I should feel at least a small fraction of shame by doing the obvious, so let's get it out of the way right now. It's a BALATRO-like. Yes, I am doing the whole cheap reviewer route, giving out the most obvious, baseline comparison, the lowest-hanging fruit to reach for. The game makes you feel like Batman, said IGN! But I hope you'll excuse this laziness because it does convey so much information in such a condensed form. Now you know what to expect, give or take. A roguelite structured about a popular and rudimentary game of chance! See, and you won't be wrong, for DICE PLAYER ONE is Yahtzee with a fresh coat of paint and BALATRO-inspired twists and turns.
It is hardly going to be the only game inspired by it, after all. A successful game like BALATRO stirs the minds of creators far and wide, and the obvious outcome of such sparks are starting to emerge onto the market. That's not a problem at all. Remember that this happens every single time something fresh hits the shelves, and everyone scampers to get their piece of the cake. Some make blatant copies, cheap and uninspired. For others seeing such a game is like a twist of a key in a lock they never knew they had. Opening up a vault to something new as well, a creative twist of the formula. A game that is clearly inspired, but different enough to stand its ground.
DICE PLAYER ONE is such a game. In fact, it's so clever, so rich in content, and fun to play that for me it is the better BALATRO. A bold claim for many, to be sure, but I must be honest both with myself and with you, dear reader. Perhaps the gushing over its many great bits and gubbins will be just what you need to give it an honest go. So let me tell you why this game is so gosh darn brilliant.
Let's start with the basics. In this game, you aim to craft yourself a box of dice that will overcome the ever-growing challenges in your way. As expected from the formula, the challenge is a number - score you must reach within a limited amount of rolls and re-rolls. Every set of stages there will be a boss who offers an extra bit of challenge by layering some nasty rules into the round to make your life harder. You reach for the score by filling up your dice rolls using a handy scoring sheet. There are basic dice forms - like rolling any amount of the same number, be it aces, twos, threes, and such. And advanced ones, where like in Poker you need to find combinations to make Straights, Full House, Four of a Kind, and such. The top one is the elusive Harmony - five of the same number on display.
Rudimentary, isn't it? The problem is, that at the start of the game - for the most part - you can fill each roll only once. Therefore your goal is to maximize the possible score to lock down as much as possible. Each combination also has a permanent score and multiplier attached to it, and one of the crucial goals of your run is to ramp those numbers up. They become a key part of your strategy; If your set of dice is made to support Three of a Kind and number fives? You will do all you can to make those scoring fills robust in points and multiplier. But even that's not the end of your troubles; There's a peculiar and superbly crafted balancing act here. Ending round earlier rewards more gold, which you need to buy new dice and upgrades. However, many quests and abilities of your dice and deck let you ramp up permanent scores of combination and your dice as well by playing them. So you have to decide, quite often - do I finish quickly to get the big buck? Or do I try to milk the round the longest I can to squeeze maximum growth out of my existing abilities?
The vastness of it is staggering. Every single dice you'll have in your box will be unique. It will bring to the table a new thing to tweak your playstyle. It can be a passive buff that's present when the dice is in play. Or one that is ever present for having it in your box. It can be an activated ability. It can be a conditional one! Or it even can be a quest, a task to fulfill to ramp up one of your dice types. There are so many possible actions and interactions here that you can attempt building any kind of deck... well, a box of dice. To further illustrate it, the game itself offers 20 sets of dice to play with, each not only themed after a certain gameplay element but coming with its own set of specific rules to alter the game.
Even that is not all yet. Each dice in your box can be edited by equipping a Resonance - a modifier that tweaks its behavior or allows it to grow its permanent score. Or summon cards. Cards that add to your score and, of course, can interact with other dice. Sheesh! Not enough? There's also a Workshop, each run, that allows you 7 processing skills to further empower your favorite dice! With 300 dice in-game, 50 resonances, 20 dice sets, countless bosses, challenges, and unlockables this title seems like a time-sink of titanic proportions. And I am all here for it, playing it almost obsessively.
What we are looking for is that moment, that beautiful click of elation and triumph when the combo we were working on finally clicked. All dice are in place. The rolls are on point. And suddenly we made a monster that can roll a score to beat every round four times over with a single toss of the dice. The beauty of DICE PLAYER ONE is that it allows you to reach those moments not only in a very organic fashion - helping you feel like it was your planning that crafted such a powerful box of tossable cubes. But also it gives you great freedom in what you WANT to chase. There is hardly a bad strategy to go after here. Any combination, any dice type, or even any form of gameplay is valid here. Want to accumulate vast amounts of gold? Some dice will turn them into winning points. Want to destroy your dice every roll? No problem, plenty of abilities that will reward it. Perhaps you aim to print cards like crazy to give yourself huge score boosts every roll? Doable of course. There are so many paths to victory and you are gently guided to witness and enjoy them all.
If there is any contentious point here it would be the art style and music. I am sure it is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. The art is very... Loud. It often looks like some intro to a commercial in the 90's. It's a big grunge with a bit of old cardboard mustiness to it. Graffiti, cold concrete, and pictures as if we are escaping a skate shop in times when Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 is about to come out on PlayStation. The dice are nice though, even if they can get a bit chaotic to read with the resonances changing their colors and the stacks of cards obscuring the board sometimes. The music is loud as well, bombastic, and energetic to be sure. It has this early Edge to it, at any moment I'm expecting some disgruntled singer to start blasting lyrics about how society could be a bit nicer. It was never grating to me, though, and I got used to the visual flair of the game with no problems and in a short time, so it's not like it is a downside to dock its points. Just have a feeling not everyone will vibe with it - it does not go for calm and relaxing, not at all.
Another great thing about it is that it has a Demo. So if you're not convinced yet, if the dice-rolling roguelite Yahtzee doesn't sound exactly riveting, be sure to give it a go. It costs only your time and I have a feeling that if you enjoyed BALATRO or similar games, this should scratch that itch anew. For me, DICE PLAYER ONE is a new addiction, a game that managed to squeeze me by the throat and tell me I will not stop playing until I unlock everything. And currently, I agree with it, going through it in every free bit of time, squeezing in a round here and there between work and meals to beat the next boss in line. By the way, I knew the Apocalypse was bad, but in this game, it's really bad - I will conquer it, with time. Just need another run...
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