Unicorn Dungeon (PC) Review

This is described as an "absurdist comedy point & click adventure" - in other words, it's supposed to be funny. Is it? Well, the quest begins, Sir Typhil enters the titular dungeon, and says to the goblin that guards the entrance: ".... ... ..... .. .... ... ........ .....," which garners the response of "Whaaat?" The joke in here, of course, is the fact that Typhil is speaking with his helmet on, and, yes, it's not a great joke, but the delivery makes up for it.

Immediately after that, though, he starts strolling down a very long corridor, and while this purposely boring section was ripe with potential for some good humour, the opportunity was thrown out the window... unless walking past a knight, a barbarian, and a hot fantasy babe counts as humour. Generally, this doesn't really try very hard to be funny, and when it does, most jokes fall on the 'meh' side of the humour scale.

Take the few characters at hand, for example. Typhil starts of like the, typical for the genre, likeable loser, akin to Guybrush Threepwood and Larry Laffer. One hour into this, however, and the player will realise that this is just a walking piece of cardboard, whose description is simply this: he is a knight. This little fact simply destroys half of what would make this in any way enjoyable, as the only thing left here is the point-and-click aspect.

At least, is that any better? Unfortunately, it's just... serviceable. It's point-and-click gameplay 101, with nothing special to say about any of the puzzles on offer. Just grab 'A,' use it in 'B,' and, once in a while, combine those with 'C.' In other words, there is sort of... nothing here. Unicorn Dungeon is a comedy adventure game with not much comedy in it, and, even worse, not much adventuring, either.

As for those who care about the plot more than anything else, don't get your hopes up. Unicorn Dungeon could easily be named Find Unicorn; Become King, as this sums up the whole deal. A lack of a decent plot is not real problem on its own; The Secret of Monkey Island could also be known as Become a Pirate; Drink Root Beer with Girlfriend, and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards could be called... Get Laid - but it was the comedy bit that mattered the most with those.

However, there is also one more thing about this release. Upon entering the dungeon, the action shifts from a point-and-click adventure to a retro, rogue-like labyrinth, where Typhil moves via a simple WASD control scheme, and hits enemies simply by touching them, because... why bother? Don't come in expecting something even remotely complex here. You just wander around, try to survive, and kill boss-like mobs to get specific key items to use in the point-and-click part.

If the simplicity was the only problem here, then it would be just boring. This section has another issue, though. Since there aren't any deep mechanics at hand, fighting is really like flirting with Lady Luck. As a result, be ready to lose plenty of times before getting that blasted item that's required to move on, with no way to strengthen your character's attack or defence, making the rogue element at hand feel half-done, instead of a crucial part of the whole experience.

Generally, this is not a fun game. It's humourless, and doesn't require any effort on behalf of the one controlling Typhil, unless having the patience to endure its badly crafted labyrinth section counts as effort. This is such a bad product that its amateurish, bland visuals are actually a good thing in comparison, as their extreme simplicity is such that it can even be considered... an art style.