Platforms: macOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows
Publisher: Yogscast
Genres: Role-playing game, Indie game, Casual game, Strategy
Developer: Purple Moss Collectors
What has touched my heart the most in this amazing year of video games is the success of Balatro. It never seemed to me that a deck-building game would be so widely popular, and I had friends who I hardly knew who were avid gamers discussing their favorite tactics with me. It’s just that deck builders don’t usually thrill people as much as they should, so it’s been quite satisfying to watch a game with simple yet powerful poker hands and playing cards win over hearts besides mine. From the outset, Balatro and Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers bear a lot of parallels, and I hope both may succeed in this brave new cardboard world.
You play Blackjack in Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers instead of wild and insane rules-based poker. It’s as straightforward as playing card games can get, with the choice to Hit or Stand and the objective of attempting to score twenty one without going bust, but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. As a gaming mechanic, you engage in fights with the different players in this realm of gambling, and the player who scores the highest without going over twenty-one deals damage to their opponent’s HP equal to the difference in scores. Due to the fact that you will feel every point of harm if the opposition receives a high score, going bust becomes extremely frightening.
Since winning at blackjack is mostly dependent on luck, as I’m sure you can guess, you’ll need a little assistance in the shape of extra cards in your deck. These have a wide range of wild effects and are available in all shapes and sizes. The blank card, which has lots of alternatives and can be assigned any value, was one of my favorite early acquisitions. A card that keeps an enemy’s troublesome numbered card in place for several hands can be quite useful for the duration of a battle, while a card that causes your opponent to stand regardless of their score is particularly potent if pulled early. You may construct your deck in a lot of inventive ways, and before you know it, you’ll be easily outscoring your opponent on a regular basis.
The fact that each wild card you can add to your deck is designed to resemble a real-world card is what makes them the coolest. While a Monopoly-style Get Out of Jail Free card might instantly tie a round if you’re losing badly, a PS1 memory card can be used to recall the value of a card in your discard pile. With Hearthstone, Magic, and Pokémon cards included as well (albeit in somewhat modified unofficial forms), this is a fantastic celebration of everything cardboard from a team that obviously adores the format.
You’ll navigate through various casinos in between Blackjack matches and have a variety of options to select from. Maybe you’d rather play a game of roulette where every basic card in your deck changes to the number you spin, or you’d rather spend your hard-earned chips at a store on new cards rather than getting into another card scrap. Every gritty place you visit offers a wide range of activities, and the secret to making the most of them is knowing when and how to use them to your advantage.
Your adventure in Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers doesn’t end once you win a run; there are a ton of unlockable decks and difficulty settings waiting for you. Every deck has cards with added powers built in, such as cards that do more damage or provide you shield points to deflect incoming strikes in the event that you draw a blackjack. I’m not sorry to admit that I didn’t go very deep down that rabbit hole, and the increased difficulty levels will also quickly become out of control.
Although Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers is an excellent deck builder, it falls short of being the best cardboard game for a few reasons. The wild cards you acquire make up for the basic gameplay’s simplicity with rather intricate effects, albeit understanding how they all function is a hassle. This only becomes more intense when your opponents’ decks are filled with cards you have never seen before and you find yourself reading more cards than drawing cards. Additionally, there are other concepts that aren’t really clear, such employing “advantage” to activate effects. It’s unfortunate that it lacks the fundamental intuitiveness of the objective for twenty-one loop.
The gameplay of Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers is straightforward but captivating, making it an easy to learn but challenging Deck Building game. Thanks to the abundance of wild cards, there are a plethora of starting decks and difficulty levels that will keep you occupied for many hours. There are also a ton of different methods to build your deck to hit twenty-one. When you finally understand how all the strange and amazing cards operate, you’ll be yelling “Blackjack” with abandon as you destroy opponent after opponent.
Review Overview
Gameplay – 70%
Story – 65%
Aesthetics – 75%
Content – 68%
Accessibility – 72%
Value – 70%
Overall Rating – 70%
OK
Summary: A beautiful, simple-to-learn Blackjack deck builder with lots of original methods to hit twenty-one is Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers.