Endless Dungeon is a roguelite that blends tower defense and twin-stick shooting

For its next project, Amplitude Studios will return to the Endless franchise with Endless Dungeon. This Roguelite finds players stranded on a space station, constantly threatened by swarms of monster foes. It blends twin-stick shooting with tower defense elements in hopes of delivering a fresh take on the franchise. I had the chance to play through a few missions of Endless Dungeon during a private demo.

The endless struggle

Endless Dungeon follows a group of characters who have all, for one reason or another, found themselves stranded on an ancient space station. Its corridors are filled with mysteries and there’s danger at every corner. Ultimately, the survivors want to reach the core of the space station, re-activate its Reactor with a Crystal, and make their escape.

This is where Endless Dungeon’s gameplay loop comes in. Each mission, you venture out into the space station, braving different interior environments that have no shortage of dangerous hazards and valuable rewards to discover. Before embarking on a mission, you select one of several characters to play as. Each character has their own set of moves and abilities. For example, Blaze uses heavy artillery and explosives to mow down enemies, while Bunker can protect the objective and allies while slowing down enemies and repairing turrets.

Precious gems

While exploring the space station and opening the doors to new rooms, you will have to complete an objective in order to move on to the next major phase. This revolved around escorting and protecting the Crystal, a gold, glowing gem that’s the key to reactivating the station’s reactor. Enemies swarmed the Crystal, and the mission failed if we let its health bar deplete.

In addition to firing weapons and using abilities to fend off enemies, there are also various turrets that can be built around the space station. When building a turret, you select from three types: Attack, Hindering, and Support. Attack turrets are your standard option, targeting and firing at foes. Hindering turrets will distract monsters and slow their movement, and Support turrets will buff players, deploy shields, and repair nearby turrets.

Whenever it was time to escort the Crystal to the next location, utter chaos ensued. The waves of enemies quickly overcame my party of three, and we had to kick things into overdrive to fend them off. We were constantly moving from room to room, weaving between enemies while firing in every direction, combining abilities to keep the Crystal out of harm’s way. Setting up turrets and timing abilities are key staples of the tower defense experience, except in Endless Dungeon, the tower is a moving objective.

Space to explore

Endless Dungeon is a brand-new approach to the Endless franchise, offering a fresh and immersive perspective. There’s a lot of potential in what Amplitude Studios is putting together, and we look forward to seeing if they stick the landing when Endless Dungeon launches next year.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_