Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers [Review]
Love Balatro and blackjack? Then this is a game for you.
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. Credit: Yogscast Games / Purple Moss Collectors
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers (D&DG) from Purple Moss Collectors and Yogscast Games is a blackjack roguelike, like Balatro is a poker roguelike. The games are very similar, so reviewing the former without comparing it to the latter is hard. D&DG is a good game, but I found Balatro to be better and far more addictive.
D&DG, you’ll play blackjack against a series of opponents head-to-head, with events interspersed between the matches. Beat enough challengers, and you’ll move up to another table. Like Balatro, this isn’t a regular card game; cards that turn the rules of blackjack upside down will enter into play. While in Balatro, victory depends on your score, winning or losing here is ultimately up to maintaining your hit points and draining your opponents’. Your chips are used to buy new cards and more during events rather than as a performance metric.
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. Credit: Yogscast Games / Purple Moss Collectors
You start with a 13-card deck comprised of two through king of a single suit, at least initially. As you win matches, you’ll earn and have the opportunity to buy new cards. You’ll add standard cards of other suits, cards with number values you wouldn’t find in a regular deck, and cards with unique abilities that can trigger on hit, discard, or activation. Ability cards can affect either player’s cards, heal and damage players, change the blackjack rules during the match, or let you cheat outright by keeping a card up your sleeve. The result is a chaotic game with surprising victories and upsets.
Each card suit features a unique ability: heart cards heal, spades create shields, clubs do more damage, and diamonds earn you more chips. Each of these, along with all the cards you add, will open up a variety of playstyles. You can encounter over 300 unique cards in the game.
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. Credit: Yogscast Games / Purple Moss Collectors
I think the high score chasing in Balatro is far more addictive of a mechanic than defeating opponents in D&DG. Part of that comes from the strength of Balatro’s presentation. While both games are similarly rendered with pixel art graphics, Balatro features much flashier animations and effects during gameplay and scoring that serve up hit after hit of delicious dopamine as you play. The sky’s the limit with Balatro's high scores, opening up far more potential for crazy card combos than the typical blackjack limits and the HP-reliant gameplay of D&DG.
I may need to spend more time with D&DG, but for now, I’d far rather play more Balatro. If Balatro is a 10—which it is—then D&DG is a 7.
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is available now on PC (Steam / Humble).
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: Steam Deck and Mac
