I think that I am starting to see through these gambling roguelikes. They get a hold of me and promise borderline infinite fun, but they don’t deliver to the degree that I want them to, and I resent them for it. This week’s game was the tipping point. This week, I played some slots, killed some baddies, and mindlessly searched for coins to upgrade my weapons to a bigger number.

This week is my Slots & Daggers Review!

Slots and Daggers is a slot machine roguelike from Friedemann and Future Friends Games. The game was released on Steam at the end of October and retails for $8

I would like to thank the developer and publisher for providing the key. I swear the review is not nearly as bad as what the intro implies.

I’ve played Summerhouse; it has no story, but I really liked its cozy vibe. This time around, Slots & Daggers is all dark fantasy. There is a demon, and he has taken them, and you gotta venture out and take them out, facing more and more vile monstrosities as you venture closer to their domain. There are exactly three story beats that discuss how the land came to be this way, how the demon lord acquired its power, and how to locate a baddie in a swamp. Slots & Daggers isn’t about the story; it’s about pressing spin and seeing what happens.

Just like Cloverpit, Slots & Daggers is part luck, part nudging luck in your direction, and OH BOY, when you nudge luck in your direction, it is the most satisfying and exciting thing in the game.

Starting out, you are weak and worthless, armed with a sword, a shield, and a coin. The slot machine functions like other slots, but instead of money, you’re dealing damage to enemies in a turn-based fashion. Both you and the enemy have a set health and armor, and killing baddies rewards the player with coins.

Respectively, there will be a few ways to take baddies down, whether it be with straight brute force or choosing to use magic or even to stick to straight-up status effects like poison, the endgame is still the same.

Skill checks are present on some items that require you to press a button at the right time to get a crit hit, which, a majority of the time, is really quite satisfying. Regardless, upon defeating an enemy, Coins and green chips SHOOT out of the left side and bottom of the machine, and then the store opens up.

The store is like any other roguelike store: There are passives and weapons to buy to make your adventure a little easier. Increased health, physical/magical damage, and may favorite, re-rolling when you perform a perfect skill check are available to buy, while weapons like a dagger, an apple, and money options can be bought and slotted right into the machine.

Once you come across an enemy you cannot beat, then it is game over, and you are now able to purchase permanent upgrades to your run, in the form of modules that plug directly into the machine. Starting health, damage reduction, extra lives, and cheaper prices are just a few things to invest your time and chips in.

You will also invest a significant amount of time on the “Game Over” screen.

Friedemann is probably the best pixel artist I have ever seen. SummerHouse was an immaculate-looking video game, and I love everything about how Slots & Daggers looks. I really get the feeling of being at a bar playing a fantasy-based slot machine. I love the grungy look to the machine, the whisky off to the side, and the hand-drawn look of the enemies and their backdrops on the slot screen. I also really, really, really love the lights when the enemy attacks. I just think it’s a great look.

There are exactly two tunes, and one of them is stuck in my head. You really get the feel of being in a bar because you can hear people conversing in the background. When you start getting “the run” and doing incredibly ridiculous things, you will hear them cheer for you as if they were huddling right next to you. The sound effects are varied, like the dagger sounds like metal hitting wood, and the broad sword sounds like it lands a blow every time.

Slots & Daggers is a small game that has so much love packed into it, and I really appreciate how one person can create such a polished 4-5 hour experience. The player must bang their head against a wall for a certain amount of time to reach a point where they can break the game, which is a little annoying, but when they do break the game, it is fantastic. I rolled credits after about 4 and a half hours, and I feel no need to go back and play it again. Slots & Daggers is a must-play game. It is cheap, the loop is fun, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome, which is a common issue with many games these days.

7/10