Guild of Dungeoneering is a twist on the traditional rogue-like game, incorporating deck building into a dungeon builder/crawler hybrid. It is developed and published by indie dev, Gambrinous. The Ultimate Edition adds new balance and game mechanics, visual and story elements, and adds more options for customization for your dungeoneers. Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition hopes to capture new audiences with these additions while building on what was already established.
The visual style for Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition is really cute. The hand drawn aesthetic reminds me of past Dungeons and Dragons campaigns where we all drew our own characters, and the DM would draw the map for us. That’s not to say it’s not detailed; the visual design is clear and efficient, but the added novelty of a hand drawn friendly D&D campaign makes the aesthetic feel very nostalgic while also giving Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition a voice of its own. The voice acting and the music are also really good for a game of its size. Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition, on first impressions, seeks to impress and it does so, without the need for high end graphical fidelity.
The gameplay of Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition is pretty simple and straightforward, albeit a bit of a subversion of “normal” dungeon crawler. The player plays the role of both the hero, seeking to vanquish monsters and get loot, and the dungeon master, creating rooms and placing monsters on the map. Now, why would I purposefully put monsters on the map? To farm XP of course! Since the goal of Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition is to level up and earn loot for your character, placing monsters and creating larger and larger dungeons is a key component of this. Each turn, you will play a certain number of map or enemy cards, placing corridors and pathways or enemies for your character to farm. Once your turn ends, your character will then move through the dungeon, hopefully fighting your intended targets.
Combat is simple; you draw cards and choose one as your character’s attack. Both the hero and the enemies have a certain number of hit points and the first to reduce their target’s HP to 0, wins. The gameplay, although simple, does lead to the main critique of this game that I have. The brutal nature of the rogue-like genre combined with the RNG of deck building can result in some encounters and levels feeling impossible to clear without grinding for hours. Combat can also be a bit RNG based, resulting in bad draws killing off a dungeoneer you’ve spent a lot of time working on. However, I think this is more just an unalienable trait of the genre itself and is something players should expect going in.
Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition adds a lot to the original game, among them quality of life changes, balance updates, new levels, and classes, and more. This quirky but challenging game might not be for everyone; the rogue-like and deck building genres can both be difficult to get into as a newcomer and Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition combines the two. However, I do think that its charm and straightforward but enjoyable gameplay will mean Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition will never be a bad choice. Unlike dropping too many spiders in front of my level 2 Ranger.
7/10
Check Out the Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition Trailer:
You can find Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition for PC via Steam.
My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.
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