In the deepest and darkest part of my brain, there’s a part of me that would play Balatro for the rest of my life. The other part of my brain is open to suggestions. So of course, Dwayne took advantage and decided to run a three-man weave with that part of my brain by introducing me to Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. I truly believe he knew that not only would I play it, but I’d love it enough to do a full review. Great editor Jedi Mind Trick, I can’t even be mad.

I know Dwayne talked about it already, but that was just him throwing the lob up. Allow me to finish the dunk. Because this game is damn near perfect to me. And parts of this are gonna be me blaming him for bringing this into my life.

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Dungeons of doom

We have a quick rundown of how Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers works here. But we’ll get more detailed about my experience with the game. Because this game deserves every bit of praise it gets. First off, I love Balatro, that much is known. But I will say, I prefer Blackjack to Poker, so this game was already gonna lock me in. Then I turned it on and the art style and writing grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me in. The various specialty cards in the game reminded me of Chickenauts, another favorite roguelike of mine. There are some cool pop-culture references in there too.

The gameplay is just as fast as Dwayne (demon) mentioned. I found myself building a solid deck of cards that included one that gave me an Ace the moment I pulled it. With that, I could hold and play at the right time. That one became my favorite very quickly, especially when you start going against opponents like The Manager. This dude has a “Business card” that will take a card away from you and put it in his hand. He almost always leaves you with next to nothing and gives himself with a pretty good hand.

The strategy comes into play when you notice the chip on the opponent’s side that tells you where they’ll stand. Early opponents always stand at 17. This is key because a tie results in no health lost, while a bust is the same as having a zero. Which means, if your opposition stands and you decide to pull a Peter Griffin, you’re eating a 17 point hit to your HP. I’ve run up on a few instances where I stand at 16 with them at 17, eat the one point hit and play another hand. That’s an easy decision to make early. But once you build your deck more and have some powerful cards, it then becomes a game of “how quickly can I get out of this match?”. Remember, Dungeons is still a roguelike, there’s a run to complete.

The degenerate

The characters actually do have a great deal of personality to them and their dialogue is pretty cool. I especially enjoyed The Bard and his sing-songy references. In between matches, you can choose a variety of activities including a shop where you can buy more cards using the chips you’ve earned. My personal favorite, though, is the crypto bro that is seemingly out of place. You can choose to buy into his weird coin and right there in the moment watch as its value fluctuates. Pick the right time to sell and you can come up on some serious chips, pick the wrong time and you’re screwed.

Once you clear the first area, you’re given an option of where to go next. I almost always chose the basement next and I ran into some killer decks down there. I sweated out more than a couple games because once your opponents start flashing specialty cards, Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers becomes a game of endurance and quickness. The AI is incredibly well done, I never felt like I could cheese my way to a win. Conversely, I never felt like the CPU was cheating me. It felt like a true back and forth.

I can tell that Dwayne has trapped me in a perfectly acceptable hell. I love a game that will keep me coming back. There are just too many games to play right now. What I can tell you is that Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers will remain at the top for a long time. And I need it to hit mobile as soon as possible.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers is available now on PC.