5.9 KiB
| title | date | score | game_release_year | howlongtobeat_id | howlongtobeat_hrs | game_name | game_developer | game_genre | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dicey Dungeons: Roguelike Rolling | 2024-01-06 | 3 | 2019 | 69646 | 26.8 | Dicey Dungeons | Distractionware | card/boardgame |
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In case you were wondering what a combination of dice rolling, deck building, and roguelikes would look like, you can stop wondering now. Terry Cavanagh's Dicey Dungeons is the result of an interesting set of card game, dice game, and video game mechanics, topped with a dash of roguelike fluff to increase the lifespan of the game.
The game is surprisingly difficult to accurately describe. You play as a... die with a unique class? You roll... dice? But you build a deck first, and if you win all the battles of all the levels, you unlock more stuff and play again? All character classes are locked though, except for the fighter, which plays the easiest to get to know the game. You then move on to the thief, the robot, the inventor, and so forth.
Each character plays radically different. The thief is looking to roll low eyes to repeatedly use his "Dagger" card, which only takes dice 1---3. Luckily, he has an "Unlock" card that has you (randomly) split a die of your choice in two, just in case you throw a 5 and actually want a 2 and a 3. Ooh, Unlock threw you a 1 and a 4? Tough luck. At this point, you start to realize that in Dicey Dungeons, Lady Luck can be very much against you.
The way the deck building mechanics work is simple but effective: during your venture into the depths of the dungeon, you'll encounter treasure and shops which might yield new cards. You only have a set amount of space available to play with, so swapping in and out to change tactics is sometimes a good idea. Sometimes, a smith can help you upgrade a card, or reduce a big one to a small one meaning more space for another small one in your deck.
Each card can be played by placing the required die onto it. Depending on your character level, you can throw a certain amount of dice each turn, which of course can be modified by various effects, like the split card from the thief, or a crystal ball bonus move from the witch that spits out a few extras when in dire need. She can even throw dice to your enemy (take that, njyah! ouch!) to do 1 damage, which can be handy if you didn't roll the ones you wanted or if the enemy is low in HP but your cards right now aren't of the direct damaging kind. Again, Dicey Dungeons does a marvelous job at playing completely differently depending on the character. The fighter is straight-forward, the thief requires a bit more strategy, and the robot, inventor, and witch had me stumble and scratch my head on multiple occasions.
The dungeon floors and enemies are randomly generated, including the surprise boss battle at the very end, should you be bold enough---or, in reality, lucky enough---to make it that far. The starting decks stay the same, but after unlocking characters, you can also make progress by replaying them and finishing different episodes, where each one introduces funny and/or annoying effects, such as every throw is a 1, or enemy equipment can be stolen, or start with severe penalties. This is here to keep you occupied for a long time.
Except that for me, going at the Dicey Dungeon again and again quickly felt tiring. I know, I know, this is where the subjective I-dislike-roguelikes part comes in. I also think that while I love board and card games, I love them more in a physical off-screen manner. Dicey Dungeons felt like a cross between a Roll for the Galaxy kind of game and a video game. I have the same problem with Slay The Spire: they're both great, but feel like nothing more but a fun diversion from the real games. Which is of course a bit unfair to say, especially given the effort of the indie developers.
The tiring effect is unluckily (ha!) multiplied by the hard-to-avoid presence of dice and their sometimes painful disobedience. There are ample cards present in each character's deck to mitigate this, but that didn't help in shaking the feeling. Dicey Dungeons feels like a great pick-up-and-play game, if you have to kill time for a minute or 10, and I think it's best approached like that. According to How Long To Beat, it will take you over 25 hours to unlock everything, but after 5 of those hours, I was ready to move on. I still dislike the repetitive nature that comes with the roguelike label---amplified by the setup of a digital dice game---but do respect the sheer amount of variety that comes with the characters, the cards, and, should you want to shake things up, the modifiers in the episodes.
In case you recognize the art in the screenshots: indeed, it's by Marlowe Dobbe who also did 2022's Floppy Knights that showcases the same bright and lovely vectory artwork. The soundtrack is nothing to sneeze at either, hand-crafted by Chipzel and available at Bandcamp. The album (including the Reunion one that has the free DLC songs on it) is superb and has a chill chiptune vibe going on that's ideal to put on while doing focused work. It's easily one of the highlights of the game.
I think I'll go back to Dicey Dungeons once in a while in-between playing other games to try my luck and hopefully make a successful run. So far, it's one of the better roguelikes I played, but I don't think I'm part of the main target audience. I'd rather roll my dice on a table together with friends, which allows for spilling drinks and cursing. Cursing by myself is boring.
Damn it, another 2, I wanted a 6!
