This is a game designed with a vision which was successfully executed. Playing Ring of Pain to see that execution alone would be worth it. Fortunately, there also happens to be a decently compelling dungeon crawler in there despite some pain points.
Ring of Pain
Simon Boxer · Oct 15, 2020
About
Enter the Ring of Pain... Delve into randomly generated ring dungeons where encounters come to you! Observe and plan your route. Will you go for the loot or backstab a creeping horror? As you scavenge, fight and sneak to new encounters, the ring reacts to your actions. Play as fast or slow as you like in this challenging, turn-based roguelike. Just be careful where you tread - You may find yourself ambushed, or worse... See the outcome of your choices so you can focus on decisions. Creatures broadcast their actions in a hostile environment, ready to erupt. Will you flee or find a way to use the dungeon against itself? Positioning is key to survival. You can be quickly overwhelmed…
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Critic reviews
- 8.2All in all, Ring of Pain is a different enough take on the card game genre that it’s definitely going to be a good time. While not perfect, it has enough lurking in its depths to keep you thinking “Okay, well just one more run!” And when in doubt, chug a potion and sneak.
- 7.0There’s something infectious about its simplicity; it’s a roguelike dungeon crawler like no other, and despite the lack of action or actual dungeon-crawling, it’s huge amounts of fun. Even when you’re exploding left, right and centre.
- 8.5Ring of Pain is an immensely enjoyable experience that can be monumentally frustrating due to its luck-focused nature. It has excellent mechanics and really has a way of worming itself into your brain. But it can be horribly aggravating all the same.
- 7.0Ring of Pain is a tempting toy to return to. There’s something spellbinding in its art and world, and it’s all too easy to give it a spin for the five minutes it takes to complete a run. But it’s also a fickle little toy. It’s as likely to give you a poor hand as it is to give you a knockout one, and there’s often no coming back from the first. It only takes a few minutes to dust yourself off and try again, but – on occasion – we wondered whether it was worth the pain.
- 6.5A speedy roguelite with confusing narrative content that bogs down an otherwise fulfilling blueprint of satisfying moment-to-moment gameplay and positively off-putting visual design. A case of carte blanche backfiring in the face of a finale that fails to uphold a promise on one end, betraying that quick-thinking nature.
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