Since its first pixelated alpha way back in 2010, Desktop Dungeons remains a perennial (if understated) favorite among roguelikes. The game is a “coffee break”-style tactical dungeon crawler, meant to be played in short bursts. In Desktop Dungeons, you guide your heroes through dungeon after dungeon, hoping they’ll bring your settlement gold and glory. Usually, they find death in the form of a menagerie of monsters, most prominently an invincible goat.
This week marks the release of Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, an all-new overhaul of the classic Desktop Dungeons formula. QCF Design, the developers behind the game, also tweaked it so it’s accessible to newer players. With all these changes, fans might wonder, “what’s the difference between the two?” While a complete list of changes can be found in QCF’s update post, here’s a rundown of the salient points:
New Look, Same Great Taste
If you’re worried about the core gameplay, don’t. It’s still the exact same Desktop Dungeons experience, just modified and not running in a tiny window. You will still die to a frankly upsetting number of goats. The Bankers will still wreck you, albeit a trifle more gently. If anything, QCF made their game easier to understand and more accessible to new players, so new strategies and changing up your play style is even easier. If you know Desktop Dungeons by now, think of this as the perfect opportunity to try out classes you thought were too hard. You might surprise yourself.
A Fresh Coat of Paint
From the screenshots in this article, you might notice Desktop Dungeons made a few changes. The art style is now cartoonish as opposed to grotesque and bizarre. Characters are much more animated, with monsters facing you as you move by. It’s a little less unique (and at this point a trifle limited, only one portrait for each kin/class combo instead of two), but it makes things a lot easier on the eyes while still keeping the darkly comic tone. The updated graphics mean updated information, with hit prediction now revealing how many hits an enemy takes, instead of the previous system that told you “hit,” “win,” “DEAD,” and “barely win.”
The updated graphics also make it much easier to read what each ability does, since the larger icon sizes give more area to mouse over. Before, learning the abilities and mechanics of each class meant right-clicking on a character and then clicking on the individual abilities.
Does Exactly What It Says
Fitting for Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, the game now has a rewind mechanic. After defeating the Banker dungeon bosses, you have access to “Rewind insurance.” Rewinding takes you back several turns so you can correct your mistakes and (hopefully) avoid death a second time. You only get one, so you can’t rewind endlessly. Still, in a game where one misplay could tank your run, it’s a breath of fresh air to have a second chance.
A Question of Size
The biggest change (pun very much intended) to Desktop Dungeons Rewind is that the dungeons are no longer just a desktop window any more. Rewind is a full-screen experience, with scrollable dungeon maps. No longer are you confined to a single tiny window, but a fully generated map scaled to your screen resolution (20 by 16 for widescreen, and 20 by 20 for 4:3). That’s not counting the optional passages leading to even more dungeons beneath the surface of your single screen maze. There’s a lot more to explore, but with all the same secret passages and monster-filled lunacy you’re used to. The larger field of vision means you can plan out your strategy further in advance.
If you feel like this just means more ground to search, don’t worry— there’s now a cool shimmer effect on unexplored areas pointing towards items and the general direction the player should go. This makes exploration much less arduous.
A Balancing Act
The dev team took the opportunity to balance a few things in Desktop Dungeons Rewind. Inventory now operates on space instead of slots, with each item adding to carrying capacity. The previous system of “large items” and “small items” managed on the side of the window is now a hotbar, with small items taking up a smaller amount of space. There’s still an inventory, but you definitely have to juggle less.
The classes are also given a rebalance— Fighters, for example, now gain much more XP for fighting enemies of a higher level instead of just extra XP for fighting. They can also see enemies deeper into the unexplored parts of the map. Chemist damage stacks even better when you use strength buffs and erode resistance. Most importantly, Goblin Berserkers now wield a spork.
Finally, and most importantly, the bosses are still difficult, but are no longer nigh-impossible. This is a relief, as previously it was incredibly difficult to progress in the game without grinding for tons of gold.
Race is Out, Kin is In
In an effort to make things more inclusive in Desktop Dungeons Rewind, the term for “race” is now “kin.” This is mainly an aesthetic change (there are still kin bonuses), but it makes things feel a little more like their bonuses are cultural traditions. There’s not much more to say about this, but they mentioned it in the update notes and it’s really cool that they did it. Kin are also rebalanced— Orcs require more items recycled for their bonuses, and Dwarves now gain more HP when you recycle items.
But Are The Goats Still Terrifying?
Yes. Probably even more so, they’re quite a bit more detailed than they used to be.
Looking for more mobile-friendly roguelikes? Try our list of The Best Mobile Roguelikes. If you’re interested in getting started in the genre, try the Top 5 Best Roguelites for Beginners
