Dungeon of the Endless was an excellent strategy game that paired roguelike dungeon crawling with tower defence. The original game focussed on planning out your turret defence strategy; positioning strategically, moving tactically and balancing safety against resources.

Endless Dungeon is the 3D isometric, twin-stick shooter sequel to that game..

And in many ways it deliberately fights the ideas that made Dungeon of the Endless so enjoyable. Changes to enemy spawns, resource generating buildings, and the positioning of the crystal you defend have made the randomness of the map layout significantly more impactful. The decision making in researching turrets and upgrades is massively limited by a complete refusal to give the player any information. Endless Dungeon also devalues each roguelike run by adding in a sprinkling of roguelite metaprogression that feels like an incredibly cheap way to artificially inflate playtimes.

One of the few details Endless Dungeon has carried over from its predecessor is that of the few dozen different abilities/turrets in the game - it's pretty obvious which ones are the best and which are not worth touching.

Endless Dungeon is still a fun roguelike-strategy game - but its strange for a game that would naturally draw in the Dungeon of the Endless audience to be designed in a way that's so contrary to a lot of what made that game good. I imagine a good chunk of Endless Dungeon's mixed Steam reviews comes from DotE players hitting a wall trying to play this like the former title.

There's also the issue that this game crashes a lot in multiplayer - though I imagine that will get patched down considerably. Endless Dungeon also makes it really hard to finish a co-op run in single player if the other player has disappeared, leaving their character as a perma-AI that you can't control or even give equipment to. A bit rubbish if a random disappears towards the end of a good run.

If you loved Dungeon of the Endless, I wouldn't say "don't play this" - but I would warn you that, while this is a fairly enjoyable experience, it's one filled with constant confusion as you see so many DotE systems consistently implemented in less interesting ways.

The Pale Reach adds one additional zone to Dredge, on a similar scale to each of the previous areas. It's decently designed and has one of the more interesting set-ups of Dredge's stories - but struggles with its identity.

This DLC is "mid-game" content, a location to explore as you progress through each other area. But also as a DLC it's something that many will play as an additional "endgame". With the suped-up engines of a completed Dredge playthough.. The Pale Reach's main threat couldn't keep up with my boats default speed, and I was finished with the DLC in about an hour.

Had The Pale Reach been designed for an endgame level of upgrades then all players new and old would have an extra area to enjoy. As it is, don't be prepared for too much if you've already completed Dredge.