Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers

Blackjack is great because I'm too dumb for poker, but this game adds so much crazy shit it never gets stale. Good job whomever made this one

A lot of the reviews have already covered a lot of the game's issues, but here's a short list: 1) (And the biggest) this game is 100% RNG. There's just no other way to put it. 2) The deckbuilding is basically non-existent which basically just feeds into problem 1. 3) There's very little variety. You pick between 2 paths right at the start. Completing them doesn't add more. There's also a lot of recycled characters and decks on either side you pick. There's a bunch of cards that would have good synergy, but good luck getting them with problem 1. 4) Even if you get a decent "build" the difficulty spikes at the end. All in all, it is a promising idea with execution that has just fallen short. The points where you feel like you actually planned and executed a good concept are few and far between. This leads to multiple runs of frustration follwed up by "I just got lucky".

Most runs you're stuck with >80% of your starting deck. StS, Balatro etc give you many opportunities to remove or edit cards - in D&DG, you get maybe 5 opportunities throughout the entire run. Have an idea for a build? Not going to happen unless you start with a small deck, or get lucky finding deck-altering cards. Remember, this is essentially blackjack, you don't get to draw-redraw dozens of cards each turn. You feel like you're playing regular blackjack while the opponents are playing D&DG. It's fun for a little while, there are plenty of funny references among the cards. When the novelty wears off and you've already won a few runs with the small decks, though...

This is a really fun game to have for your steam deck for when you're on the go. A lot of wacky cards. I definitely got my money's worth playing this. My only wish is to see more decks, more cards, and more pathways! Keep up the great work devs!

I like the vibes. The gameplay is like nothing else. easily my favorite deck building roguelike

Cute little game. Probably not as sophisticated as its "big brothers", but still fun. Sure, pretty random sometimes, but plays quickly.

This game is easier to play than balatro but has the same level of strategy level. Give it a try its worth it!

fun game so just blackjack with escargots (trust its fun)

very fun and interesting deck builder, i did find it somewhat difficult to play and understand at the beginning but i blame myself not the game. If you like rogue deck builders you will love this

Very fun roguelike. Good sounds & stimulating graphics, especially when you already know some different card games (many cute easter eggs). Takes a moment to get into, but with entertaining reward.

I played once at my boyfriend's house, got so hooked I played in one sitting till I lost. So addictive, I immediately bought it for myself once I got home, the gambling game has consumed me and I'm not surprised lol

Very good game, but with limited replayability

It's unfortunate because this game has a great concept, good art, a crisp UI and lots of fun ideas in it, but there's not enough variety or depth in it to keep you going for more than a couple of hours. Even if you play with different decks, every run feels the same. The enemies each have a tiny quirk that basically makes no difference to the fight, you encounter all of the same enemies and events every single run, every card that was good on a previous run is probably good on your next run, all of the cards' effects are either too inconsequential or too similar to each other, the difficulty levels barely make a difference, the different chip trinkets you get at the start of each run usually do barely anything for the whole run, every boss is way too easy so they all end up feeling the same, there are too many fights and not enough events to help you refine your deck more, but that doesn't even matter because all of the fights are so easy that there isn't even really a point to refining your deck past a certain point... the moment you start feeling like you've made a deck that's the result of your critical thinking and apt decision making, the run is over. It's such a huge shame because there's sooo much potential here but after a couple of runs (which are all very quick) it becomes apparent that the devs didn't even scratch the surface. Compared to Slay the Spire, which gives you hundreds of trinkets that range from being ineffectual to completely game-changing, has different characters you can start as who all play completely differently, dozens of different mechanics that you can build your whole run around, cards which can be incredibly simple or absolutely crazy, and all of these things play into each other. The runs are also longer, giving you more time to refine your deck and meaningfully use it against much harder bosses. This isn't even to mention that it has 20 levels of difficulty which don't differ too much from level to level, but it's impossible to mistake Ascension 1 for Ascension 20; compared to D&DG's "Play it Safe" vs "ALL IN!"? You would struggle to figure out which one you're playing on if you didn't pick it at the start of the run. This isn't to say that Slay the Spire is better in every way and that D&DG should be just like Slay the Spire, but I'd just like to see even 50% of StS's depth of content, mechanics and difficulty in D&DG. The more I played D&DG, the more I was wondering why I wasn't just playing Slay the Spire or any other deck building game. When I beat the landlord I had pretty much seen all that this game had to offer, and it wasn't a lot. I would recommend this game ecstatically if there was more to it, but as it is it will only get you stuck in a loop of feeling like each run was pointless.

Fundamentally flawed and frustrating anti-fun mechanics. I gave it three tries to enjoy it yet I cannot. It is very disappointing. Other negative reviews have already detailed all my frustrations and they're all correct.

