NOTE: This review was written for version 1.0 and may be outdated.
Depot Dungeons is, as the title screen indicates, a post-apocalyptic puzzle RPG. In this game where Fallout meets Sokoban, you navigate through levels full of crates, barrels, monsters, crowbars, and more. Every object has its own behaviors and responses to various things, all of which come together to form all kinds of puzzles and usually multiple ways to solve them. Even the RPG elements can be part of the puzzle, like for example needing enough health to survive an unavoidable hazard.

The game offers more than just merely clearing levels, however. Every level has optional challenges (clearing within a certain turn count, collecting and keeping all of the ancient tech, and three other miscellaneous objectives) that when completed unlock new classes, the option to change your starting class for the level, and an expert version of the level that'll really test your skills. And there's even a post-game random dungeon, so there's quite a lot more to play after the story is completed.

Speaking of the story, it's nothing too complex. Starting as a lowly clone, you find yourself being guided through the titular dungeons with the ultimate goal of the survival of not just yourself but the human race. The various dialogues and descriptions are well-written, giving life and sometimes humor to the desolate wasteland that the game takes place in. The musical compositions of KKairos, Thud, and Electromaniacal also enhance the game's atmosphere. And capping it all off is the game's graphics, which is actually just plain ol' ASCII that regardless make for some pretty nice buildings and stuff. Nothing says old-school tile-based puzzle gameplay like ASCII graphics and PC speaker beeps for sound effects.

Overall, this is definitely one of MegaZeux's best puzzle games. I can guarantee that puzzle lovers will surely love this.

Depot Dungeons is a masterpiece made by genius who deserves nothing less than to be bowed before at any opportunity.

Now that that's out of the way, the gameplay is turn based box-pushing rpg. Not exactly your typical style of game, but Otto isn't one for orthodox puzzle design. You will face a massive array of enemies, all placed perfectly in the space of any given puzzle. The stats and characteristics of every enemy is a latticework of components, hp, armor, damage, radioactivity, etc. assembled in such a way to make the balance and playability of this game a thing of true beauty.

Almost every puzzle in this game has multiple solutions. Add to that the fact that you can play boards as different TYPES of players, some have an attack stat, some have a defense stat, some can walk on fire. This makes the layers of complexity in the weave of mechanics astonishingly intricate. No single approach will be the only one. No two people will play this game the same way, even with the ridged requirements of completing any given puzzle.

It's hard to say anything about one single part of the game. The harmony of moving parts of this game is miraculous, making it hard to distinguish what makes any part good. If any one thing about this game changed, it wouldn't work. But it does.

The game is endlessly replayable. Having played it for an entire year, I've STILL not gotten every achievement, nor have I unlocked every part of the game. There aren't hundreds of hours of gameplay in this game. There are THOUSANDS. And it can lead to a totally immersive obsession that will lead to the single most rewarding feeling a game can give you. Solving these puzzles feels GOOD.

Every dungeon comes with a set of achievements, cause spending 6 hours on a single dungeon just to finish it wasn't enough. You have to do it in a different, harder, more thoughtful way. Once you've completed all challenges in any given dungeon, and the challenges are insanely difficult and sometimes intricate, especially speed runs, an entirely new version of the dungeon is available, with even MORE achievements on it. The game is expansive, complicated, and totally unique.

In the end of the game, you'll unlock a PGC dungeon made of re-itemed/enemied boards from random dungeons in the game that get progressively harder as the dungeon continues. It will go until you can't go anymore. This also unlocks the ability to design you own class of player with any of the characteristics of other classes you've used previously. Which is insane, if only because, the balance is never in any danger of being ruined. There is no such thing as exploitation in this game. It's all just part of the design.

The soundtrack is... I can't talk much about it, but from what I hear, it's pretty good.

This game even has a fun little story, and it makes the ascii style dungeon settings turn into real and interesting places, all with independent, different styles from every other dungeon. You'll end up really liking Omni, the only sentient AI that hasn't tried to kill the human race.

The gameplay never gets stale. And it can keep your attention for days on end if you let it.

There aren't enough words enough to sing the praises Depot Dungeons deserves. Play this game. This is the single best game in the archive. This is my favorite mzx game. And this is my favorite game. 5/5

I will keep it short as the other two (to date) reviews are very thorough: a MZX jewel, a surprisingly challenging game which manages to blend perfectly the puzzle side with the post apocalyptic scenario.

Apart from the core mechanics, which work really well, you can see lots of polish went into this production: the story, albeit simple, is narrated gracefully with well written dialogue/cutscenes, music is enjoyable and appropriate to every level, GUIs and in help work seamlessly with the game.

All in all one of the best game .mzx I have played.

One of the few MZX games I actually spend any significant time replaying. And every time I do, I'm kind of astonished at how incredibly good it is, and how the typical MZX game rating scale doesn't really do it justice. There's "really good for a MegaZeux game", and then there's "you should really be charging money for this, for how professional and content-packed it is". Which is fair, given that these days I usually come back to play it while waiting for its spiritual successor Puzzle Depot to finally get finished and debut on modern game storefronts. Anyway, five years on this is still just as fresh and amazing as it was originally.