Guild of Dungeoneering

 PC
User Score
5.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 61
  3. Negative: 23 out of 61

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  1. swavmirj
    Nov 20, 2021
    4
    This game has a lot going for it. Approachable art style, addictive dungeon puzzles, simple and well-balanced deck-building combat.
    Sadly a fundamental flaw - at least for me - that makes it a waste of time: no character progression. Why make a connection with a dungeoneer when they reset to level one each round? Why focus on a build when all that loot disappears at the next run? I don't    This game has a lot going for it. Approachable art style, addictive dungeon puzzles, simple and well-balanced deck-building combat.
    Sadly a fundamental flaw - at least for me - that makes it a waste of time: no character progression. Why make a connection with a dungeoneer when they reset to level one each round? Why focus on a build when all that loot disappears at the next run? I don't have time to waste resetting to zero time and time again. Beyond a lack of connection, it fundamentally removes any sense of progression.
    This is not a combination of mechanics that gels well for me, but I feel wonderful for those that enjoy this game.    … Expand
  2. InnerWarChild
    Jul 17, 2015
    3
    The magic of the game wears off very fast. I couldn't bring myself to play passed the first dungeon. The major thing that got me down was that the character level resets after every dungeon. Not my thing unless the gameplay was just so fantastic to make up for lack of true progression in anything other than the storyline, but the gameplay is slow and boring. Really the only gameplay hereThe magic of the game wears off very fast. I couldn't bring myself to play passed the first dungeon. The major thing that got me down was that the character level resets after every dungeon. Not my thing unless the gameplay was just so fantastic to make up for lack of true progression in anything other than the storyline, but the gameplay is slow and boring. Really the only gameplay here is picking a card to place on the map and then clicking an ability card. There's really not much thinking or strategy involved. The game also plays very slow because of the animations that happen with every card shuffle for every turn. I feel like I could play the game 4 times faster than it lets me play and it's aggravating.
    i guess if you really love roguelikes, go for it.    … Expand
  3. ChiefdruidRVnge
    Nov 5, 2015
    0
    Well, the game started off fun but, then it turned into a crashing nightmare and a puzzle game. When it was just dungeon running it was fun but they put in 2nd grade do this before the time runs out quests to do and you can't advance until you complete them. Which some could take longer than a normal dungeon run to do because if you don't get certain tiles at a certain time you can'tWell, the game started off fun but, then it turned into a crashing nightmare and a puzzle game. When it was just dungeon running it was fun but they put in 2nd grade do this before the time runs out quests to do and you can't advance until you complete them. Which some could take longer than a normal dungeon run to do because if you don't get certain tiles at a certain time you can't complete the quest and have to start all over again. Really silly design there.

    I do not recommend the game unless you like childish crap like that. It was advertised as a dungeon game not a lesson in puzzle solving. It should be under the category of puzzles on Steam as that is what it turned out to be and not a role playing game.    … Expand
  4. mithraldragon
    Nov 7, 2015
    0
    My rating for this is going to be a rather harsh ZERO because that's about how much enjoyment I got out of it. Okay, I won't lie, I did enjoy the game for a few minutes. But there is no actual character progression or incentive to do quests other than upgrading your hideout by adding a bunch of poorly drawn square tiles onto the sides that will spawn more types of adventurers.

    What    My rating for this is going to be a rather harsh ZERO because that's about how much enjoyment I got out of it. Okay, I won't lie, I did enjoy the game for a few minutes. But there is no actual character progression or incentive to do quests other than upgrading your hideout by adding a bunch of poorly drawn square tiles onto the sides that will spawn more types of adventurers.

    What really irked me about this game is after I spent the max amount of time in a dungeon killing every enemy I could and leveling up my adventurer, he lost all his levels and extra cards that I had acquired for him, starting over at level 1 at the beginning of the next dungeon. What's the point of leveling up if their level resets every dungeon and they lose all their cards?

    If this game would have had more persistent characters that kept their levels after completing dungeons I feel it would have went a lot farther. The dialogue and music aren't bad, there are plenty of cheesy puns. The game play is shallow though, without real character progression and an infinite number of stand-ins lined up for when one of your adventurers dies. Death has no meaning, there are no real spoils of victory, and your characters won't get any stronger. It misses the mark completely when it comes to being a tabletop RPG simulator.    … Expand
  5. Yosa
    Jul 18, 2015
    0
    There is zero progression in this game, it is not a dungeon crawler.

    This is an rng card game that turns into the the biggest grinder since ddo, the only way to get ahead is to grind gold, which gives some upgrade guild options, but youll hate that all your characters start as weaponlesss weaklings every dungeon.
  6. alchemistgamer
    Aug 5, 2015
    3
    This game had so much promise when I picked it up. I loved the art style and the game mechanics. However, I quickly realized that this game is unforgiving with its rising difficulty. There are only a handful of stages that your initial and Tier 1 classes can complete before you get stuck having to grind 500 gold for Tier 2 classes. When your worst case scenario on a stage is 2 gold andThis game had so much promise when I picked it up. I loved the art style and the game mechanics. However, I quickly realized that this game is unforgiving with its rising difficulty. There are only a handful of stages that your initial and Tier 1 classes can complete before you get stuck having to grind 500 gold for Tier 2 classes. When your worst case scenario on a stage is 2 gold and your best is in the 30 range, this quickly turns this game from fun to aggravating.

