Thank you, Black Shell Media, for sending us a copy of this game to review!

The world is in trouble. The universe is running dangerously low of magical energy. In order to replenish our precious stores, a brave hero needs to be sent to another dimension in order to retrieve it. And the hero they chose is... YOU!

Or that guy. Or maybe him. Or that lady in the corner over there.

Beyond Dimensions, the debut game from Cool Frogs Studios, takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole end-of-the-universe scenario. You play a mage sent via technology into other dimensions in order to retrieve purple crystals that contain magical energy. Along the way, you'll encounter skeletons, machine gun turrets, and monocled dinosaurs who attack you for simply being there. Although your character is rendered in an 8-bit style – apparently, that's how people look in your universe – the scenes you travel through vary, including a blocky, Minecraft-style world. All the action takes place in an over-the-top, isometric style viewpoint, even if the graphics themselves vary. It's possible to unlock a first-person perspective as well.

One of the neat things about the game is the amount of customization that you can put into your game. In addition to changing the difficulty and the perspective, you also can change any of the color options of your character. Models include male and female mages, as well as a robot. You also can change the class, as well as the spells you can use in your foray into the randomly-generated dungeons. Steam Workshop integration allows you to use avatars created by other players as well. Take note that, in order to actively choose some of the class or spell options, you must complete different objectives first. These include killing a set number of creatures with certain spells, or gathering a certain number of crystals. If the options are locked, then you'll be given a random spell instead.

Traveling through the dungeons is easily done with the keyboard and mouse, but controllers also can be used. However, a three-button mouse is highly recommended. It is possible to complete the game using just a two-button trackpad (I'm speaking from experience here), but you lose access to your second spell in the process. Weirdly enough, neither my Logitech controller nor my Xbox controller would work in the game. Although I could move through options from the menu, I could only use my melee attack with the Logitech, and no buttons responded on the Xbox. Although the store page indicated that the game had "full controller support," the failure of both came as a surprise to me.

The randomness can also lead to the game becoming surprisingly easy. The first time I successfully completed the game, I was randomly given a lightning spell and a healing spell. The lightning spell allowed me to strike creatures anywhere on the screen... even if they were behind a wall. I managed to defeat two of the different area's main bosses simply by standing outside the room and blasting them from an adjacent corridor. The third one turned into a simple game of "keep away" while running around a single L-shaped bush. Even though some of the enemies in the other areas posed a threat, the bosses were a surprising pushover. 

The difficulty seems to lie in the earliest levels of the game. Once you are capable of obtaining a few power-ups – either through opening chests or purchasing them from the rare stores that appear on a few of the levels – the game becomes a lot easier, sometimes ridiculously so. As a result, gameplay tends to be relatively short. Either you'll die within the first 10 minutes of the game, or you'll sweep through everything in approximately half an hour. However, this isn't always the case – I had a good run going in one game and could have won easily... but as soon as I spawned in a new area, I was ambushed by the third world's mid-boss and two other spell-casting dinosaurs, with nowhere to run. A great game came to a screeching halt purely due to bad luck.

As a result, I have had mixed feelings about this game. On one hand, I really like it, due to its fun gameplay and whimsical approach. On the other, the game comes off as frustratingly difficult that often changes to laughably easy before too long. There is a nice variety of customization to the game, but controller support is nearly nonexistent.

There are various graphic glitches as well. At times, the screen will flicker oddly, as if trying to bring up images from my computer desktop. Some characters will continue to twitch and bounce around like they are made out of rubber upon death – and in the second world, the soldiers occasionally have their limbs stretched out for no apparent reason when they die. This makes Beyond Dimensions feel like it's not completely finished, and it could use a bit more polish.

Although there were no language issues that I encountered, violence is a given in this game. Creatures die when you blast them with your spells, or they run over traps. There isn't any blood or gore when they die, though. There are some skeletons that appear in the first world, and occasionally bones litter the dungeon floor. Magic is used by both the player and the inhabitants of the third world. 

Beyond Dimensions certainly doesn't break any boundaries, but it's a fun variation of the familiar roguelike. Although occasionally frustrating, it can provide a measure of fun as well. At only $4.99, it's well worth the price of admission.