The game is pretty fun but has it's issues Early on it's better to reset if you don't get through in 1 or 2 rounds since you'll be down HP, There are so many situations where you will get into an unwinnable situation and it doesn't feel like you messed up deckbuilding or that you misplayed but just the game screwing you with RNG. If you really like blackjack this can be interesting

I love this game. See 193 hours. I'm still working through 100%ing it, and it's finally starting to get stale. D&DG is best if you love roguelikes with gamebreaks and love deckbuilding. Most winning runs will have far surpassed the benchmark of being functionally unkillable. Reviews that tell you that the game is too hard or too random are having a skill issue. At maximum difficulty, I can win consistently with 14/19 decks, and if you can't, you have more strategizing to do. If you want a roguelike that rewards careful strategy play with entertaining gamebreaks, play this game. It will not disappoint, and the flavor will keep you entertained until you figure out what good play looks like. If you enjoy finding strange and unexpected synergies that you've never seen before and may never see again, this is the game. They're everywhere, they're hard to realize, but they're rewarding in power and in fun. Now, those that say the game is unbalanced have more foothold. First, certain encounters are much easier than others, and so a lack of encyclopedic knowledge of what each enemy's deck is can be punishing. But, on the flip side, developing that knowledge is very rewarding, as being able to identify the general strategy and threats of a particular deck means I can prepare for it ahead of time. Second, many cards are flat out bad, while others are flat out incredibly powerful. This swingy balance is part of the identity of the game, though. Even your worst run might be saved by pulling very strong cards back to back, which can make barely hanging on throughout a run a very engaging experience: yes, I [i]look[/i] cooked, but the perfect card for me could be just behind this battle, so, it ain't over 'til it's over. Unfortunately, I think the most gutting criticism of this game is that there's an overcentralizing strongest strategy, and that once you reach success in this strategy, that the rest of the run becomes low-risk and bland. This is definitely not the only strategy, but it is easily accessible to most runs of most decks, and consistent in its domination. From a design perspective, this is because the groups of cards playing into different synergies have different strengths. You'll see intended strategies and groups of cards when looking through the collection: jack strategies, king strategies, aces & faces, self-damage, low-card, sevens, burnout, self-bust, shoving bad cards into your opponent's deck, disruption, etc., just to name off the top of my head the biggest sets of card types I can think of. The problem is that, well... most of these strategies have 5-10 key cards in them, and encourage you not to take cards outside the strategy. Except [spoiler]low-card[/spoiler], which is helped by nearly half the cards in the game, and which can be combined with several other strategies. The game is still fun, but... it does get a little easy. Hopefully, this strategy will get a little nerfed, and the high cards will be buffed. But, if you want a challenge, half and full deck runs are still available to make this strategy a bit weaker and reintroduce some more actual blackjack into the game.

Quickly became one of my favorites. It's the perfect game to play after a long day at work when I want something that's engaging and mildly challenging but unlikely to lead to stress and frustration. I will say--and this is absolutely just a me thing--[spoiler] the dog who you play against is a very good boy and I would absolutely take him for a walk if that were an actual option. If you added an event where you can actually walk him, it would be perfect. Every time he says "if I win we go for walkies" and then says "never mind" when I win, it actually makes me a little sad, because I'm a big squishy soft dog-lover and even disappointing a dog made of pixels breaks my heart a tiny bit. [/spoiler] But again, I acknowledge that that's a me problem; it would just be an addition that would help me enjoy the game a tiny bit more. Overall, I love this game.

I went into this expecting a chaotic blend of dungeon crawling and degenerate gambling. What I got was RNG hell with a side of Reddit-tier humor. Every fight is just a glorified slot machine. Strategy? Nah. Just pray to the RNG gods and hope your dice roll better than the AI’s (spoiler: they don’t). The card mechanics are shallow, the character progression is a joke, and the “story” reads like it was written during a caffeine crash at 3 AM.

playing against bouncer is awful, ruins the whole experience when you get to that point

Balatro but black jack do i need to say more. Yes it also has jokes.

Rubbish design and game play. Requesting a refunded for this WOKE rainbow garbage.

Extremely fun but cute rogue-like if you're into blackjack/gambling

Its balatro but blackjack. 10/10 would play again

Easy to learn, difficult to master.

i FUCKING LOVE BLACK JACK AND NOW I CAN BE ADDICTED TO IT WITH OUT GAMBLING MY LIFE SAVINGS RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Never thought of myself as a degenerate gambler, but here we are

it's balatro but with blackjack instead of poker

"Oh no, I did the maths wrong!" ah yes, the gambler's motto.

Insanely addictive

falls off hard after about 7 hours

As a wise person once said "Let's go gambling!"

it's fun

great game

Love this game.

Payday fears me.

I DON'T CARE IF IT SAYS 18, I SAID HIT

good

good

I have become the degenerate.

gambling

PEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!

gamble