Blood Dungeon was provided by Messhof for review. Thank you!
There are so many different roguelikes out there trying different things, and as a fan of the genre, it’s exciting to see. I’ve been playing a few recently that change up the formula, one way or another, but only one of them captivated me way more than I expected. Blood Dungeon cranks up the craziness and action in multiple different ways to stand out from the crowd, and for the most part, it works very well.
The first thing that stands out when you look at the game is its visuals, which look like semi-crude drawings. We can see it throughout the world, characters, and enemies, but it all adds to the charm. There’s something about watching these enemies scurry around with their slight vibrations that is very enjoyable. It’s cohesive, and it fits right in with the fast-paced action.
Speaking of combat, the moment-to-moment action is exciting and engaging. We will run around different maps to try killing as many enemies as we can and collecting their blood to level up and get stronger. The goal is to survive as long as possible and get the highest score that we can, and we will need to kill tons of enemies and bosses to do just that.
Enemies can come in from anywhere, and some of them can even fly through walls, so continual movement is essential. The great thing is that movement feels fantastic, and being able to climb and crawl on every surface makes it feel more dynamic. That fluid movement and the action work together tremendously, and it’s the biggest motivator for why I keep going back in for more and more.
However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the weapons we use. We don’t manually control the weapons, so they just shoot or go off in random directions to target the closest enemy. This can be quite inconsistent sometimes, and there have been many spots where I wanted it to target a different enemy that was actually closer. In general, I do prefer being able to manually target, but I don’t mind it being automatic when it works well. With Blood Dungeon, I felt it only worked well 80% of the time, which is great on paper, but very annoying when it gets you killed. There were more times than I could count that I ended up cornered by 30 enemies because the automatic shooting didn’t go in the direction I expected.
On the plus side, the upgrades in-run not only have obvious benefits, but also feel very unique. Some of them are more generic, like upgrading our primary weapon with more shots or a shorter reload time, but we can also find upgrades that decrease reload speed as we’re moving or leave trails of fire behind us. Some of these can change up our strategy a bit, which helps keep the flow malleable as we try to survive.
Just like other roguelikes, there is permanent progression and other characters we can play as. While the other characters have different perks and weapons, which I did find interesting, some of the permanent upgrades weren’t as noticeable as I hoped. The extra permanent damage and lowered reload speed didn’t affect my runs as much and made them feel a little useless. There are some, like the larger pickup range, that do feel noticeable, but I wish it were more consistent as well.
Still, I would consider Blood Dungeon to be extremely engaging and fun. There were some issues that frustrated me, but it was never enough to stop me from getting back in and doing another run. Each level felt unique when compared to the others, having different elements or layouts that are very clearly distinct. And with a leaderboard challenging our friends to see who can get the highest score, I found more than enough reason to keep coming back.
And what makes me truly happy is how great it runs on the Steam Deck. It’s stuck at 60 FPS with around 9W of battery drained the entire time, even when there were tons of enemies on the screen with different effects and different weapons. There should be no issue playing this on the Deck at all.
Blood Dungeon is an addictive roguelike with fast-paced action and tons of charm. The crude drawings mix extremely well with the gameplay loop, which is frantic and has fantastic mechanics. Not all of the upgrades feel impactful, but it’s enough to keep me hooked and wanting to keep playing more and more.
It’s also near-flawless on the Steam Deck, hitting 60 FPS easily with 9W battery drain. It’s a great experience to take on the go, and it deserves a Verified badge.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Blood Dungeon is a ridiculous roguelike that has tons of charm and an enjoyable gameplay loop, but it has some nuisances here and there. However, it's perfect on the Steam Deck.
