Dungeon Clawler's early access is quickly becoming one of my favourite roguelikes, even as I get dunked on repeatedly by the cruel claw of fate
'You can't always get what you want' is great life advice—it is also what I have been repeating to myself, through gritted teeth, while playing Dungeon Clawler this afternoon. Objectively, the concept of "what if Slay the Spire, but you barely control the hand you play" shouldn't be working as well as it is for this early access roguelike, but thanks to some savvy game design, it super does.
I actually played a bit of this game back when its demo was out. At the time, I thought it was pretty neat and novel, though the limited scope had me wondering if developer Stray Fawn Studio would be able to layer on enough sauce to make it work. Even just having tinkered with it for a short while, I can confirm it's done so.
In case you're unfamiliar, Dungeon Clawler is a roguelike dungeon crawler with a clever twist—which is a turn of phrase I hate, but the twist really is significant, and it is genuinely quite clever. Instead of playing cards from a deck, your moves are all dunked into a claw machine, where you get (typically) two tries to adjust your claw and pull out a good turn.
If that sounds infuriating, it is, but that's part of the fun. Claw machines in real life are designed to sap your willpower and money both. In Dungeon Clawler, though, they're engineered to tickle your dopamine receptors. While you will absolutely have your plans ruined by the laws of physics, there are enough ways to tip the odds in your favour to keep things feeling fair.
For example, in one of my most recent runs, I played Scrappy, whose second claw is a big magnet that pulls metal-typed items from my basket of goods towards itself, and gives him a Strength buff if he pulls in at least five.
I combo'd this with an item that turns fluff (a spam item all decks are afflicted with) into gold coins, then stacked metal-typed items like paperclips, bombs, and warhammers into my deck. Suddenly, I'm mowing over my foes with 10-attack turns spurred on by my godly magnet powers.
These laws of physics can quickly turn against you, though. In another run, I grabbed an item that sticks other items to it, which should've, in theory, made it easier for my claw to snag some big turns. I hubristically chucked quite a few of these into my deck, thinking it'd have a similar impact to that magnet build, then wept as my basket turned into a lovecraftian mass of swords and shields my claw couldn't get a handle on.
I'm genuinely quite impressed with the amount of stuff this game has to offer right now, as well. Dungeon Clawler's entering early access with about 30 floors to gamble through, and 11 characters to unlock and play. That's none too shabby for a game at its price point, that being $9.99 (£8.50). Assuming Stray Fawn Studio doesn't fumble the nugget of gold it's got on its hands, things are only likely to get better from here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to curse the claw some more.