cRPG Dungeons

Dungeons in Computer Role-playing Games

Welcome to my cRPG Blog on the best cRPG dungeons in cRPG history. The best cRPG dungeon is Durlag's Tower, and the best cRPG dungeon crawler is Diablo 1. The Icewind Dale Series and Swordflight Series feature many of the best-designed dungeons in the genre.

Defining the cRPG Dungeon Crawl

As it pertains to cRPG Design, the term "dungeon crawl" refers to the following:

• A flip-screen cRPG such as Dungeon Master
• A dedicated dungeon-crawling cRPG aka dungeon crawler (e.g, Diablo)
• A dungeon or mega-dungeon that can be explored within a cRPG campaign, the latter of whose focus is not necessarily on dungeon-crawling per se (e.g., Durlag's Tower)

Dungeon crawling is the preeminent form of cRPG exploration. In dungeon crawls, the player character or party of adventurers gradually explores either a large interior space or a series of interconnected interior spaces made up of chambers and corridors that are usually filled with hostile monsters, traps, puzzles and treasure. More rarely, environmental hazards such as fiery rifts, noxious gasses and toxic pools of sludge are negotiated.

Subterranean exploration is NOT a precondition of dungeon crawls since, for all intents and purposes, there is no difference between delving downward in a dungeon or climbing upwards through the levels of a tower, other than direction.

That said, in the vast majority of cases we are crawling through natural caverns, built dungeons or buildings such as towers, temples and castles.

"Crawl" connotes the slowness of exploration due to the dangers posed by dungeons: we are not literally crawling on our hands and knees though sometimes it may seem that way for all the progress we are making.

Overview of the Best cRPG Dungeons

Diablo 1 Dungeon Crawl

By reason of its influence, innovation and replayability I rank Diablo 1 as the best dungeon crawler in cRPG history. Not only that, but Diablo made a complete mockery of what came before; absolutely destroyed the primitive dungeon crawlers of the past.

Diablo takes first prize for its challenging gameplay and dungeon RNG coupled with ground-breaking production values such as grim aesthetics and heavy instrumental tracks as well as functional UI modes and strong control systems.

A full one quarter of a century subsequent to its release, the journey through Cathedral, Catacombs, Caves and Hell remains unsurpassed.

Durlag's Tower

As the jewel in the crown of Baldur's Gate the death trap known as Durlag's Tower is the best mega-dungeon in the genre. The layouts of its labyrinthine environments are all but flawless. Add in Dwarven lore, puzzles, riddles, environmental hazards and the over-arching allegory on fear, and we've got something extra-special whose legacy will endure long after present-day cakewalks are buried and forgotten.

Dungeon Rats Dungeon Crawl

If you want to impress your friends this is the dungeon crawl to beat. In Dungeon Rats we play the role of a prisoner attempting to escape from our captors. Alone or in a party of up to four, we progressively take over an entire subterranean region, wiping out gangs and their leaders along the way. We kill, we loot. Then, we craft, break down and repair items as well as brew potions and skill-up. Almost without exception, we're killing anyone or anything that stands in our way. This is as raw as fights for survival get.

Temple of Elemental Evil cRPG Dungeon

How can we not include Troika's conversion of Gygax's Greyhawk mega-dungeon, Temple of Elemental Evil?

ToEE filters casual gamers in five minutes flat, causing them to rage-uninstall and then seethe about how much of a slog they falsely think ToEE is, because they didn't put one iota of thought into ToEE Builds.

Beneath the Temple there are four sprawling dungeons to delve plus four elemental nodes to explore, each guarded by a boss. There are a several pathways through the mega-dungeon, which also supports the stealth approach 100%.

The phased encounter with Iuz is as memorable as any in the genre.

Buried Ruins Swordflight

The Swordflight Series features several king-tier dungeon crawls, but the undead-heavy Buried Ruins of Chapter One is my fave due to my preference for low-level adventures that focus on resource management.

To my mind, the Buried Ruins is the best low-level dungeon crawl in the genre.

However, due to its sheer size and scope we can't let Swordflight's Dark Calimport go by unmentioned: it consists of 17 multi-level sewer zones, 30 other zones and numerous random zones, thereby dwarfing most other dungeons of comparable quality.

Dorn's Deep IWD1

If you want an epic, non-linear delve in the mid-level range, you can't go past Icewind Dale's Upper and Lower Dorn's Deep. It is cool how we can hunt down the six lieutenants of Brother Poquelin in any order, to say nothing of the ability to explore Lower before much of Upper.

Severed Hand IWD1

 

Severed Hand is notable for its non-linear exploration of an ancient elven stronghold, flanking combat encounter design, avenue of approach considerations, and well-written lore and memorable characters.

Severed Hand IWD2

With its quest-dense reworking of the original Severed Hand IWD2 Severed Hand is one of the most polished dungeons in genre history. I like how Black Isle left the best for last in Icewind Dale 2.