    As there is no stage replaying in the game, once you are done, you are done and there is no reason to pick the game back up again. Best to skip the game in the first place and pick up something that will last longer in the long run.    … Expand
  7. Innocente
    Dec 20, 2015
    0
    This game was great when first released. Nice for a fast, stress free diversion from more serious games. With the latest 1.05 patch, mechanics were introduced which totally destroyed the flavor of the game. With permanent negative effects, and inability to play your class without delays, the game is now an exercise in frustration. Might as well play Darkest Dungeon if that is the sortThis game was great when first released. Nice for a fast, stress free diversion from more serious games. With the latest 1.05 patch, mechanics were introduced which totally destroyed the flavor of the game. With permanent negative effects, and inability to play your class without delays, the game is now an exercise in frustration. Might as well play Darkest Dungeon if that is the sort of mechanics that are desired, DD is a much better game at doing that sort of thing.… Expand
  8. TitaniumDragon
    Dec 10, 2021
    3
    Guild of Dungeoneering is a mediocre dungeon-delving cardgame. It is similar to games like Shatter the Spire and the like in that as you go through a dungeon, you improve your character’s abilities by getting better cards in your deck as well as improving their base stats by levelling. The “twist”, as it might be called, is that your cards are based on the equipment you get, with eachGuild of Dungeoneering is a mediocre dungeon-delving cardgame. It is similar to games like Shatter the Spire and the like in that as you go through a dungeon, you improve your character’s abilities by getting better cards in your deck as well as improving their base stats by levelling. The “twist”, as it might be called, is that your cards are based on the equipment you get, with each piece of equipment levelling up one kind of card, giving you better cards of that type.

    Mechanically, you have limited control over your “dungeoneer”; when you go into the dungeon, you don’t actually directly control them. Instead, you get a hand of five cards, which can include dungeon passages (with 1-4 entrances), monsters, or treasure, which is worth points at the end of the dungeon. Each dungeon has some objective, and your goal is to complete it by levelling up your dungeoneer by having them fight monsters.

    Your dungeoneer will tend to seek out monsters, especially monsters of their level, as well as gold, so you basically manipulate your dungeoneer into going the right way and fighting the enemies to level.

    The actual fights are a card game – you draw 3 cards, and see what card your opponent drew. Each card can deal damage (either physical or magical), block damage (either physical, magical, or both), heal you, draw you cards, or apply some benefit or drawback (like setting your opponent on fire to deal ongoing damage, or making it so you can’t die temporarily). Each turn you draw a card and play a card from your hand – hopefully one that stacks up well against whatever your opponent played.

    In addition to all of this, there are various static abilities – some tied to adventurers, some tied to particular pieces of equipment – which can boost you in various ways. One might cause you to deal bonus damage if you take 3+ damage on a turn; another might cause you to make it so that if you would take a single point of damage on your turn, you instead take zero, but yielding no protection against higher damage moves.

    Unfortunately, the game’s primary flaw is pretty simple: it just isn’t all that fun. The card game is ultimately quite simple, and it is mostly dependent on what kind of adventurer you’re using. Higher ranked adventurers are better than lower ranked ones, and your levels reset every time you enter a dungeon, but in the end, the game ends up evolving very little; you are playing a very similar game throughout its length, which means that it gets old pretty fast. Worse, the game is fairly RNG dependent in some dungeons, ironically mostly because of the dungeon tile mechanic, which can cause you to not draw the right tiles fast enough and lose because you run out of time.

    The attempted cutesiness of the bard narrator doesn’t manage to make the game any better, and some of the rhymes are outright painful (though maybe in a good way).

    In the end, it’s just hard to recommend this game. The problem is really just that the core gameplay isn’t interesting or varied enough, making it so that you’ll be bored well before the end of the game.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 32
  3. Negative: 2 out of 32
  1. Digitally Downloaded
    Oct 20, 2015
    50
    The biggest issue with Guild of Dungeoneering is that the gameplay never really evolves. Your deck of cards does grow and you'll get new and better cards, but the overall experience in hour two really is not all that different from hour ten.
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  2. CD-Action
    Oct 17, 2015
    80
    For every “this game is stupid, I’m not playing it ever again” there was “OK, just one more time”. [10/2015, p.62]
  3. Forbes
    Oct 11, 2015
    70
    I do wish there was a better deck-building mechanism and it could certainly use more character-progression—anything to lessen the random-numbers game (RNG) and increase player agency. Anything, also, to give it more longevity. Even a multiplayer mode would help give this game more substance. But as a simple pick-up game? It works.
    Read full review
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