Dungeon Rats

To simplify the premise real quick: you gotta fight your way out of a prison mine. I've always yearned for prison plots. Movies like Lock Up, The Shawshank Redemption, Bronson, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Fortress are irresistible to me. Some of my favourite places in gaming are prisons and camps. Say, the ones in The Suffering or Silent Hill 2, obvious Gothic, etc. I love them for the inherent intensity of the predicament and the grime. Maybe it's a pathology since my teachers used to tell me that's where I'd end up, so I subconsciously prepared myself for it? Whatever. Dungeon Rats fits the bill, is all! There's more to it than that, of course. Stellar turn-based tactics are hard to come by. But before we begin, maybe check out my The Age of Decadence or Colony Ship reviews for more information about the local unforgiving combat and progression systems. In short, positioning is still king, you can aim for enemy limbs and, atypically for this genre, consumables matter. You can't leave those for a rainy day when it pours acid all the time. Except ignore what I say about factions and such. The game is streamlined compared to its fully-fledged CRPG brethren, being a violent dungeon-crawling spin-off in the vein of Icewind Dale or Fallout Tactics. The drop of writing portraying a scumfest of spicy personalities is still solid, but the social elements mostly boil down to your body count.
"The truth is, Colonel... There is no "divine spark". There's many a man alive no more of value than a dead dog."
— Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
The biggest change and the source of your agency since AoD was the ability to have up to 4 gang members. Or none, depending on your goals and charisma. Numbers don't make things easier with the game's habit to put you at a monstrous disadvantage. Yeah, Dungeon Rats can make you grind your teeth to dust. It took me 3 restarts (it's a 12-hour game) to yield and switch to Tough Bastard, the "normal" difficulty. My only regret is that I was too proud to dial it all the way down. Every encounter shall test your mind, your patience, and your knowledge of the game. Every enemy is a super-hero with over-tuned stats, able to kill your party member in a couple of critical hits. The difficulty escalates relentlessly - there's no breathing room, no relief. Normally, you begin a battle and think "how am I supposed to survive!?", but there are also times when you think "hey, it doesn't look so bad!" - just to choke on an army of reinforcements 2 turns later. And do you think Rats would reward you appropriately? You'll often be at a net loss, winning a hard battle by the skin of your teeth to get a pittance of rations for half a heal and barely enough materials for repairs. That said, when the game decides to spoil you, the riches seem ten times shinier.
Just don't expect much charity, this cruel mistress won't kneel. It's minmax or bust. The game was designed to be studied, mastered, exploited - not to simply be beaten. It allows you to softlock yourself if you aren't careful. And you can't possibly be too careful here. Again, it took me 3 whole restarts to sort of get it right, to weasel my way through it... as intended. And I still can't say I know how to play Dungeon Rats, having no expertise to share with you. Maybe you'll bump into what works for you in no time, the options are plenty. Or maybe you won't. It's a safe bet to say you'll hate this game's guts is what I'm saying. But hey, none of Iron Tower's gems are for everyone. On the bright side, there's always a chance you're in the niche with us happy few. Don't knock it until you try it. To put it out there: I'm not a good theory crafter. I'm sure plenty of people had an easier time cracking this nut. To me, it was a painful ordeal. That's why I recommend it, though! If a fool like myself could bear it, you could bear it. I had to use every trick in the book, replayed most battles many times, abused crafting and alchemy to the full extent, even threw non-vital characters under the bus, using them as bait to live another day. It's only lore-friendly.
I had to learn the hard way that this game expects me to see the future and make only the right choices. It doesn't seem fair, right? Well, I lived to tell the tale without using a guide! Besides, I really enjoyed how this game twisted my hand, forcing me to make hard decisions and invent unconventional approaches I wouldn't bother with otherwise. A hardcore tactical game that encourages you to think up clever strategies in order to outplay it? God forbid. If them trials and tribulations sound appealing to you, then you'll soon find that below all that scornful turmoil lies an immense treasury of high-grade satisfaction, which can only be granted through blood and tears. Albeit, in case you still find all of that too overwhelming, try Age of Decadence or Colony Ship first. Less focused on combat, those at least give you a breather now and again. Either one is a better entry point than this embrasure. But I think half of you here already got the taste for Iron Tower's unique blend of RPG, trying to decide whether you desire to solve another puzzle of suffering. Just do it. Took me long enough and it was well worth the effort! Now, let's hope I managed to nudge you towards giving Dungeon Rats a go while setting your expectations accordingly.
My curator Big Bad Mutuh

