Wonderful storytelling. It feels like a mix between a text adventure and a choose-your-own-adventure book. And as a book, it definitely engages you and entices you deeper into the story.

Unfortunately, This Dungeon Is Not A Book.

I can definitely recommend this game for its story, and I'm happy about all of the endings, but there are several loose ends that need to be addressed before it's a truly enjoyable experience. I started off really enjoying it but it got to a point where I had to push myself through the frustration in order to finish it.

First and foremost, it gets repetitive. There are no saves in the game, and this means that every time you die, you have to start over and go through certain parts of the game a second time. This isn't too much of an inconveniece at first, since a lot of the time you're just flipping through pages and making a couple choices. But there are parts where you have to remember which steps to take, or long segments of text, or pages that only progress after some time has passed. The latter two, as I said, were executed great as far as a book goes, but does not mesh well with the game in its current state. This being said, it does have links in the beginning so you can skip ahead a bit. I believe this is to get around a limitation in Twine, so I don't believe that this particular point can be addressed easily, if at all. It's unfortunate.

Then there are parts where it's basically a guessing game. You do get a decent amount of information on what you're dealing with, but then you're given a number of paths where almost all of them kill you, and you don't have enough information to make a proper decision. To be fair, though, this is a classic way of doing a CYOA book. It just doesn't work as intended in a medium like this, and it's very likely a symptom of the repetition I explained above.

The encounters may as well not be there. There are, I believe, three encounters. They are all in the same place. You have one option. You have no will over how it plays out. You cannot die from them. They're just, well, there. I can understand the appeal as a storytelling mechanic, but the way it currently works, it just gets in the way.

There is no branching story. This isn't a complaint, but more of a warning to those who are thinking of purchasing this with the idea that it's a true CYOA. It's not. You make choices and you try not to choose wrong.

To sum up, this game is actually not a bad idea or a bad story, it's just poorly executed. For a couple bucks, I'd say to give it a try. Thinking about it, I believe the biggest issues (the repetition and the guessing game) can be remedied by putting in some option to revert to an earlier page when you hit a death scene. Not necessarily to that specific choice, but far enough back so you can make different choices without having to go through the monotony of reading the same thing over and over again. If such a change is made, or a similarly effective change is made, I'll revise this review and recommend it. In the meantime, though, I'm looking forward to the remake. With the better tools and the feedback he's gotten from this version, I'm sure the new one will turn out fantastic.

Wonderful storytelling. It feels like a mix between a text adventure and a choose-your-own-adventure book. And as a book, it definitely engages you and entices you deeper into the story. Unfortunately, This Dungeon Is Not A Book. I can definitely recommend this game for its story, and I'm happy about all of the endings, but there are several loose ends that need to be addressed before it's a truly enjoyable experience. I started off really enjoying it but it got to a point where I had to push myself through the frustration in order to finish it. First and foremost, it gets repetitive. There are no saves in the game, and this means that every time you die, you have to start over and go through certain parts of the game a second time. This isn't too much of an inconveniece at first, since a lot of the time you're just flipping through pages and making a couple choices. But there are parts where you have to remember which steps to take, or long segments of text, or pages that only progress after some time has passed. The latter two, as I said, were executed great as far as a book goes, but does not mesh well with the game in its current state. This being said, it does have links in the beginning so you can skip ahead a bit. I believe this is to get around a limitation in Twine, so I don't believe that this particular point can be addressed easily, if at all. It's unfortunate. Then there are parts where it's basically a guessing game. You do get a decent amount of information on what you're dealing with, but then you're given a number of paths where almost all of them kill you, and you don't have enough information to make a proper decision. To be fair, though, this is a classic way of doing a CYOA book. It just doesn't work as intended in a medium like this, and it's very likely a symptom of the repetition I explained above. The encounters may as well not be there. There are, I believe, three encounters. They are all in the same place. You have one option. You have no will over how it plays out. You cannot die from them. They're just, well, there. I can understand the appeal as a storytelling mechanic, but the way it currently works, it just gets in the way. There is no branching story. This isn't a complaint, but more of a warning to those who are thinking of purchasing this with the idea that it's a true CYOA. It's not. You make choices and you try not to choose wrong. To sum up, this game is actually not a bad idea or a bad story, it's just poorly executed. For a couple bucks, I'd say to give it a try. Thinking about it, I believe the biggest issues (the repetition and the guessing game) can be remedied by putting in some option to revert to an earlier page when you hit a death scene. Not necessarily to that specific choice, but far enough back so you can make different choices without having to go through the monotony of reading the same thing over and over again. If such a change is made, or a similarly effective change is made, I'll revise this review and recommend it. In the meantime, though, I'm looking forward to the remake. With the better tools and the feedback he's gotten from this version, I'm sure the new one will turn out fantastic.