4/10

This game looks very good but for me fell really flat, I tried dropping it and coming back 3 times already and it allways feels like the game is just too grindy and too simple.

I see alot of people talking about QoL that this game has, that it feels like a modern TraditionalRL, yes and no, it has a GUI that is very easily readable, you can identify what items are better or worse very quickly and the whole game has a graphic interface so that is a +, now on the downside of the QoL features that I would expect this game to have but actually doesn't:

- Compare feature of the inventory does not consider item mods, so if you have 2 daggers that look the same but one of them has 2d6 fire damage, the game just tells you they have the same dps, this might not look like a big issue but when items start to get 5 modifiers and you are trying to compare them, there is nothing that gives you the difference between both, they simply compare the base type damage/defense.

- Keybinds, game still has no keybind screen in the options you have to edit a file in the settings, we are in 2024 I don't care what game it is this is not something I can just walk by.

- Lack of information in general, what damage does a skill do, what scaling does it have?, some skills don't have any of this information, example: the skill Decimanser's Dance skill applies bleed, nowhere in the description it tells you that, some skills apply debuffs, but you dont know exacly what those debuffs do, this works the same for enemys, you don't know damage, armour, elements, the game simply has some descriptions where on some enemys it says they take extra damage from something, but very trivial.
this lack of information also applies to potions and scrolls, how much does a healing potion II differ form a healing potion I? no idea the game just tells you, it heals.

- Cannot adjust or remove animations, there is no animation speed modifier for this game, this can be annoying as ♥♥♥♥, as you play with your pet, or sometimes you have parts of dungeons where you get companions, or you are simply surrounded, I know exacly what to do but I need to wait out 50 animations to play so I can move again, including off screen animation, this is something that alone would maybe allow me to give another chance to the game because the game feels very grindy and the animations are fairly slow.

- Skills and skill trees, you choose a weapon and at lv 10 you will have all the skills most of the time this comes down to 1 or 2 banners you drop at bosses, a skill that does some type of AOE or damage in a line, and a good single target, the game very quickly turns into a spam these skills in X order, and its not that hard to manage, this mixed with the slow paced animations slowly got into me.

Some additional stuff: if you are planning to buy this because other reviewers say it has mouse support, it sure has it but the game for sure wasn't made to be played with a mouse, the mouse support this game has is equivalent to console ports that have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ mouse support, hovering over items doesn't work sometimes so if you want to see an item you have to left click it to choose it, the menus overall are very clunky to use with the mouse.
Another annoyance a small but very very noticeable thing is, every time you can see an enemy on a corner but you don't have direct LoS with it the range attack key WILL NOT target it, it will act like there are no enemies around and will make you by your self navigate the grid to target it and shoot it, you can shoot it for sure but the game automatic target system when you press F doesn't seem to recognize you have available targets.

The developer is very active on discord and you can go there ask any questions you have about the game or future updates, he even does development livestreams, maybe in the future if this stuff is addressed I can comeback and change my review as the game still gets updates, in the meantime I would not recommend it RN.

Putting the Rogue back in Rogue-like, Dungeonmans is a lot of fun. Similar to classic Rogue this is a turn based dungeon looter where you keep battling bigger+scarier monsters to get better loot with tile graphics over the classic ASCII version. You are going to die, but a successful character can boost the Dungeonmans Academy which will allow the next generation to start off with more gear + more stats + etc. You have a pet system, you have lots of choices for your char initially, though higher level chars end up very similar as you end up with most skills.

While the game was mostly pretty stable, I did have a couple crashes :( The game is not designed for ultrawide screens, and you will get attacked from critters you can't see at the top/bottom of the screen and sometimes the menu will get in the way of items in the bottom corners of a dungeon (if you are at the edge of the map the screen doesn't center on you, so you can't see parts of the dungeon or yourself). I love that the game allowed basically unlimited inventory and made clearing out old gear very efficient, but picking up the loot gets to be a chore especially during large battles and the way loop drops (killing a monster or opening a chest will make many items drop, each one randomly somewhere in a 5x5 grid around the source). As someone who doesn't play IronMan modes and likes a save system, I would prefer to have the option to just play casual.

Still - lots of fun and hoping for a sequel that at least has an autoloot function either via a new pet/helper or an autopickup if I clear the dungeon.