9 out of 10 people you pick off the street and ask to play this game will be repulsed, but for a few, it's manna from Heaven.
Dungeon Rats is a game for people who really, really like Age of Decadence's implementation of combat. It's a game for the minority of players whose favorite part of AoD was its combat and who don't care much about narrative. AoD itself is quite a niche game appealing to an audience that enjoys a systems-heavy, RNG-reliant role-playing game that takes that genre title exceptionally seriously.
Both games suffer from the same issues-- one of the biggest of which is a stat screen that does a poor job of displaying the effects of each attribute and skill. You're going to want to read a guide that explains the math going on behind the scenes. Certainly, you don't have to have played Age of Decadence to enjoy Dungeon Rats. But, I assume most people playing it have already gotten their fill of AoD fights.
Just know what you're getting into. Either master the game's systems, learning what works and what doesn't, or be willing to reload and repeat fights ad nauseam, until the dice roll your way.

Feels like an experiment "can we make a dungeon crawler with Age of Decadence's combat and assets?" And the answer is yes, although it doesn't come close to classics like Icewind Dale. The AOD system translates pretty well to party combat and extended dungeons, although I'd rather they use these lessons to flesh out future RPGs instead of making more dungeon crawlers.

Writing is limited but what's there is good. There's a good sense of tension throughout and (like AOD) it nails their gritty Roman low fantasy style.

My only gripes are it's a bit short and not very replayable (since companions are met in a fixed linear order and nothing else really changes). It can also be easy to softlock due to the rations system meaning you can scrape through several fights but fall behind on healing supplies with no way to get more. It's not a deal breaker, just keep lots of saves. (Or if you really don't want to use the rations system, you could just use CheatHP() between fights.)

It's a very fun game. Basically you are at the bottom of a dungeon and try to go up :) I liked the turn based combat. It's very similar to the Age of Decadance (it is in the same world anyway). However there isn't much story. Just entertaining encounters. So if you want a quick fix on turn based challenging combat, i think it's a game you should try.
A warning though, it's not an easy game so be ready to die from time to time. It's definitely not a Souls like, however you need to plan your character's build othwerise fight become too challenging.

I enjoy Dungeon Rats so Much thanks to having low expectation and being a fan of the turn based tactical battle genere. It didn't matter to me that the plot of the game was simply about a man leading a group of prisoners to escape prison I like the simplicity of the story. It does not take much to motivate me to play any Turn Based Tactical RPG Game that is for sure
I read the review for this game before playing it and most of the negative reviews talk about how this game scope is so much smaller compare to Age Of Decadence. I mean come on guys they had like 6 months to make this game instead of years like they did Age Of Decadence so I come into the game knowing the backstory behind the game development and so my expectation was set low compare to other who played Age Of Decadence First then Dungeon Rats 2nd.
Can't wait to play Age Of Decadence after this!
Thank You for the Amazing Game!

For the fans of Age of Decadence, that game takes the difficulty and cranks it up to 11.
Dungeon Rats is all combat, and if you are looking for a challenge, it's going to give plenty of it.

Don't worry about actually beating this game. If you do though, you're cut above lesser tacticians.

A spin-off from the Age of Decadence game that focuses more on combat rather than roleplay, but that is alright since the combat system while not "special", is very competently made and is entertaining to engage with. If one enjoyed fights in Age of Decadence, this is just more of that with maybe some extra lore tibbids here and there.

SPOILER AHEAD

I will offer up a criticism of this game and that is that constructs are very underwhelming. You get them very late in the game and while they are strong in specific niches, they also feel very vulnerable without the player having the ability to strenghten them. The minotaur was especially dissapointing for me since i could not equip weapons on it, even the same ones of better quality. While the spider droid felt like it was too fragile to do anything with.