The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos – Ruins of Limis DLC Review

Undead and Knockdowns
User Rating: 6
Ruins of Lemnis

I was looking forward to more adventures with the party from The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos (DoN). Some players will find that the Ruins of Limis (RoL) DLC, by Artefacts Studio and publisher Dear Villagers, will scratch that itch. Unfortunately, between the length of the DLC and frustrating combat, that itch can end up feeling like a minor rash. This is our The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos – Ruins of Limis DLC review.

The RoL DLC picks up right where the base game ends. Once unfrozen by Midranthir the Magnificent, he asks the characters to help retrieve an item. After a lengthy discussion, the group teleports to the ruins with the wizard. Midranther tells them not to touch anything while he retrieves the item in question. So, of course, the group goes around and “touches” everything in the name of profit.

Once free to explore, I was pleased that the humorous banter between characters is still intact from the base game. The developers even make fun of reusing assets from the base game. It felt nice to slip back into adventuring with this group, and the first fight against the undead was interesting. The group faced off against zombies that kept spawning until I deactivated multiple pillars. If I was too slow, there was a real chance of being overrun.

The DLC had some other memorable encounters as well. As I explored the ruins, I encountered two factions engaged in combat. After the fight ends, I had a chance to talk with each group and decide if I wanted to support the necromancers or vampires. It was a hard choice, but the ranger’s response to the vampires was too funny not to side with them.

There was also a couple of side quests that I enjoyed a lot. One was a fight against trolls dressed in football gear. The other was interacting with a wishing well. The new DLC loot was also interesting, though not overly impactful on combat. Even items that added an extra ability when equipped were limited in their usefulness.

While I enjoyed the thief’s new personality quirks and story progression, I was disappointed that there was no real character story growth or new character abilities that changed gameplay in a meaningful way. It felt like the story for this DLC was a short intermission.

It didn’t help that one of the encounters required you to pull a lever before time runs out to stop the poison gas, and I had the game freeze just as I pulled it. Fortunately, it was fixed by restarting the encounter and I didn’t have any other technical issues with the DLC.

But I do have two main complaints. The first is the short playtime. It took me just under nine hours to complete. In most cases, this would be fine for a $10 DLC. But during those nine hours was taking my time. I explored every section of the new map. I also had a hard time finding a few quest items. For most players, I would say cut off an hour or more from my playtime.

The second issue was most of the fights. When fighting the necromancers, almost every combat felt gimmicky. Casters would regularly use freezing spells, and the undead used knockdown abilities continually. Once a character is down, another undead would use execute to do massive damage.

These tactics locked down characters for multiple turns, which is fine once a fight, but this was happening multiple times each fight. It felt like the developers didn’t know how to handle a powerful group of characters in combat without continually using crowd control. Suddenly as a player, I am not having fun, and the fights felt dragged out. Because the DLC is so short, it compounded this issue, making it feel like most fights relied on these tactics.

The Ruins of Limis DLC had the potential to be another fun outing and a great addition to the game. Unfortunately, it needs a bit more content to explore and fewer combat encounters that relied on crowd control tactics. Even with the frustrating fights, I still somewhat enjoyed the experience. Hopefully, with the two DLCs still to come, Artefacts Studio will learn from the mistakes made in this one.

A copy of the game & DLC was provided for review.

COMPARE TO: XCOM 1 & 2, Battletech, Shadowrun: Dragonfall  

 

Summary
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos – Ruins of Limis is the first DLC for the turn-based dungeon crawler released by developed Artefacts Studio and publisher Dear Villagers. The party of questionable adventures continues their adventure in a new area filled with the undead. Unfortunately, the short outing doesn’t live up to the fun of the base campaign. Check out what works and what didn’t in our review.
Good
  • Humor intact
  • Interesting encounters
  • Thief storyline
Bad
  • Too short
  • Constant knockdown abilities
  • Lack of character growth
6
Fair

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