CRPG Revisiting old classics has reviewed the dungeon crawler The Keep:

The Keep - Review

Another Dungeon crawler arrived just a few weeks ago and I bought it almost immediately having only read one or two Steam reviews of it. The game is very similar to last years dungeon crawlers. It is short, linear, limited character development but fun. So let´s dwelve a little deeper into it and see what it brings to the table. And can it compete with the previous ones ?

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The fights was pretty nice too with the comboeffects building up after a few hits and which differs with different weapons.

If I compare this game with the other dungeon crawlers released and reviewed the past six months this game has the most simple graphics. Probably because it is ported from a mobile device. The soundeffects are ok and I really liked the digitized voices which reminded me of Stonekeep every time. There are no maintune which is strong enough that I will remember though.

I think it is extremely hard to compare this game with the other crawlers like Ruzar the lifestone, The Dark Path, Heroes of the Monkey Tavern. All are good but I would rank Ruzar, Dark Path and The Keep at around the same level of enjoyment even though they differ slightly in gameplay. If this game would have contained 20 levels I would surely tire before the end and the gameplay value would risk degrade by 0.5 point. I think the this game is a little pricey for the length of it. A better price would have been $9.99.

Anyway, this is a solid bug-free game (for me at least) and I recommend it.

Gameworld & Story: 1.5
Economy: 1
NPC & Interactions: 1.5
Monsters, tactics & combat system: 3
Magic system: 2.5
Character generation & development: 2
Map design: 3.5
Manual: 4
Graphics, Sound and Interface: 3

Summary CRPG value: 22

Gameplay: 4

Thanks Dark Savant!

The dungeon crawler The Keep has been released and if you're fast enough you can win a unique handcrafted Watrys figure:

The Keep Contest

To celebrate the release of The Keep we are starting a contest. Who will first finish game and collect all 25 achievements will a unique handcrafted Watrys figure. Which has been designed, molded and painted by developers of The Keep. We created only five pieces of those.

-> More information.

The old school dungeon crawler The Keep will be released on March 16. The devs of The Keep - Cinemax - are known for Inquisitor:

The Keep is an old-school dungeon crawler with real-time combat.

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The idea behind The Keep is very simple, to bring the essence and dark atmosphere of RPGs from the past for newcomers and fans of the genre alike.

In The Keep you will embark on a quest to explore caves and mines filled with monsters to slain and puzzles to solve underneath and surrounding tower of evil sorcerer. It won’t be easy, you will die. A lot!

Features

• An old-school first-person dungeon crawler with a modern twist.
• Exploring and puzzle solving — the caves and dungeons are full of surprises. There will be deadly traps, elaborate mechanisms guarding secret passages, trapdoors and treasures with powerful weapons and supplies.
• Real-time combat — a battle against enemies with a gesture based combat, but swiping horizontally or diagonally is not enough. Defeating enemies means that you have to break their defences hitting the upper or lower body or focusing on their head.
• Every enemy requires different strategy and every weapon class offers unique combos.
• Rune magic — you can rearrange runes on a 5×4 board and then chain them together to cast powerful elemental magic (Fire, Ice or Lightning). Runes are scarce but there are a lot of spells, so be careful to pick the right combinations.
• 3 difficulties. The Keep will offer something for newbies in the genre, seasoned adventurers and for those who like to tackle with proper challenge—every difficulty level will have a Permadeath option.