Dungeon Arsenal

Genre: Roguelike / RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Dungeon Arsenal, released in 2021 on PC and ported in 2024 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a Roguelike RPG with a Card Game aesthetic that has players taking the role of an adventurer trying to reach the top of a tower filled with weapons and monsters.

This isn’t a game that’s going to win anyone over with its presentation. The 2D pixel art visuals are bland, sparse, and simple, and the fantasy-themed music is generic, forgettable, and often seems to drop out for extended periods of time in a way that you might not even notice given how little it brings to the table.

Sadly, Dungeon Arsenal isn’t going to win anyone over with its gameplay either. Each of the game’s randomly-generated “floors” are a table with a selection of cards to flip over Some contain weapons, gold, and helpful items, some contain enemies, and one is the exit you need to go to the next floor.

The problem here is that there is very little strategy to be found in this gameplay. The cards are random so there’s no reason to choose one card over another. What’s more, the weapons all have extremely little durability, breaking after just one or two uses. As such, you can only hope you turn over cards that benefit you in an order that benefits you, and then hope that you have the weapons on hand that you’ll need to fight the enemies that you encounter. There is some minor strategy added by the rare appearance of shops and relics that add passive bonuses, but for the most part you often feel more like the game is playing you than you playing the game.

If you’re looking for a great Card Game Roguelike, or a great Roguelike RPG, don’t bother with Dungeon Arsenal, as you’ll find neither here. For that matter, just don’t bother with this game at all – there’s pretty much nothing here worth playing.

tl;dr – Dungeon Arsenal is a Roguelike RPG that uses a Card Game aesthetic, but the presentation is dull and the gameplay has far too little player agency. Don’t waste your time or money with this one.

Grade: D

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