The most complicated aspect of Crypt of the Serpent King Remastered 4K Edition is pronouncing or writing the long title. This approachable dungeon crawler is one of the most simplified games you can play, suffers from some horrible repetition, but still finds a way to be entertaining thanks to the easy Achievements and numerous unlockables.
Starting with a simple hatchet, it is your job to venture through an underground dungeon, find all the keys to unlock the door to that level’s boss, and kill anything that moves. There is one button to attack and one to jump. That’s it! Other than the boss, you will only fight the exact same enemy on that floor so combat is nothing special since it only involves one button, and most baddies can be destroyed with mindless button mashing. If you hit them first, their stun animation will allow for that follow up attack ending most encounters with a simple 2-hit kill unless you upgrade your melee attack strength.
Level design is also super simplified as the player walks through each floor’s repeating stage design. In fact, without the auto-filling radar in the corner of the screen, it would be impossible to navigate these dungeons as these basic level assets repeat. The pedestals that hold the keys are also surrounded by the same lava or spikes and each hallway looks exactly the same. This is also a dark game. Even with the gamma adjusted to the max setting, you can only see a few feet into the distance. Since enemies don’t make sounds when they walk, they can provide cheap jump scares if not careful as they can sneakily attack while looting a treasure chest. The entire screen turns an annoying red color when taking damage so there is no mistaking when that skeleton or goblin is nearby.
Chests contain gold and defeated monsters yield XP that can be spent to upgrade stats or unlock new weapons. Ranged weapons are available but they cost a lot and are not as strong as the melee weapons but they are there for dedicated players.
Even with its super simple, repeating game design, I didn’t mind spending a couple hours to burn through the campaign thanks to easy Achievements and low cost; this game has a price tag of a whopping $2.99 not on sale. This is a low budget title for sure but there is just enough meat on the bone to serve as a decent appetizer for the price if you don’t mind cutting through some repeating fat.
SCORE: 7/10
Not As Detailed As: Vaporum
Also Play: Pangeon
Don’t Forget About: Duke Nukem 20th Anniversary
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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