Load Roll Die
Exciting and strategic dice combat!!! Its lots of fun discovering all the different ways you can combine different dice faces to create a unique battle plan. The dice and plentiful cardboard landscapes feel really physical and its satisfying rolling a bunch of dice at once and watching them pile up! Dice go brrrrrrrrrrrrr!
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Tutorial Games.
I was given this game for free a few days before the official launch, so my 2-ish hours are solely based on that build. No, I was not given compensation for playing the game and my review is unbiased.
Load Roll Die is a Roguelite Dicebuilder game, in which you move your little blob character through various randomized maps, fighting enemies and bosses, collecting different types of dice and powers for each die. It’s a very challenging game, but in a way I don’t think it really should be. Being a game revolving around dice, it’s reliance on RNG is almost absolute, with an almost healthy amount of strategy involved, given that you can create some interesting and powerful builds if you have the right powers and the correct dice, but it’s always a gamble to see what you loot from enemies, find in chests and buy from shops, which items are sometimes overly expensive for the small amount of currency you get overall. Enemies get from easy to hard really quickly as well, each one having their own specific builds that sometimes are perfected to do something specific, such as replicating dice, dealing a lot of poison damage, destroying a bunch of your own dice, etc, most of which are extremely reliable and non-RNG dependant, contrary to your shabby builds at those levels. Some other issues lie in QoL stuff, such as some powers being confusing to understand from their descriptions being vague or poorly explained, and how at the start of the game you can start off without any dice on accident, making you unable to advance.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Roguebook
Wanted to hold off reviewing it until I beat +15. If you’re looking for a new deckbuilder, I’d recommend this one. I’ve played Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and a few others, and this one really made me want to thoroughly complete it. There is enough variety and unique combinations that really makes each run fun and challenging. It’s not perfect (I’ll talk about that below), but it’s worth the coin.
Positive:
*Gem system adds a fun element that makes some not so useful cards viable.
*The large deck angle adds more ways to build around bad cards.
– Real player with 150.8 hrs in game
I unfortunately can’t leave a positive review. I am a linux user. Before buying this game, I checked and saw that the game worked fine with steam compatilibity tools, so I bought it. The game was working perfectly. Then they added an update, which added some random visual bugs (slightly annoying but nothing major) as well as some random game crashes (around once every 1h30 of play for me, but since I’m slow and runs were about 2h30 that was quite annoying). Then the last major update hit, claiming some bugfixes. Cool. I do not experience any bug anymore since my game doesn’t even launch anymore. I’ve tried switching the compatilibity modes, proton versions…etc… to no avail, the game doesn’t launch anymore.
– Real player with 103.6 hrs in game
Coin Crypt
First off, this is my wife’s favorite game, even though she has never played it, entirely because of the opening theme music.
I would recommend this game as a fun, though sometimes challenging rogue-like romp, bringing together the constant threat of permanent death with a light-hearted playfulness.
The game attempts to present itself without tutorial or much explanation, evoking the enigmatic feeling of many games in the NES era, and does so mostly successfully. (I did do some wiki-ing about the gods after a few days, as this was somewhat opaque to me). The basic strategy of the game unfolds into a fairly rich and varied system as you unlock new classes and learn how to synergize class talents with the other elements of the game. While some classes can be made into powerhouses quite easily, others seem destined for failure. Though at first I felt the obvious imbalances of the classes was a flaw in the design, I now feel like this helps lend the game its particular charm.
– Real player with 133.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Great Soundtrack Games.
EDIT:
I got super tired of reading so many complaints of people saying that the game is too hard and confusing, so I wrote a guide for beginners. This should clear up any questions you might have about the game, and if you still don’t like it afterwards, then I guess it isn’t for you. This review is also specifically focused on the base game and does not include any info on the DLC expansion.
Also, this was Slay the Spire before Slay the Spire.
– Real player with 111.2 hrs in game
Dicey Dungeons
Dicey Dungeons is the best card-based roguelike out there.
I love card-based roguelikes, and I love Dicey Dungeons even more than Slay the Spire, heck, even more than Dream Quest. I’ve enjoyed over 200 hours of play (including pre-release versions I helped playtest, for which I received a free copy of the game) and will enjoy plenty more. Why? Depth, replayability, and sense of humor.
Once you’ve completed episode 1 with each character, you’ve barely scratched the surface of what Dicey Dungeons has to offer. Unlike some of Terry Cavanagh’s other games, Dicey Dungeons’s difficulty is pleasantly curvy! Casual players can enjoy the game, starting with the simpler classes. Hardcore players will be challenged by the more complex classes, and episodes 4 and 6 for each class.
– Real player with 226.1 hrs in game
tl;dr: If you like tactically tussling with RNG, Dicey Dungeons is easy to get into, but has a lot of surprises in store for you whenever you think you’ve gotten the gist of it. Terry Cavanagh is an excellent developer.
Full review: Great visuals, fantastic music, and quickly becoming one of my favorite indie games yet. Be warned, it’s moderately buggy and could use some small QoL improvements. If you don’t like RNG you probably shouldn’t play this (do I gotta say this?) but it’s not strictly unfair, rewarding on-the-spot thinking a lot. There’s a lot of ways to optimize your gameplay. Be prepared to get dunked on, as enemies can roll well just like you can, but runs are short for a TBS “roguelite”, at 30-45 minutes, so losing isn’t devastating in a vacuum~ This game opens up in unexpected ways as you go. Be prepared for change, and chaos.
