Roguecraft DX Key Features
- Developed by Badger Punch Games
- Published by Thalamus Digital
- Turn-Based Roguelike
- $11.99 on Steam
- Full Controller Support
This is a dungeon crawler made for someone looking for a quick, simple, yet engaging experience. Developed by Badger Punch Games and published by Thalamus Digital, Roguecraft DX is a turn-based roguelike centered around a seemingly endless lovecratian dungeon. Now, I know the idea of a turn-based combat roguelike sounds far from being a bite-sized experience. But Badger Punch Games designed the combat and grid-based movement to be all in one. Each move you make is considered a turn; the enemies, special abilities, and even the environmental traps all move once you do. Combat is initiated by moving towards an enemy. So for this special edition of First Five, I spent a little over an hour with Roguecraft DX, and it is safe to say this game will provide a swift dungeon crawling experience.
Only An Hour!?
I know these shorthand reviews were supposed to stick to a self-imposed parameter of at least five hours of play. Honestly, with Roguecraft DX, I didn’t feel the need to play for five hours, especially since I kept getting obliterated by a bone- summoning lich-type creature on the fifth level of the dungeon. This game only requires the directional pad and one button to access the randomized items littered throughout the world. The simple mechanics blended with strategic play gave me a large portion of the overall gameplay experience, so I feel confident enough to give my thoughts on it. So let us dive in.
D-Pad + One Button = Rewarding Runs
You start the game with two of the three potential characters unlocked for you to dive the depths with. You can choose between a sword-wielding mercenary/soldier character, who is classified as the easy option, and a more strategy-required rogue-style character. The sword wielder is a straight-up brawler; very little thought goes into his combat. Simply move towards an enemy and pray to RNGesus that you kill them before they kill you. With the rogue, you can go head-up against enemies, but his strongest attack is backstabbing them. The only way to backstab is to sneak up on enemies and get the critical hit. More planning and patience are absolutely necessary to take full advantage of this class.
The game does not have much of a story; it is a bare-bones dungeon-crawling experience. Don’t let that lead you to think that Roguecraft DX is not made with love and care. It is a beautifully pixelated top-down isometric world divided into pockets. No two runs are the same, so you can’t plan too far ahead after you inevitably die on a run. The first level of the dungeon starts you off in a wooded-themed area filled with large bats, weird one-eyed creatures, and evil chickens. Your life bar is represented by hearts, your character has a limited amount of inventory space, and a power bar that increases as you slash through enemies. Now you can increase your hearts and power level by collecting items randomly scattered around each level.
Each level has two main goals: find the key to go lower into the dungeon and survive. This is simple but far from easy, and that is where the itch to complete another run comes in. Then you mix in the leaderboard that pops up after each death, egging you on to do better next time, and you have the urge to do better next run.
An Amiga Port For A Modern Experience
The developers make it clear this game isn’t meant to take hours out of your day. This is a faithful port of a game originally made for the Commodore Amiga and keeps the charming retro design infused with modern quality-of-life gameplay. If you are looking for something to play that will provide fun strategic gameplay with a small investment of time, Roguecraft DX is a game you should consider adding to your Steam library. There is also a demo available on the official Steam page so you can get a sample of the dungeon-diving turn-based game.
Thank you to Badger Punch Games for providing us a code!