Dragon's Eye IWD1

Dragon's Eye is one of the best linear dungeons out there. Almost as trap-heavy as Durlag's Tower, its itemization and combat encounter design are impeccable, and its final stretch emphasizes tactics, thief skills and resource management.

One of the coolest segments of the dungeon crawl is the persistently-summoned horde (which includes trolls), but the yuan-ti force guarding the snaking approach to Yxunomei is its ultimate highlight. Linear hack n slash dungeons don't get any better than Dragon's Eye.

Kresselack's Dungeon IWD1

Black Isle once again exhibited good taste with an undead-heavy dungeon crawl in the Vale of Shadows. The dungeons are guarded by legions of undead commanded by the spirit of the Barbarian King, Kresselack the Black Wolf. To get you to want to play through this dungeon, that should be all I need to say.

Ice Temple Dungeon IWD2

In the Ice Temple of Icewind Dale 2 we must make our way back and forth between two dungeon levels in order access chambers in the lower dungeon. Most notably, we can manipulate the angles of mirrors in its corridors, rotate a central prism, and then fire bolts of lightning from the prism that ricochet off the mirrors, thereby opening magically-sealed doors.

Let's not forget the Battle Square: there is a lot of content packed into the Ice Temple.

Queen Crepitus Dungeon Crawl

 

Queen Crepitus dungeon crawl of Jagged Alliance 2 should not be missed by any cRPG connoisseur or tactics aficionado.

Dead God's Vault

Dead God's Vault is a two-stage dungeon crawl in Mask of the Betrayer. Unless played on Easy mode the average gamer should find DGV challenging. DGV is most notable for its atmosphere, lore and writing quality.

You don't need a Frenzied Berserker to crash through DGV, but you'll probably want a decent build versus void shadows, vampire ancients and the lich king.

Hordes of the Underdark Dungeon Crawl

Hordes of the Underdark was the third official campaign released for Neverwinter Nights. Most of HotU takes place in the vast subterranean region known as the Underdark. While HotU would only challenge genre newbies in 2024, its dungeon design featured lots of secrets, teleports and innovative mechanics that went by largely unheeded by subsequent cRPG developers.

Catacombs PS:T

Consisting not only of the Dead Nations, Drowned Nations and the Warrens of Thought, but also of caves, crypts and the Tomb of TNO, the Catacombs of Planescape: Torment stand as one of the most atmospheric dungeon sequences in the genre. For me, this part of PS:T was so much fun.

Wheel Clan Arcanum

As it pertains to Dwarven lore, dialogue, atmosphere and aesthetics, the Wheel Clan of Troika's Arcanum gives Durlag's Tower and Dorn's Deep a run for their money. While the Dredge dungeon crawl can be bypassed via a secret trapdoor under the King's throne, most builds instead get bogged down and killed off in the Dredge, which was a masterstroke by the designers.

Military Base Fallout 1

The Military Base of Fallout is notable for its forcefield toggling via radio signal and variable enemy positioning based on security alert level; its interior is also accessible if the Vault Dweller is captured by Super Mutants at Necropolis.

cf. Fallout 1 Time Limit.

cRPG Dungeon Design

Dungeons usually consist of a series of chambers connected by corridors, stairwells or even teleports. Dungeons can be linear or non-linear in structure. Non-linear dungeons are usually superior for exploration purposes whereas linear dungeons ideally tailor itemization and combat encounter design with more refinement. While non-linear dungeons can also facilitate emergent dungeon states or observable landscape changes, cRPGs generally shy away from such.

Widening dungeon passageways in an attempt to conceal poor pathfinding routines is a big no-no. It is better to endure poor pathfinding than have immersion broken through the inclusion of implausibly wide passageways. Ideally, developers would learn to code pathfinding routines for narrow passageways, which are without exception always superior.

Dungeons can offer quests (not every denizen needs be an enemy) or even act as quest-dense urban hubs (undercities), but most cRPGs shy away from this as well.

It is best to make dungeons trap-heavy, lock all doors, gates and receptacles, and set obstructions for the player to deal with or find a way to bypass. There should be placeables positioned around in order to limit avenue of approach.

Most dungeons are combat-heavy, testing cRPG builds. Some dungeons allow for stealth, diplomacy and the discovery of secret doors, testing non-combat skills (hiding, social skills, searching).

In order to emphasize resource management, rest restrictions must be enforced dungeon-wide, and it is better if dungeons are located remotely or are difficult to back out of. If a point of no return is enforced, all the better. The classic example is the passageway collapsing behind the party: they can't go back, they must press on.

Note that barely any notable cRPGs employ verticality or destructibility in their dungeons. As is true for cRPGs themselves, most dungeons also have rubbish combat encounter design and game-imbalancing itemization while being thematically inconsistent and lacking multiple pathways through the dungeon.

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