Alright, so it may have a title which sounds like it was created using the Generic Fantasy Game Name Generator™. It may have characters and enemies which look like they’ve fallen out of Poser’s templates without so much as a touch up. It may appear to be little more than a lazy copy of Diablo’s gameplay… well, alright, it is little more than a lazy copy of Diablo’s gameplay. But aside from all that, it’s, well, it’s free. And a lazy clone of Diablo. Which means it at least inherits some of that game’s compulsive elements. Namely the urge to level up further and collect more loot.

A shame it loses all the nuance that makes the Diablo series special. Admittedly, matching up to Blizzard’s huge, dedicated teams and budgets was never going to be on the cards, not in a small, free effort like this. But even so, this is a game of overwhelming simplicity. It has no storyline to speak of, no world to care about. Even Diablo’s simpler predecessors, from Rogue and on, place you as a lone adventure, questing into a dungeon in pursuit of treasure and glory. In Legends of Descent, you’re a dwarf stranded in a dungeon, wandering through it aimlessly. A dungeon which inexplicably features unmolested shopkeepers and blacksmiths at every level.

Moreover, you’re a dwarf with no particular specialisation, and only limited levelling options – don’t expect to craft a unique, distinct character here. You can vaguely direct your progress, but the effects are minimal – don’t expect anywhere near the diversity of even early evolutions of the Rogue formula, nothing to match Nethack’s design. It also misses another crucial element which made these games worthwhile – something which Diablo passed over in favour of greater polish. I’m talking about variety and challenge. Rogue and its descendants are all greatly challenging games, where allowing yourself to get ganged up on at any stage in the game is a recipe for disaster. Meanwhile, their dungeons – though rendered incredibly simplistically in terms of graphics – are filled with surprises and dangers – mysterious potions and powerful djinnis, traps and curses – all sorts of things to catch the unwary adventurer.

Legends of Descent, meanwhile, takes Diablo’s approach: waves of easy-to-kill enemies dropping tons of loot and useful objects, mobbing you constantly and barely reducing your health. Only it does so minus Diablo’s polish, its plot, its customisation. Adding basic graphics may be an improvement on the old ASCII set, but they don’t make up for the lack of everything else. In short, this is a game which takes the least important parts of both Nethack and Diablo, ignores what makes them great, and puts them together. It’s a bit of a mess.

Which isn’t to say it gets everything wrong. The controls, for one thing, are nicely thought out. Though the menus can be a bit of a chore to browse, the act of wandering the dungeon bashing monsters is pleasingly simple: tap to move, hold a button and tap to swipe. Though, inexplicably, this button is only in one corner of the screen, making you hold it with your **** hand and have your **** do all the work. Why it wasn’t added to both sides of the screen, particularly when played in horizontal alignment, I do not know.

Still, it’s a simple, effective way of transferring Diablo’s control system, and is supported by a wonderfully simple method of potion use: rather than having you deal with a fiddly list of potions to deal with mid-battle, it just asks that you tap on the related bar to refill it with the most suitable potion – tap on your health bar to quaff a healing potion, and on the mana bar to drink, well, a mana potion.

And that’s not all. While customising your character through level ups may be a little underwhelming, the game allows for equipment-based customisation. Though hardly rare to see in other RPGs, the system of having a range of armour and equipment which allows for contrasting benefits and downsides is an effective one – forcing you to decide between magic-restricting but heavy armour, or sacrificing defence for lighter, mana-boosting clothing; between swords and hammers, bows and staffs.

If only the game gave you a reason to branch out. The lack of esoteric abilities – no sneaking, no lockpicking – or versatile magic, plus the incredibly easy to defeat mobs of enemies, there’s never any reason to branch out beyond equipping your best sword and caving in monsters’ skulls. We’re back to the same problem we already mentioned – that this is just too simple a game. While it offers you loot and experience, the lack of thought required when deciding your approach – in levelling and in equipment – means that neither is particularly satisfying, and that there’s little to keep you playing beyond the very simple process of watching numbers increase.

Still, for some people that will be enough. I appreciate that not everybody wants to be engaged – for some people, simple compulsion is all they’re looking for, and for these people this will be a welcome gift. For everyone else – well, we can hope that the developer will continue to add features to the game, and gradually turn this into a more worthy imitator of Diablo and Rogue. Either way, the game is completely free, and available on the Marketplace now.

Legends of Descent Gameplay Video

Legends of Descent Screenshots

Version Under Review : 0.11.0.0

Legends of Descent is a FREE game for Windows Phone 7

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