This Steam Next Fest RPG gem paying tribute to classics like Ultima and D&D is like one big Skyrim dungeon but 10 times more elaborate

Neverlooted Dungeon is a challenging and rewarding dungeon crawler heavily inspired by classic RPGs like Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, and Thief, offering a physics-based puzzle-solving experience reminiscent of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate 3, with a high difficulty and a rewarding sense of discovery.

Neverlooted Dungeon is inspired by RPGs that were a little before my time, but I was picking up heavy Skyrim vibes playing the absolutely stellar Steam Next Fest demo for this wickedly clever dungeon crawler.

Developer Wild Mage Games explicitly lists Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, and Thief as Neverlooted Dungeon's inspirations, and the demo I played definitely seems like a mish-mash of elements from those genre classics. You start out in a dimly lit dungeon next to a sleeping bag and a fire. The only pathway is too dark to explore without a torch, and I'll admit I spent an embarrassing amount of time (and lives) trying to light a nearby wooden log instead of just, you know, taking the torch that was already lit and mounted on the wall. That was the first of many tests I failed repeatedly before realizing the solution was either, A) right in front of my face, or B) not even in the same orbit as my thought process.

My brief time with the demo felt like playing one incredibly elaborate, dangerous, physics-based Skyrim dungeon. Traipsing around by lantern light with a sword in my free hand, fighting off monsters, solving puzzles, and navigating labyrinthian defined my experience with Skyrim. In fact, I'd say dungeon-crawling and cave spelunking are my favorite activities in Skyrim, so you know I mean this as the highest compliment.

That said, everything requires a lot more effort in Neverlooted Dungeon compared to Skyrim. Damage from a trap that would take only a few wheels of cheese to heal in Skyrim, will straight up kill you in Neverlooted Dungeon. A giant rat you'd usually disregard in Skyrim requires a deliberate and methodical attack to rid you of its threat. Puzzles are tougher, dungeons are more maze-like, and it's really, really easy to get lost. Instead of dead bandits, you see a bunch of dead yous, because when you die your body stays behind with the loot you were carrying like old Diablo games and Ultima Online.

Needless to say, I spent most of my time in Neverlooted Dungeon staring at a puzzle, scratching my chin, and backtracking through non-linear levels looking for my body and loot. And I had an absolute blast. The physics-based traps are hugely creative and take real thought and creativity to solve, and despite dangers lurking in every corner, every nook and cranny of the map beckons and rewards. 

Not to make RPG soup out of this story, but the apparent limitless in how you can solve puzzles and get around environmental obstacles reminds me a lot of Baldur's Gate 3, which I think tops the list of games I've now compared Neverlooted Dungeon to and leads me to think I should let it cap off this whole story.

Steam Next Fest is officially over, by the way, so if you want to check out this demo I'd do so while it's still lingering around.

Otherwise, pick something from our list of the best RPGs and get lost (in an immersive world).