The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is a great tactical RPG from Artefacts Studio. It has everything you want from a tactical RPG, adds a sprinkle of difference with some of its design elements, and brings it all together with a solid bit of wacky humor and fun personalities.
While the concept of a tactical RPG hasn’t changed much over the years, and they can be a dime a dozen somedays, when you put in a good script, wacky characters, and unusually fun scenarios, the experience can be quite unique. That is the case with Artefacts Studio’s The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos, which features everything you want in a tactical RPG game and everything you don’t expect from being mean to a dwarf. Let’s get this started.
The concept for The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is quite simple. You lead a ragtag band of fighters through a series of dungeons while clearing enemies, upgrading, and discovering cool stuff. It’s quite simple on the surface in terms of functionality, but the script and the good acting help to make it less taxing than most tactical RPGs. That’s the biggest difference with this game when compared to other games like it, the tone is comedic and the delivery is spot-on. You get a lot of shaped personalities with each different character (sarcastic leader, dumb grunts, cowardly thieves) and quite a bit of abuse towards dwarves for some strange reason (maybe Artefacts Studio has something against LOTR). That sort of comedy and the script help to deviate from the usual tactical dryness that comes with RPGs of this type. The presentation and acting help to make the process feel far from monotonous. In other words, the game is fun and wacky in tone. And, yes, I understand the humor may not be for everyone out there, but this 44-year-old reviewer found it refreshing, even if it was a tad bit on the goofy side.
Staying with ‘the usual’, the gameplay design is straight from most tactical RPGs, though the quests in the game seem less urgent than most. The design is turn-based with options to move, attack, and/or defend. There are special moves for characters, depending on class and weapon, as well as an extensive skills tree that feeds you some solid new moves as you get better in the game. Again, it is what you would expect from a tactical RPG. The backend encourages you to explore the game and pick fights, as you can gain new weapons, more money, and level up your character as things progress. Anytime you’re motivated to get ‘into’ a fight in an RPG like this, you’re having a good experience. The backend reminds me a lot of Knights of the Old Republic, both in structure and functionality, though not quite as fun and risky as KOTOR on the surface, nor as groundbreaking.
On the front end, the movement and structure of The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is quite typical and challenging, though not overly or seemingly tough thanks to the game’s humor. The game wants you to strategize your movements, think about your enemy’s positioning, and attack with the most appropriate weapons and selections. There’s a lot that is familiar with how the battling works, though I think that it nearly overcomplicates the instructions on what you should be focusing on at the beginning. Once you get going in the game, you’ll find the strategy is thick, but the gameplay is fast. That will certainly keep you hungry and less mentally exhausted as you go through quests. There is nothing worse than feeling like you’ve accomplished a feat in a tactical RPG after a few hours only to be presented with an equally exhausting quest. Some people live for that, but people like yours truly cannot stand it. I want a game to go fast, especially one that is dispensing humor to keep you preoccupied with your time spent playing.
Anyway, all of this is typical of a tactical, though certainly doesn’t separate it from the rest of the pack. What does separate this game from the rest is the smaller intricate details during battle.
While you can move your player around the board in a limited fashion, the direction in which you face is taken into account when you fight enemies. On this level, it has a very DnD feel to the process. For example, if you manage to sneak up behind your enemies during a fight, you can deal extra strike damage for backstabbing (it isn’t guaranteed, but it’s a strong possibility). We play DnD on the site on Sunday nights (via Twitch – tune in to Digital Dragons at 7pm) and our DM does the exact same consideration when it comes to backstabbing as this game does. If you roll the right number, you get a critical hit. Same with The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk, if you sneak up on a character pointing a certain direction, you get a critical hit (more than likely). It’s a simple, yet refreshing addition to a tactical RPG, though it can bite one in the ass if you’re the one pointing in the wrong direction (can’t tell you how many times that happened to me during the game).
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos isn’t completely perfect in its execution on the gameplay side of things. There are times where the game will feel like a bit of a chore because maybe you didn’t get the roll you wanted when you snuck up on an enemy. I had 2-3 incidents per quest during gameplay where I strategized my movements, got my characters in a good position, and the effort didn’t pay off as I had thought. I know that since it takes a DnD stance on how damage is dealt and executed that this is to be expected, but it doesn’t make the lack of ‘critical hit’ any less sucky. Sometimes just one messed up a plan can lead to a complete collapse in overall execution. That’s certainly a tough break, but it also isn’t a dealbreaker. The game is too much fun for this to be a huge downer. It’s just a simple downer.
Beyond the gameplay, the actual look and visual feel of the game are quite impressive. I love how the structure of some of the dungeons is presented. You have some really creative level design and some fantastic lighting effects. The animation and presentation might feel a bit mobile in its simplicity, but the creative variety of dungeons and enemies will also help to mold the world the game resides in. It’s a pretty game that is reinforced by great design, solid acting and well-executed humor at times. The atmosphere is established through all of the above.
Overall, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is a great tactical RPG from Artefacts Studio. It has everything you want from a tactical RPG, adds a sprinkle of difference with some of its design elements, and brings it all together with a solid bit of wacky humor and fun personalities.
