Deathflood: Dungeon of Doom (2022)

 

Deathflood: Dungeon of Doom is a brand new C64 game (freely available from Windigo Productions here) that concerns a lone thief, either the male barbarian or an amazon, who investigates the allegedly abandoned stronghold of a powerful necromancer with the intent on looting its treasures. Locating the stronghold reveals that it's not entirely abandoned because the necromancer's experiments are still shambling about the crumbling halls, and the bulk of it is actually beneath the mountains in which it's situated. Penetrating to the bottom, the thief finds the remains of the necromancer but when attempting to seize the corpse's priceless jeweled crown, the foolish thief sets off a trap: the entire complex is now rapidly filling with water.

The game itself begins with what would be the breakneck finale of most stories, as the player has to escape the dungeon while evading the necromancer's undead minions, grabbing as much treasure as possible, and staying just ahead of the ascending waterline. This is much easier said than done because some of the rooms can get complicated as the player has to climb up and down ladders, searching for keys to unlock doors to reach the room's exit, and the player character doesn't move particularly fast in any direction, leaving very little room for error or wrong turns before the water catches up. Falling beneath the surface isn't an instant death because the player has a limited amount of air to keep them from drowning, but of course you're now slogging through water, and the water rises relentlessly, so you need to go farther up every second to regain your breath. 

Graphically, it resembles the classic Bruce Lee a little bit, with relatively small characters and giving a good overview of the surroundings. The sound is pretty basic, with expected swishes for the sword strikes and the little dings that signify a treasure has been grabbed, but the music provides some frantic melodies. Falling under the water's surface causes all the audio to become muffled in a nice touch.

The controls take a little bit of getting used to in that the character needs a good few paces to pick up speed for long jumps and dismounting from ladders or going up stairs can be weirdly cumbersome. So while it maybe looks like Bruce Lee, it's not as fast or nimble as that game. But that's how the game is made and it doesn't take long to get acclimated. There are multiple endings to the game depending on factors such as how much treasure you snatched on the way out. Pick up enough and you might be able to buy your own kingdom. It's well worth playing and replaying to better your performance.