Ian Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon (PC, PS) (1998)
Developer: Asylum

Review by Faididi and Co.

Because "Shitty Puzzle Maze" doesn't sound as good

Story: Average

At the medieval fantasy town of Fang, a mad baron builds a sprawling labyrinth with the delightful name of Deathtrap Dungeon. The idea is simple: whoever enters and makes it to the end will win a huge prize in gold, bathing maidens, and what not. There's some backstory provided for the two playable characters, but it means nothing in the actual game, and you wouldn't give a shit anyway.

Gameplay: Poor

Developed by Asylum, Deathtrap Dungeon is a 3D action adventure based on Ian Livingstone's fantasy works. The two sword-swinging heroes are the sexy Red Lotus and the gruff Chain Dog (who are virtually equal in ability), but despite what the opening movie suggests, you only play as one of them.

The character you choose will brave the dungeon alone, jumping and climbing through 10 maze-like levels, searching for keys, slashing apart monsters, and evading plenty of traps. The ledge-scaling and platforming work wouldn't look out of place in Core's Tomb Raider, while the combat system is very similar to the one in I-Motion's Alone in the Dark, except there are additional moves like blocking and backward-striking attacks.

Unfortunately, Deathtrap Dungeon suffers from extremely crappy level design. Having fanciful scenery is one thing, but the fun stops with the haphazardly arranged corridors and the boring need to repeatedly hunt for switches and keys, many of which are concealed behind hidden doors.

Worse still, a superior game of the same genre can already be found in Kalisto's Dark Earth. That earlier action adventure not only contains less confusing level design, but it boasts more character interaction and greater details to investigate. It also features more interesting puzzles that can accept multiple solutions, and having something like that would've made Deathtrap Dungeon feel much less of a chore to play.

Controls: Poor

While the Alone in the Dark-style fighting scheme works okay, the rest of the controls suck. The heroes can keep catching onto objects like braziers, making basic movement annoying as hell. The camera doesn't stay behind the heroes tightly enough to provide a consistently clear view, which is bad news due to the up-close fighting and the high-speed deathtraps. Not helping is the needlessly restrictive save system, which forces the heroes to rely on save points that either move to different spots or require a payment of gold in order to be accessed.

Graphics: Average

Deathtrap Dungeon looks decent. The environments are decorated with heavy textures, windy flags, and other things. Blood splatters and flesh chunks drip messily off the walls and the ceilings. The heroes change in appearance to reflect how much damage they've sucked up, but the visual wounds appear more comical than serious when they become instantly undone if the heroes regain their stamina.

Audio: Average

The chopping and hacking noises sound all right, but there is no actual music to be heard within the levels, and the vocal effects are drawn from the awful, awful Tallarico effects kit.

Overall: Poor

Deathtrap Dungeon may contain plenty of gore, but it's certainly not an awesome game with its terrible level design and its sloppy controls. Earlier and brilliantly-crafted action adventures such as Dark Earth leave little reason for one to put up with garbage like Deathtrap Dungeon.