I haven't been killed by an Arch Diggle.

Yet. But I have been adventuring in the strange and perilous world of Dungeons of Dredmor.

Short analysis: fun, but potentially problematic to enter when easily frustrated. Also, five dollars.

Dungeons of Dredmor is a game of strange skills (Fleshsmithing!), stranger monsters (Man-eating carrots), humor and a lot of dying. The humor can range from the framing of your hero status as unfortunate, to the inscriptions scribbled on the dungeons walls or the strange location names such as "The Manse of Queens" and "The Disquieting Fjord". Also, there is lutefisk to be offered to a lutefisk god, which is equal parts horror and amusement to me and pure amusement to my friends who have never physically encountered lutefisk. I prefer lefse, but such would be too tasty to go about offering to strange gods.

But, back to death. I have died to traps, my own potions, numerous monsters, and the occasional angry horde produced by a monster zoo. Sidequest spawned bosses proved a particular cause until I resolved to stop accepting such. Given the inclusion of permadeath, and the enjoyment of testing various selections of skills, death is more a setback and a scoreboard than a great irritant.

There are other things that prove irritating. My leap ability rarely seems to function, especially not for crossing moats. And my mustache golem has received an unpleasant death at my hands several times simply to prevent my character from being trapped behind it. Then there's my avatar's habit of pacing back and forth in front of a door several times before opening it, and how inconsistent the Uberchest(TM) is in unlocking.

For whatever reason, the Steam overlay also refuses to work with the game. Which could save my friends from random strange internet poking, but requires me to constantly tab out to communicate with them.

These shoes smell like Subject 17

There will be Assassin's Creed spoilers.

So, Desmond Miles. Our initially clueless protagonist with a fondness for hooded sweatshirts and a certain sense of blandness.

All of these things are important to the storytelling. His lack of knowledge provides a perfect opportunity to explain the function of the Animus, the nature of the game's main conflict, and various other tidbits that it's nice for the player to know. It also avoids the problem of having characters explain things they already know to each other.

The sweatshirts fall into the territory of the hooded assassin look, and require little explanation beyond that.

And then, the blandness. Some of this has abated as the series has continued and Desmond has gained both knowledge and ability. Other portions could be framed in terms of the video-game protagonist as player insert and avatar.

Simply, players can put themselves into the role of Desmond, thus allowing for more opportunities for Altaïr and Ezio to be established as characters of their own, with distinct personalities and actions that can occur outside of what players may actually want.

Altaïr's altercation with Robert de Sable of the first game set him up as an arrogant failure, a state that could make him a bit harder to identify with without the intervention of Desmond. And Ezio's sparing of Rodrigo Borgia at the end of AC2 would have proved most irritating to me if I viewed him as my puppet rather than someone whose actions Desmond was exploring.

I do wish Desmond had better hair, though. Comparing him to Ezio shows just how much of a difference that can make.