– Real player with 162.7 hrs in game
Shadowplay: Metropolis Foe
Shadow play: Metropolis Foe is Turn based Cyberpunk rouge like deck builder game set in virtual metropolis with a band of virtual rebels at a time with alternating play styles to learn and master. Character specified card development are veiled as reflected in the games numerous unlisted None Achievements with quite a deep learning curve.
Level are choice based as your progress depends on the chances you take with random encounters and numerous ways to progress and build your deck and optimise your items and support skills for the end game boss.
– Real player with 41.7 hrs in game
Cost the price of a movie ticket and lasted 10 times as long. If you enjoyed Slay the Spire, you will enjoy this game, two arcs completed, rewards give replay value, but unfortunately it has been abandoned. So it is incomplete. Still I enjoyed it enjoyable and a game experience worth having/ recommending. Hope the devs will complete it one day or make a similar game again.
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in game
Urban Cards
Well, I first wrote a semi joking review about how this game was sucking up all my time and you shouldn’t get the game unless you wanted to be sucked into it like crazy but now that I’ve spent even more time playing it and the recent update came out, I wanted to change this review to reflect a truly positive view of a game that I enjoy a lot.
I play a lot of roguelites, no game genre speaks to me more than one where I can sit down, start a new run from the beginning, and either lose or win it within the hour and still feel satisfied with myself, even wanting to start another run out right away.
– Real player with 68.0 hrs in game
–The game’s alright. Very uneven gameplay. If you lose on debt it will feel super-frustrating, there is only one card in the game that can regularly clear more than 1000 debt at a time and if you miss it you will lose. This happens too often to recommend the game.
–The music is pretty good. Production values are otherwise indy. The voice acting on the Gamer and Harbor characters is so annoying it’s better playing against them on mute.
–Debt is the worst thing about the game at present. About a third of my losses have ended on “I’ve only encountered 1 card that can reduce my debt, and the hacker boss gives me debt every turn, so I have X turns to draw Money Laundering before I lose” or “this enemy has 2 cards in his deck that can give me $600 debt, if he draws both of them before I draw Money Laundering, I lose.” I don’t think I’ve gotten past day 2 of any of the Oper playthroughs where I’ve failed to find Money Laundering. The debt that I pile up is mostly from uninteractive enemy effects (the hacker’s boss inflicts a passive $100 debt per turn, and some enemies have multiple copies of the ****ing card that gives the other player $600 debt to the enemy). If you have to lose on debt, at least it should be from a lending minion, those are interactive.
– Real player with 50.9 hrs in game
Dungen
cute little game apart form the fact that its basicly in alpha:
bad translation to the point where you left guessing what cards do
a good portion of the cards doesnt do anything in the first place
starter decks of the diffrent classes cant fight half the enemies in the first lvl
fights start sometimes randomly without input from your side
and the list goes on and on, not worth the money at this point
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Grid Slayer
Replayability allert!
Please let the look not mislead you. This game should be played by every player who likes card battles.
This game hits all the right buttons to be fun to play.
You are dropped on a gridfield and you get to choose where. Weather and environment are part of the things you need to keep in mind.
You start with a small number of assets (cards) and it is up to you how to use and manipulate (mods)those.
If you win, you gain cards and mods. If you lose, you sometimes get money to buy certain upgrades.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
I just started this game and I already love it. If you are into strategy games that are easy to pick up but take a while to master, then this is the game for you. I like the characters and the different challenges that are put on the field, Only thing I would like to see is a fun animation when you kill one of the bad guys, I will edit my review as I get more into this game. Thanks for your time and happy gaming : )
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Demon’s Mirror
You’ve stumbled into a world filled with your worst nightmares. You’ve been here before, possibly thousands of times, and the journey ahead of you is going to take everything you have. Only you can bring balance to the chaos. Demon’s Mirror presents a fresh take on roguelike deck building by giving you an additional method to battle your opponents. Play powerful cards and create massive chains of tiles to sway the battle in your favor.
Use your deck of cards to battle foes
Chain tiles to attack, defend, and gain resources
Enemies can place tiles that will damage you
You can play cards or create chains to damage and destroy enemy tiles
What To Expect
-
No playthrough is ever the same
-
Fill your deck with the perfect set of cards to battle your opponent and manipulate the game board
-
Match tiles to attack, defend, gain resources, as well as destroy enemy tiles
-
Discover powerful artifacts that will give you exciting new powers
-
Choose your own path to determine your own fate
If you took a roguelike deckbuilder and mashed it with a strategic puzzle battler you’d have Demon’s Mirror. This is NOT a cheap mobile game filled with IAP!
Can you survive a trip through the mirror?
Fuzz Force: Spook Squad
Fuzz Force: Spook Squad is a cute little dice-rolling game. It’s very easy to pick up and play, but there could be more to this game. Let’s explore the ups and downs of the game (+, +/-, -, ?):
-
The game looks really nice, shiny and coloful. I like how the characters and enemies move in a limited way.
-
Great character design.
! Mecha Peppa is probably my favorite.
-
A good selection of weapons, skills, dice, buffs and debuffs*.
-
It’s super fast to start playing the game. Everything is super straight forward. Just go and beat ass.
– Real player with 22.4 hrs in game
This game is pretty great, its main feature or whatever is that it’s insanely cute. Adorable. The criticism I have is that the actual gameplay is extremely simplistic, and the replay value is also in turn almost zero, aside just trying out each character once. It’s fun to see the new weapons, but… the gameplay is so simple that I find myself not caring what every weapon does. The game tries to make some replay value with the achievements, like using the mutators/handicaps/ AKA “special missions”, but I just don’t feel compelled to, because the gameplay is so barebones.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game