Dungeons of Despair is an isometric RPG game where the player can explore a multitude of levels with many different types of monsters to face and slay, numerous quests to undertake, and an item generation system that allows for thousands of items with different magical attributes.
The two versions (Gold for Nokia s60/equivalent and Lite for s40/equivalent) differ slightly in the number of levels and the design of the levels. The Gold version offers extra quests and a few extra types of items, but the core engine remains the same for both, along with all the attributes and player stats.
The gold version has over 60 levels and numerous secret areas - some of which can be found by chancing upon scrolls showing their entrances. The Lite version has just over 20 main levels and 1 secret area.
As well as basic attributes such as health, strength, defence, and dexterity, there are numerous other attributes such as luck, life-leech, regeneration, damage returned (to an attacker), stun… as well as damage modifiers. The player also has weapon proficiencies which improve the more the player uses a particular weapon. Daggers deal low damage but provide very quick attacks - useful if you have a good chance of stunning an opponent every successful attack. On the other end of the scale, two-handed weapons provide large damage but with a much slower attack rate. These can be particularly useful if you have a good life-leeching rate. Single handed weapons allow you to carry a shield which dramatically increases your chance to parry an attack.
The multitude of weapons, modifiers and items in the game allow the player to complete the game in a manner that suits them and provides several different playing strategies.
