The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is a very enjoyable game, and one I recommend to anyone that has even a passing interest in the tropes and cliches of fantasy worlds and Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

Packed with humour, laughs and pop culture references sprinkled on top with some RPG elements. The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is a very specific game for a very specific audience, but it can easily surprise even the most generic players.

Believe it or not, I actually had to force myself to stop playing The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos to be able to sit down and write this review. It’s been a long time since I’ve found a great turn-based tactical game with unapologetically authentic writing that I seriously didn’t want to move onto other games.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is a turn-based dungeon crawler released by developed Artefacts Studio and publisher Dear Villagers. As a party of questionable adventures explores the dungeon, they run into a multitude of opportunities for jokes and puns. The Combat is fun, while the animations, voice acting, and music are great, but the humor may not be for everyone.

Overall, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is a great tactical RPG from Artefacts Studio. It has everything you want from a tactical RPG, adds a sprinkle of difference with some of its design elements, and brings it all together with a solid bit of wacky humor and fun personalities.

The Dungeons of Naheulbeuk is, before all else, just a lot of fun, both regarding the gameplay and its humour. It is made for people who love pen & paper, and it does this job quite well. There are some hiccups, however, especially concerning the controls. But this doesn’t keep the game from being a success.

Interesting and quite amusing tactical roleplaying game that would benefit from more attention to detail.

For a game that mocks RPG clichés and pelts you with endless stream of hit-or-miss jokes and cultural references, The Dungeon of Nabe… Nehu… Neul… goddamit… The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is surprisingly solid in terms of gameplay mechanics and features genuinely fun tactical combat. [12/2020, p.68]

The biggest problem with The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos — aside from it desperately needing a ruthless editor to excise some of the weaker jokes — is that this approach to parodying the tropes of RPGs has been done many times over the years, and often better. The deliberate and sometimes genuinely challenging combat seems at odds with the tone and pace of the game, but The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos can be entertaining for those with a high tolerance for unfiltered humor in indiscriminate quantities.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos has no fear of pointing out the absurdity within conventional fantastic stories while offering an enjoyable game with many possibilities that can invite players to have more than one playthrough. The battles and puzzles both offer a fun challenge, and the dungeon has plenty of rooms to explore. For those who enjoy constant satire, subverting expectations, and enchanting voice acting, there’s no better place to stop and use the toilet.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is altogether an enjoyable romp that will land with you about as far as you can tolerate cringeworthy humor and a lite XCOM layer set in a Dungeons and Dragons setting. Also, do yourself a favor and mute the Elf. Permanently. The game has it as an available option; it’s like they knew how bad the humor might be. So do it and you’ll thank me later.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos has zany humor and tactical depth. Its characters feel unique and memorable too. Sadly, it's bogged down by a nasty bug that can occur during battles, a particular issue that became problematic towards the end of the game, and a lack of replayability.

The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk is a fun romp with creative combat and animations and gameplay that never takes itself too seriously. For players tired of RPGs where the entire fate of the world hangs in the balance, questing through Naheulbeuk with some of the least qualified and most relatable heroes around can be a refreshing change of pace.

For as awful as the script and plot are, the gameplay itself isn't that bad. It's a more than passable take on the XCOM formula that adds some unique and fun mechanics, but there are dozens of tactical strategy games out there right now that play just as well and are ten times less agitating. It's possible that your sense of humor will align with the brand of comedy that this game is putting out - and God help you if it does - but even decent strategic combat isn't enough to make the experience of playing The Dungeon Of Nabeulheuk any more palatable. I am so happy that I don't have to type that word again.

Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos has a lot of obstacles in its way from becoming a solid gem worth your time. The first few hours are a bit of a drag to get through since the majority of this time you’ll spend either hating the dialogue or hating the difficulty from the (more predetermined than random) RNG that this game employs. Trudge through this and you’ll find that the learning curve gets easier, the writing simmers down a bit, but the difficulty still remains the same.

The most important thing in video games is the fun factor. Forget the visuals, forget the story, forget everything else; it's all about fun, fun, fun. The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos isn't aware of that, which makes you think whether its developer even had any people test it out. The storytelling bit that mocks D&D tropes tries too hard to be funny and fails while at it, with the playable characters being a bunch of completely unlikable "heroes." As for the actual, turn-based strategy affair, while definitely the better part, it has some severe issues of its own, with the most game-breaking one being the existence of an aggravating RNG that frequently ruins one's plans.