When you have an itch for a new roguelike game you will not have a hard time finding one. They turn out at an excessive rate, a true dime-a-dozen genre. It feels like at least half a hundred of them hit Steam or other gaming places every month. That's not an issue on its own, of course - the more the merrier! - but with such a deluge of titles it can be hard to find one worthy of your time. Copycats reign supreme. Fresh ideas in such an exploited genre are rare to witness. And so it is such a delight when one turns out and replicates that magical moment of sinking so deep into the gameplay loop that it feels like if you blink, another morning welcomes you through the windows.
DICEOMANCER for me is that game. I can't give it a better recommendation than the fact, that the first time I launched it I realized after a session that it was four in the morning and I had work "tomorrow". It is that addictive. And the sweet desire to play more doesn't stem from nothing! It's all thanks to impeccable design and the vastness of options. The feeling that every run is different, offers something new and fresh to enjoy. A mark of a great deck builder is the ability to create different strategies within the same archetype. As well as each of said archetypes managing to place before you different challenges to tackle.
But before I jump into that, let me sum up the game to its core. DICEOMANCER is a roguelike deck builder, in which, card by card, you'll form up your small and tight killer deck. It has the very same flow and genome as SLAY THE SPIRE without straying from that path one bit. If you played any other games of the genre, you'd be right at home here, as it has all the familiar gubbins. Cards, card removal, upgrades, relics - both passive and active. The whole shebang is as standard as it gets. So you might ask, what makes DICEOMANCER so special? The secret is in the name. The Dice. The God Dice. The ONE dice.
This changes everything. You see, your cards, your enemies' actions, everything has numbers on them. And you can alter these numbers. Quite freely, too. Does your pathetic attack card hit for low damage? Well, alter it with your magic dice. Is a deadly attack coming your way? How about I roll it down to some D6 pips instead? A boss shows up with a fat set of beefy HP bars? You guessed it - time to reduce its 100 HP to 5 with a funny roll. And this power isn't limited to just combat. Out of mana to cast cards? Welp! Time to change that 0 to 6 with a bit of luck. With enough upgrades from your progression system, you'll ultimately be able to alter every number you see. A shop has a nice relic but it's a bit too pricey? Gosh, time to haggle with magic dice roll too.
I can't overstate how massive a change it is to the flow of the game. You can modify not just your combat, but the very rules that the game is trying to use to corral your power. It opens so many avenues it sometimes feels overwhelming and leads to one minor but to some folks quite an important flaw of the game. The runs are long. Most of my games from start to finish took about an hour, which in my experience is about twice the length of the runs of its peers. It's a lengthy time investment to be sure.
While the biomes and enemies variety leaves a lot to be desired, it plays a distinct role in learning the game. Knowing what you're up against lets you tailor your deck better for the challenges ahead. And the variety is well placed into what you can play, instead. See, similar to Magic: The Gathering, there are a few colors in the game and each color represents a certain aspect - aggressive red, summoning green, weapons-oriented blue, and so on. Each color comes with a pretty hefty selection of cards you'll discover on your runs and buy out via progression. And the best part? You have some say about mixing and matching them, and each combination creates a new class. This decides your starting cards, your class relic, and more or less the direction of your gameplay. Sage draws lots of cards and relies on blocks and strong weapons. Druid summons minions and heals himself a lot. Pro works with two mana types in alternating moves to unleash powerful combinations.
It's worthy of a note that the game has a pretty great art style too. Everything is hand drawn, and animations are scribbly and whimsical but don't verge too deep into the trenches of cuteness. The music is a nice accompaniment and the sounds are informative and succinct. I never grew tired of listening to this game, so that's a plus.
Where there aren't as many options as I would dream of since one color - purple - seems to be permanently locked in, each of the classes feels very distinct and plays completely differently. This alone adds an enormous amount of replayability. And once you're done with your progression, unlocking every upgrade, the game has an extra challenge for you to tackle - Ascensions. Each time you win on a class you'll unlock an additional difficulty modifier which goes on top of the previous one, making each new run ever more demanding. It's hella fun.
If there's anything I would wish to see in DICEOMANCER, it is more of it. Would be great if some updates or even DLC allowed me to unlock that Purple and make completely new classes. Would be nice to have additional biome and enemies. And to extend that upgrades tree, since I already have hundreds of unspent points that I cannot invest into anything! And I just bought this game, darn it! But in the end, if you're looking for your next hit from the roguelike deck builders, you will have a hard time finding anything better than this game for the moment. It's colorful, it's fun, it's addicting and fresh.
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