RPG fans should find this one interesting. I recently played Monster's Den: Book of Dread on Kongregate. The game mimics Diablo style gameplay, including multiple dungeon levels and a plethora of equipment/skills/items to choose from. The game features a campaign mode and a survival mode, both of which you're able to pick the classes of your characters: Barbarian, Cleric, Warrior, Rogue, etc. Campaign mode takes you through the typical "rid the world of evil" story while Survival mode tries to topple your party with wave after wave of baddies. Your progress through the game is judged on a point system. You get points by exploring levels, finding loot, killing enemies; likewise you get a deduction in points for dying. Every time you progress to the next level of the dungeon, you will 'level up' and will be awarded points that can be distributed among: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, and Intellect attributes. You are also given the choice of learning a new skill or increasing an ability modifier (i.e. you could either learn a new combat technique, or for example, increase a modifier that would raise the chance of scoring critical hits on enemies.)

The battle system is turned based, which may be a turn off for some people, but give it a chance. In battle you need to utilize the front and back rows effectively since certain classes can only attack enemies within the range of their area. Your equipment and healing items are only accessible outside of battle, so you have to plan accordingly before encountering enemies. All actions done by the player and the computer are documented and displayed in the battle screen log. Battles can get routine, but also very difficult. Effective planning of equipping proper skills/equipment are vital before you confront enemies.



The level design may also be a turn-off to some people. It revolves around point-and-click exploration rather than you actually having your characters on-screen moving around. The different levels of the games holds different monsters, some of whom have unique attacks. There are also 'legendary' monsters in the game. Obviously they're much more difficult to defeat, but have the chance of dropping some nice loot.

One of the strong points of the game is in the vast amount of items and treasures found throughout the game. The equipment boasts a huge assortments of gear for your different classes (i.e. Warriors/Barbarians wear heavy armor, Clerics/Rogue wear the lighter armor). There's also an emporium that you can go to through the use of a magic scroll. (a.k.a. "Scroll of Town Portal from Diablo") At the story you can sell the loot you've collected, restock on potions, or buy new armor/weapons. Equipment is categorized in 'normal' and 'magical'. Magical equipment usually has a noticeable increase in stats and traits, along with a heftier price tag. You can also 'socket' items with orbs that are found throughout the levels or bought at the emporium.

If you're into the Dungeons & Dragons type games and/or love RPG elements, then you'll probably like Monster's Den. If you're looking for more real-time action, then you might want to skip over it since it's ultimately a simplified turn-based clone of a Diablo. It's definitely not for everyone, but still a well-made flash game that I personally enjoyed..