Review: Dicevaders offers satisfying roguelike combat with balancing issues

Pengonauts has released Dicevaders, a new roguelike title that combines dice mechanics with strategic unit placement. In this self-contained adventure, players command alien forces against the humans featured in the studio’s previous game, StarVaders. The objective is to destroy Target Defenses across stages to reach Earth and decimate the solar system.

Each run begins with a grid of units assigned to die faces. Players must acquire and arrange their army, utilizing artifacts and innate abilities to maximize attack power within four turns per stage. The game includes quality-of-life features such as rerolling dice, freezing specific results, and nudging values to mitigate random number generation risks.

While the core loop provides engaging progression through unlocked commanders and equipment, the review notes significant difficulty spikes in later levels. Some targets require massive damage outputs that can feel impossible to achieve despite available buffs. Additionally, the gameplay relies heavily on increasing numerical combos rather than deep strategic planning, which may appeal less to fans of the developer’s earlier work.