“Tactical deckbuilding in bite-sized sessions. Launch dice to create magical chain reactions. Choose from distinct hero classes with unique abilities. Build synergies between dice, relics, and runes to defeat challenging bosses.” – Steam Description

Rune Dice is, as steam says in its description, a deck builder. I almost skipped it on principle, I have an irrational distaste for deck builders but don’t click away just yet! After talking with a friend about how excited he was for Rune Dice I had to see what the draw was, what if I was too harsh in my initial judgement?

This game scratches something in my lizard brain that a certified yapper like me can’t find the words to describe. There is something about using all the tools the game gives you to merge dice to create a board clearing combination. It’s the kind of dopamine that would make me a very rich bunny if I could sell it. Just inject that right into my veins.

There are 9 bosses across 3 maps with a choose your own adventure style map. You start with 2 classes; the mage and the warrior. Each class has 3 heroes that make up that class, and they each have specific unlock requirements. You can also unlock 6 more classes for a total of 8 classes. 8 classes with 3 heroes in each one giving different starting equipment and dice? That’s a lot of replayability crammed into a game whose runs take roughly 15-30 minutes each.

• Graphics – Beautiful pixel art, the combining of dice, ui animations, you can tell these devs understand what it means to add the Sauce to their game.
• Gameplay – The core gameplay is launching your starting die into the ones on the board. Your 1 hits another 1 becomes a 2, the 2 bounces based on velocity towards the nearest 2, becomes a 3 and so on. You have runes that can change the board or modified certain aspects as well. These ingredients are very simple but together create a vastly addicting dopamine factory.
• Sound – The soundtrack is very enjoyable, and it was one of the first things people commented on while I streamed it. There’s a setting in the menus to turn on a musical note sound when your dice combine into higher numbers and it REALLY upped the happy brain chemicals, highly recommend. Again, these devs know how to sprinkle the sauce.
• Controls – If you’re an elder millennial like myself, you probably remember Yahoo! games pool. Shooting the die at the correct angle to only have it bounce and hit my dice on the board was VERY reminiscent of that. If your knees and back don’t hurt from the moment you wake up, it’s more akin to last October’s rogue-lite BallxPit. Either way, you point with your mouse and hope that you did well enough in math class to be able to eyeball the angle. I’m still not very good at it
• Story – There isn’t a story to follow exactly. Over the course of 3 maps you’ll fight a total of 9 bosses with 3 bosses per map. You can replay them on Hard Mode for an additional challenge. The heroes have names that are puns or references, but nothing that looks like a narrative. Truthfully, that’s okay.
  

Final Thoughts