Over the past couple of weeks, my gaming time hasn’t been amenable to long sessions thanks to work travel, but I was prepared: I’ve had Dungeonborne on my shortlist for a month or two now and my Steam Deck loaded up and ready to go. And then Dungeonborne opened up its early access and for one reason or another really caught my attention. The dark atmosphere, the class designs, and especially the PvPvE extraction mode just sounded like fun. Of course, I’m not as familiar with extraction shooters or even first-person gameplay, but I put all that aside for what at least appeared to be a solid game with the PvP elements that make it perfect for MOP’s Fight or Kite column.
So I popped open Dungeonborne on my Steam Deck and got ready to rock and roll. There were a number of warnings that the game is playable on the deck but not really compatible or optimized, but I’ve never let a few warnings stop me from doing something ill-advised – elementary-aged me in a hospital for two months could tell you that!
Unfortunately, as I soon discovered, this game was not what I was really looking for.
The extraction mode just wasn’t exciting
I didn’t know before I went in, but this game’s extraction mode is basically a battle royale, except it replaces the ring of death with random locations for you to quit early. I understood the basic premise of an extraction mode: get in, get the good loot, and get out before you die. But I thought it’d be a bit more… exciting?
I had a friend who was really into one of those popular extraction shooters from a few years back. I don’t remember which one, but he really made it out to be a ton of fun, to the point that if the game hadn’t had a box price (and if I weren’t total trash at FPS games), I would’ve played with him.
There also don’t appear to be very many maps or modes in the game. There are basically two maps and two game modes. The primary, basic gameplay is the extraction mode, but there’s a similar one called the Mithril Order. In this version, your character chooses one of three different basic classes (tank, healer, or DPS), which don’t have anything to do with your normal class chosen during creation. Instead, it’s something that counts only in the Mithril Order mode.
Everything here is preset, and you’re fully kitted out in gear. If you aren’t someone who can spend the time grinding away to level up – but you do enjoy the gameplay enough to hop in once in a while – then this is probably the best place to be.
Class designs are slick, but the combat is slooooow
I really like the class designs. They’re basic high fantasy stuff, but they have a cool flair to them. When I was looking at the classes to play and reading their mechanics, each one sounded better than the last. That doesn’t happen with a lot of games!
My favorite classes are ones that can dish out a bit of DPS while also recovering themselves. So I usually lean towards either a paladin or a dark guard of some sort. Guild Wars 2’s Guardian and Reaper both give me that hit. I first read up on the Fighter; I like it, but it is kind of simple. Then, there’s the Cryomancer, which just sounded incredible despite being outside of my normal theme. Next I read about the Death Knight. This one turns out to fall squarely in my DPS/self-healer role.
I was really convinced this was going to be my class of choice until I read up on the Swordmaster, which actually plays more akin to a duelist or GW2 Mesmer. Basically, the class uses magic to fling swords all around dealing wild damage. So in the end, I went Swordmaster. After playing this class a bit, I think I may have chose poorly, but that’s not ultimately why Dungeonborne falls a bit flat for me – though I’m sure it didn’t help.
My first thought on logging in and playing the tutorial was just how much it reminded me of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now, that’s largely because Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game, but also the first person perspective and dark graphics just give the same vibes.
The real issue, though, is how old-school and slow the combat plays. Individual swings aren’t terrible, but it’s just a bit boring. You left click to attack, right click to block, and then you’ve got two active skills – and that’s it! There’s no dodging or even running. You move at one pace, picking your nose between fights. If you’re engaged with someone or something, you don’t really have good active maneuvers with which to out-play the enemy.
In something like Mortal Online, For Honor, or Chivalry, the way you swing or aim your mouse makes a huge difference in the way the attack lands. Here, you’re just putting the cursor on the enemy – or not. There is a counter-attack if you click to strike immediately after a block, but that’s about the extent of skilled play. It seems gears and levels are what separates players here.
Another thing to mention about the combat is how it’s really designed to be kind of simple and cheap. Again, since there aren’t really active ways to play skillfully, you’re instead just trying to game the system that’s there. As an example, I walked into a room that had two armored knights and a couple of skeletal archers. Well, since I obviously can’t skillfully dodge one, smash others, dodge around more, and make cool plays, I instead have carefully kite the monsters to a doorway without breaking aggro and play the dumb AI game.
By that, I mean that I step forward and strike once or twice on a knight, then step back while he swings at the air. Then I step up again, swing, and step back again. We do this dance for a couple of minutes until the monsters are all dead. That’s not exciting. That’s not skillful. It’s just abusing dumb AI.
Monetization hooks are built-in, but there isn’t much to buy yet
The game has some decent graphics and animations, and Dungeonborne’s devs have clearly built some hooks to begin to take advantage of that. Mithril Interactive is clearly a small studio, so I can give it props on all the options that are or will be available to customize. Even though everything is dark and dreary, the monsters animate well, and nearly everything can use a unique skin.
Currently the game doesn’t have a whole lot of things to buy, but it does have at least one or two skins for every gear slot. I like that you can even change the skin on the potions you drink to heal. Very unnecessary, sure, but I’ll never say we can have too many options.
You can even play on your Steam Deck – but don’t do it
My last word on the game is about playing on the Steam Deck. I mentioned it at the top because I used my deck to play my first night or two in game. It was technically functional, and I did get through the tutorial and I think one or two runs, but it is absolutely not optimized. The developers and Steam page warned me as much, so I’m not knocking them for it – simply letting everyone know about the experience in case you have a deck and were also considering playing on it in defiance of the warnings.
Controls for moving and combat all worked pretty good on the deck, admittedly. I didn’t have any issues mechanically playing the game or popping off some skeletons. The real issue was with looting. Since the game expects you to have a mouse, looting requires you to actually click and drag loot from the monster window to your inventory. I don’t even think it has a “loot all” option.
So when playing on the Steam Deck, you need to use the mouse pads to slide over to the loot, click and hold it with whatever button you’ve mapped to the left click, and then drag it back over to your inventory. It’s not a complete showstopper, but when you’re in a real PvPvE match, you’ll have to be careful and keep your head on a swivel because someone is going to gank you while you perform this loot dance.
That’s about all I have to say about Dungeonborne. It honestly wasn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had, but I felt like there was a considerable amount of word-of-mouth around the game so I was disappointed (the Steam reviews now seem to feel the same way, as recent reviews are “mostly negative” – which seems a bit harsh for early access). I’d say if you’re looking for a good PvP or medieval style game where you can really test your abilities against others, then there are probably better options out there. If you really like grinding away and slowly leveling up to increase in power and collect better and better gear in a more old-school setting, then maybe Dungeonborne is for you. Either way, it’s easy to check out: It’s on Steam, it’s free-to-play, and it’s somewhat capable on your Steam Deck.
Every other week, Massively OP’s Sam Kash delivers Fight or Kite, our trip through the state of PvP across the MMORPG industry. Whether he’s sitting in a queue or rolling with the zerg, Sam’s all about the adrenaline rush of a good battle. Because when you boil it down, the whole reason we PvP (other than to pwn noobs) is to have fun fighting a new and unpredictable enemy!
