an arena mode where you can take on waves of enemies, but when the first waves of enemies were bats and slimes where the hit detection is the worse I lost interest very fast.

Conclusion

Pangeon had some elements to reel in those that enjoyed retro-style dungeon crawlers. But one gentle tap on the outer coating reveals a very empty centre filled with a couple of bugs. I know bugs can be patched but the other 80% of the game’s content needs to be here as it feels like it got pushed out the doorway before it was ready. It’s a shame as the retro feel is achieved well but with such little content, it is just a shell of a game.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.