Roguelikes and roguelites come in all shapes and sizes, and as someone who loves the underlying design principles that define these games, I’m constantly impressed by the different ideas that developers are bringing to life. I love the diversity of this genre – if you can even call it a genre at this point.
One design feature that is gaining widespread traction is the introduction of increasingly random factors. RNG (random number generation) is a big no-no for a lot of people, but I quite like it and I thoroughly enjoyed games like Peglin, which have an element of luck built into their design.
Do you feel lucky, Dear Reader?
Dungeon Clawler is one of this new breed of luck-infused rogues. Where Peglin repurposed pachinko and turned it into an RPG, and Balatro remixed poker into a game of solitaire, Stray Fawn’s newly released early access game revolves around the claw machine.
The gameplay loop is pleasingly simple. Starting off as a one armed rabbit who is missing his lucky paw, you must head into a dungeon filled with claw machines and monsters. Like a deckbuilder, you assemble an assortment items, but instead of holding them in your hand or a draw pile, they must be collected from the claw machine one grab at a time.
As with a real world claw machine, gravity is not your friend, and your claw isn’t particularly reliable; things will slip through your metallic grasp. That means that there’s an element of hope as you send the mechanism back and forth, up and down – you never know for sure what you’re going to get.
Grabbing your destiny
You claw machine houses all of your in-game equipment. That means daggers, shields, and an increasingly diverse array of offensive and defensive items. A sword or an axe will inflict damage on your enemies, while a shield or helmet will boost your defensive stats.
As you advance through the game’s 20 floors, you can add new items to the mix, and these items can drastically change the outcome of a battle. These encounters are defined by the items you grab, but also by the abilities and attacks your opponents have access to. As is the case in many other roguelikes, battles have an ebb and flow. For example, you must always try to ensure you have enough shields to defend incoming attacks, and then attack where and when it will make the most impact.
Between battles there are opportunities to level up your gear. There are other claw machines that give up special items, health, and gold, and there are gacha and pachinko machines that gives you additional special items. You can also upgrade your gear via workshops found along the way. In short: there are loads of way to enhance your build.
It’s not clawl over
After playing through nearly all of the content included in the EA build, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m rather taken with Dungeon Clawler. The atmosphere that Stray Fawn has created is just perfect for this type of game, and I really like the character designs and the cartoony art style.
There are multiple playable characters to unlock, and each one has a slightly different play-style. The item pool is also quite diverse, and there are several items that interact with each other, allowing for more complex build strategies. For example, you can fill the tank with water, bringing the lighter items to the top, or you can use magnets to pick up metal items with more certainty.
Discovering these nuances is at the heart of the experience, and I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with the items and their different interactions. Indeed, unlocking these secrets is essential if you’re going to beat the game, as the enemy health bars get longer and longer as you progress.
Despite being in Early Access, Dungeon Clawler is already in a great place, and I look forward to revisiting the game as new content is added. Yes, there’s an element of luck in a game like this, and your enjoyment of it will be determined by how you feel about these random elements, but for someone who doesn’t mind a bit of RNG every now and then, there’s a really sweet and highly playable game here and I’m glad I grabbed it early.
Dungeon Clawler is out now on Android, iOS, and PC (Lin, Mac, Win).
