Desktop Dungeons

(2.7 hours played, at time of this review.) The good news and the bad news is that this is not really a turn-based dungeon crawler RPG as much as it is a puzzle game disguised as an RPG. You cannot just adventure around in less dangerous areas until you feel ready to tackle more serious challenges, or reload if it becomes apparent you have made serious errors in strategy (as you can in Urtuk, The Witcher 3, Age of Wonders 3, Rome Total War, Oblivion, Icewind Dale, Skyrim, Sid Meier's Alpha Centuari, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, and myriads of other strategy and RPG games). No. You go into a dungeon, and are essentially locked in (leaving the dungeon while the boss lives = LOSE the game). The dungeon is crafted such that you must tackle fixed-position enemies and move around the dungeon in a certain order (based on your character's ability at any given moment) to get strong enough to tackle the boss. Each fight is deterministic: you are given enough information so that you can figure out with absolute certainty, before each fight, if you will win or lose and how much health and mana you will have at the end of said fight. The number of enemies is limited. The nu…

Desktop Dungeons is an exceptional hybrid of role-playing, strategy, puzzle-solving, and roguelike design developed and published by QCF Design. What initially appears to be a simple dungeon-crawling adventure quickly reveals itself as one of the most intelligent and carefully crafted strategy games available. Instead of focusing on lengthy campaigns or endless exploration, it condenses the entire RPG experience into short but highly rewarding sessions where every action matters. The result is a game that offers extraordinary depth without requiring a massive time commitment, making it both accessible and endlessly replayable. The premise is familiar on the surface. Players choose a hero, enter a dungeon, defeat monsters, gather resources, and eventually challenge a powerful boss. However, Desktop Dungeons transforms these traditional RPG elements into a strategic puzzle where success depends less on grinding and more on careful planning. Every decision carries weight, and even seemingly minor choices can influence the outcome of an entire run. This focus on meaningful decision-making is what elevates the game far beyond a standard dungeon crawler. One of the most innovative mech…

So much depth for such a simple-looking game. And so much content - you're not just doing dungeon runs; there are special challenges, puzzles, and tremendous variability in how the classes and dungeons play. A dungeon run takes only 10-30 minutes, so it's really nicely paced gaming, and you feel super-smart when you beat a hard dungeon. The visual style is perfect, and the humour throughout feels right - corny but clever. Still feels very fresh after so many years, and I have come back to it several times, even starting from scratch. Perfecting your town - all upgrades, all special runs, all puzzles... takes several hundred hours. It never feels like a grind. Final note - play the original, not the 3D "rewind" version. Trust me, the graphics on rewind just don't do the game justice.

Played this for a while a long time ago, don't really remember what happened with it. Tried it again many years later and got stuck in the weirdest way. I beat a mission with 570ish gold, it said I was over the limit and couldn't keep more and suggested I buy something. Everything I could buy at this point was 1,000. And some of the buildings were not upgradable at all. Just in case it'd fix itself I kept going and no, it really did just throw away the over thousand gold I got from the next mission.

I like aspects of the game and it was bug free, but this game was not for me. The battles felt like I needed to exploit the rule system of a board game rather than exploring a dungeon.

A great game for short gaming sessions. Easy to understand but still engaging enough to keep coming back.‍