Dungeon Brawls Review Summary

Fun, addictive co-op with a large hero roster is undermined by frustratingly low card drops, poor balance, and frequent online disconnections.

Fun and addictive gameplay: Players consistently describe the game as fun, engaging, and hard to put down. The core loop is praised for being highly replayable and addictive over time.

Solid overall quality: General sentiment is that the game is well made, fun, and offers good playability. Many describe it as a good or great game overall.

Strong co-op with friends: Playing with friends is widely highlighted as the best way to enjoy the game, with co-op making sessions more enjoyable and long-lasting. Team coordination and shared chaos multiply the fun.

Large hero roster: The game offers dozens of playable characters, each with distinct styles and skills. This variety gives players many options to explore and master.

Deep build variety: Many relics, skills, and hero combinations enable diverse and interesting builds. Players appreciate the freedom to experiment with countless combinations.

Low card drop rates: Players repeatedly report that card and item drop rates are far too low, especially in custom mode where card drops are sparse. This makes card acquisition slow and forces heavy grinding.

Poor game and character balance: Feedback consistently cites poor numerical and character balance, with only a few strong heroes viable and clear differences in clear difficulty across characters. Stat scaling also spikes unfairly in the late game.

Frequent online disconnections: Online and co-op play frequently disconnect, sometimes near the final waves or match end, wasting rewards. The issue was only fixed for the host rather than the root cause.

Leaderboard rampant with cheaters: Multiple players report that the post-clear leaderboard is dominated by cheaters, making competition nearly impossible. This appears across several clusters as a major fairness concern.

Limited content and map variety: Players feel there is little playable content, too few maps, and too few gameplay modes. The overall content amount is considered insufficient.

Online co-op multiplayer support: Players frequently highlight online co-op with friends, including up to four-player sessions. Both matchmaking and friend-lobby co-op are mentioned alongside solo play options.

Large hero roster variety: The game offers many playable heroes with distinct skills, talents, and roles. Players repeatedly note character variety and differing playstyles as a core strength.

Out-of-run meta progression: Meta-progression is earned outside runs and affects combat strength and starting stats. Players describe card and card-slot systems that persist between runs.

Card deck building and drafting: Card collection, deck building, and a rolling/draft system are central mechanics. Card slots can be upgraded through grinding to boost starting stats.

Multiple difficulty tiers: The game features several difficulty levels and a noticeable difficulty curve. Character viability and mission difficulty vary across tiers.

Frequent crashes and freezes: Players report the game crashing, becoming unresponsive, or freezing the system, especially during or after gameplay. These stability issues can be severe enough to require a hard restart.

Stuttering during gameplay: Using skills or casting non-channeled skills causes brief stutters, impacting combat fluidity. Movement-on-fire skills also cause the character to snag on movement.

Poor optimization and performance issues: Players criticize terrible optimization. Setting graphics to low causes CPU usage to max out upon entering the game, leading to freezing and crashing.

Launch failure with white window: After a crash, the game fails to open and only displays a small white window with no game screen. Reinstalling the game does not resolve this launch failure.

Frequent server disconnections: Players experience frequent disconnections from servers during matches, even from minor network fluctuations. This disrupts online gameplay.

Best enjoyed with friends: Reviewers consistently say the game is best played co-op with friends, especially in groups of two to four. Solo play is frequently described as less enjoyable or even discouraged.

Ideal for roguelike fans: Many reviewers strongly recommend the game to fans of roguelike and horde-survival genres, praising its monster-grinding loop. The appeal is highest for players with prior roguelike experience.

Strongly recommended overall: A large number of reviewers give unequivocal positive recommendations and call the game worth trying. Some emphasize it is a qualified, worthwhile casual party game rather than a polished masterpiece.

Avoid buying, consider refund: A few reviewers explicitly say not to buy the game and advise refunding it if possible. One calls it worth avoiding at all costs, even during a sale.

Appeals to Warcraft RPG fans: Several reviewers favorably compare the game to Warcraft RPGs and old Warcraft custom maps. It is recommended for players with a background in Warcraft, Duelist Arena, or Dungeon & Fighter.

Game completion: 25.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

Endgame: 100.0h.

Most players report immediate fun from a low barrier to entry, short satisfying runs, and addictive combat. The main complaints are long card/meta grind and a slower stationary-attack loop, not a lack of an early hook.

Friction: Long card collection grind for key rare cards; Heavy meta-progression grind and low dismantle returns; Slow pace and stationary attacking can make the loop boring; Multiplayer connection or server issues can disrupt co-op.

Unlock drivers: Quick synthesis of high-quality cards, which removes grind anxiety; Gradual meta-progression that unlocks characters and relics without forcing grind; Late-game build completion that makes combat more satisfying.

Co-op Horde Squad Player: Queues with friends for 4-player PvE wave clearing, casual voice-chat runs, and leaderboard pushes. Motivation: Social co-op horde-slaying fun with friends. Stance: buy.

Build-Crafting Experimenter: Experiments with build interactions, tests card and relic combinations, and chases powerful character setups. Motivation: Discovering and optimizing diverse hero, card, and relic builds. Stance: buy.

Old-School ARPG Veteran Loyalist: Plays long beta and demo sessions, clears co-op loot-survival maps, and mentors newcomers. Motivation: Reliving familiar old-school ARPG and Warcraft RPG co-op loot loops and supporting a long-awaited release. Stance: buy.

Performance reports are mixed for Windows systems with under 8 GB VRAM, with both playable experiences and severe crashes reported. The Windows 8-11GB VRAM cohort is negative due to crashes, unresponsiveness, and lost progress.

Windows <8GB VRAM: mixed. One reviewer reports generally playable performance with occasional bugs and active fixes, while another reports severe CPU saturation and crashes on low settings.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. A reviewer reports crashes and unresponsiveness, with no save system causing lost progress before settlement.

Steam Deck: Reviews praise the roguelike build variety and cooperative strategy, but the technical experience is severely compromised. Users report crashes after extended play, permanent launch failure, black screens, freezes, forced reboots, and no save or crash recovery, causing lost progress. No direct Steam Deck control or launcher evidence appears, but the reported launch and stability failures would make the Steam Deck experience broken.

Evokes Warcraft RPG nostalgia: Many reviewers compare the game to Warcraft III RPG custom maps, citing a nostalgic, old-school feel that recreates the experience of playing those maps years ago.

Frequent updates from responsive developer: Players repeatedly note that the developer actively listens to community feedback and releases updates frequently, often optimizing the game and adding new content.

Demo and full version available: A demo and full version are available, with save data carrying over and the full release adding more content such as a new dungeon, items, monsters, characters, and cards.

Room for future expansion: The game is seen as having room to expand maps and gameplay, with high potential for future updates and content expansions.

Online co-op for up to four: The game supports online co-op for two to four players through a lobby-based system, and can also be played solo.