Dice & Fold Review - An Excellent Dice-Filled Dungeon Delve

The roguelike genre is one that’s exploded in recent years, with numerous fantastic roguelikes like Balatro and Hades II releasing for fans of the genre. Dice & Fold is a newcomer, and its debut leaves me wanting to play so much more. 

For my Dice & Fold review, I want to talk about why this game has gripped my attention, and I’m very much looking forward to the roadmap of new characters and items. 

The game's premise is quite simple – you dungeon crawl level-by-level, defeating card-based enemies using your dice. Some enemies must be defeated with a specific die number, while others have a cumulative count to bring to zero. To enhance future runs, winning a game with a hero will unlock trinket(s) - allowing you to equip small boosts to help with the more challenging heroes.

A Bevvy of Heroes to Choose

For each run, you’ll choose a hero with a unique ability and come across additional companions the deeper you delve, increasing the number of dice you can roll, and giving you an additional skill that can be used to your advantage as you make your way to the final boss. 

Of the 20+ Heroes at launch, I completed every one, and each Hero really forced me to change how I played each time, making sure I picked companions and purchased shop items that complimented the skills I had available.  

Some heroes were easier to claim victory with, while others are harder to master. In a twist I felt helped with balance, not every hero would have all 3 Trinket slots available, making some heroes much harder than others without the small boosts they provide.

The hero selection, combined with randomized companions, items in the shop, and even what final boss appears at stage 30, really forces you think 5-10 stages ahead, maximizing your coin earnings but also ensuring you can keep enough health to get to the end.

One of the balances of the game that I found making me question my choices, was the two KEY choices you can make after each roll: Do you attack enemies, or do you complete the six dice slots to get extra gold for your next shop visit?

I liked is the enemy variety – there's a good amount of repetition, but even after a few hundred, you're bumping into new enemies and bosses, or just alternative/powered up versions of the ones before. In typical roguelike fashion, you can’t anticipate what’s coming next, which is why choosing what to do with your dice is key. 

Great Vibes

The artwork is charming, and while it’s simple, everything felt cohesive and polished. From the flips of the cards to the slight visual effect of placing dice – every stage felt complete. 

If you’re someone who likes ambiance, Dice & Fold has plenty. Combined with the aesthetics of the artwork, the background music reminds me of PS1-era games a bit – the music is there, it feels right, but it’s not the sole focus. One thing I didn't notice right away, was that every 10 stages it seemed to change and intensify to add to the mood.

I could see myself putting this on as background music when I work too (Tavern lo-fi anyone?) 

Dice & Fold is a Great Challenge

I felt challenged from the first hero I tried to the last, and I’m looking forward to continuing to play post-launch in the Hard and Extreme modes now that I've really got a feel for the game.

The main reason I delayed publishing this review, is because the Trinkets weren't yet in the playtest build. Won by defeating bosses, and with the ability to win more than one with a specific companion and/or shop item, they offer a small boost to your runs, and they were instrumental in helping me clear a few of the heroes!

• Reviewer Note: Delaying my review also meant that I had an opportunity to see the flurry of post-launch updates that fixed a number of issues that existed at launch, as well. There were some significant pre-launch bugs that forced consistent restarts of runs, that have been resolved, alongside balance tweaks.

There are 41 different Trinkets to unlock by finishing runs with each hero, and you'll need to complete additional runs after finishing each hero if you want to unlock every one. They offer a variety of option, letting you enhance your experience towards your playstyle.

My go-to choices are a mix of Creature Head (+3 Gold at start of game), Divine Branch (Start the game with a Rare companion), Moonstone (Shop has Rare instead of Common items), and Wine Bottle (Companions have double their health) depending on how many slots each hero had.

This would let me focus less on gold generation at the start, as well as improve overall survival with healthier companions, as well as if you got Shopkeeper with the Divine Branch you could REALLY get flying like I did in the screenshot above!

Dice & Fold Review - Final Thoughts

In a world filled with roguelikes, Dice & Fold brings fresh ideas and genre mixes that will have you delving over and over again to unlock different heroes, and the replayability of the game will scratch the “just one more run” itch that we’ve come to love from games like Slay the Spire, Balatro, and more. 

This roguelike is worth a pickup, there’s plenty of content for you to explore, and well-crafted mechanics that create a satisfying experience that will make you come back for more with the Hard and Extreme difficulties.

Dice & Fold was reviewed on PC, over the course of 23 hours of gameplay. All screenshots shown above were taken by the reviewer during gameplay.