Released in 2019 by Terry Cavanagh, Dicey Dungeons is yet another dungeon-crawling card-based game like Slay the Spire but don’t assume that they are one and the same. Not at all. Dicey Dungeons is much more fast-paced than Slay the Spire for example.
I’m not here to compare though. Let’s see if Dicey Dungeons is worth its salts.
This review will have as usual a Storyline, Gameplay, Visuals, and finally, a Personal Thoughts section. Without further ado:
Table of Contents
Storyline
The storyline is pretty simple.
6 contestants decided to play the dungeon-crawling game controlled by the main antagonist; Lady Luck. For each one, Lady Luck promises to give them anything they desire if they manage to clear all the challenges that await them. Lady Luck has them all turned into Dice.
It is revealed however that the game is rigged and you cannot win, and you have to keep playing.
The game has you playing all characters in various scenarios and challenges. Once you finish all of them, a final confrontation with Lady Luck for the chance to leave the Dungeons and turn back into humans.
Gameplay
As I mentioned, there are 6 characters. Each character is a separate class with different abilities and equipment.
The game is turn-based. At the start of your turn, you roll your dice. Every character begins with a specific amount of starting dice and gains more as they level.
Anyway, you have your rolls. Now it’s up to you to decide how to use them in conjunction with your equipment. Your equipment is your cards actually, and each one does something depending on the die you put. For example, there is the Broadsword which deals damage equal to the die you put + 2.
After that, the opponent does the same.
The equipment are usually one-time use per turn, but there are some that are usable more than once, or even an infinite amount of times as long as you the dice. Some equipment also has dice restrictions, like requiring only odd or even numbers, or a die with more than 3, less than 3, etc. Some other dice require two dice to play, and even more than that, other equipment require 2 duplicate dice for a powerful effect,
You can see the opponent’s equipment if you want, in case you want (and can) counter them using status effects, which I will talk about later.
That’s the basics of battle.
The game begins at the dungeon. You can choose where you go and which enemies you’ll fight. Enemies stand in front of objectives.
For example, an enemy might be guarding a shop or a chest that gives you new equipment. There is always at least one enemy guarding the stairs to the next floor. At the bottom floor, a boss awaits. Win the battle and you finished an episode with that character.
Defeating an enemy gives you one gold (that you can spend on shops) and experience proportional to the enemy’s level (1 point of experience per enemy level).
With enough experience, you level up gaining other upgrades, more dice, or new equipment. You also refill your health and gain more max HP.
Each class has different starting equipment and its own exclusive one. They also have their limit break that activates when they take enough damage. Limit Breaks are powerful one-turn effects.
I’ll have to note that some classes behave much differently than others. Each class is chaotically unique, which makes the game that much more fun.
About the status effects. Some of the equipment you’ll find/have and most of the opponents’ deal some form of status effects. There are many status effects, and I will not list them all, but I’ll talk about the four elemental ones to give you an idea.
Frozen X means that X number of dice will be rerolled into 1. The dice with the biggest number are chosen.
Fire X means that the first X dice you roll will have a cost of 2 HP to play.
Shock X means that X random equipment are shocked and require one die sacrifice to open.
Weaken X means that X random equipment are weakened, which means they have worse effects or restrictions on the number of dice you can put.
There are many more status conditions but I’ll leave them for you to discover. I will mention however that some enemies are strong or weak against some status conditions.
Finally, I mentioned several episodes. Each character has 6 episodes. These episodes (besides the first one) either bend rules, class mechanics or just increase difficulty altogether.
Just learning about each class and how to play them is one thing, but having to adjust to new rules keeps the game super fun and refreshing.
Visuals
The game has much more cartoon-ey VFX than what you’d expect from a dungeon-crawler. But that’s ok as we are talking about a game with humanoid dice.
Every enemy designed will tell exactly what they are based on and which status conditions they’ll be using. All in all, the VFX are very intuitive and easy to the eye.
Plus, the game is easy to run on most PCs and Laptops.
Personal Thoughts
The game is super fun and refreshing. You always have something new to do, and even when you finish the game, the replayability is there.
The game does have negatives though. For example, as with any game that relies on dice rolls, enemy high rolls, or even low rolls on your part can be fatal. There are even some fights that feel unwinnable with the equipment you may have acquired till then. But it’s all in the game.
Nothing stops you from thing again and again and again until you get your perfect build.
Final Verdict
Storyline: 8
Gameplay: 9
Visuals: 8
General Rating: 8/10
That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.
You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page, and sharing our articles.
Follow @GamerWelfareThe image(s) I used are from the following site(s):