If you are looking for a new turn-based game that is a little different or even eccentric, then Dice Gambit might be just what you are looking for.
The developers over at Chromatic Ink might be a small team, but they put something quite interesting together. Let’s jump in and see what this game has to offer.
In this review, I will be going over the following topics.
Story
The Inquisitor of Neo-Talis has passed away, and you are their successor. You are now tasked with cleansing the city of the monsters known as chromatics. They have infested the city, and the nobles demand that you save their city from these creatures.
They also have several other demands for you while you are there. You won’t be able to do all of this alone, so you must expand your family and grow your skills to be the best Inquisitor Neo-Talis has ever seen.
Gameplay
You will spend a lot of your time in Dice Gambit in either the Inquisitor’s Estate or on expeditions to save the city. Let’s talk a little bit about the estate and the different elements there. Then, we will discuss the expeditions and combat.
Estate
The inquisitor’s estate is where you will spend time between expeditions to grow your family and customize your characters.
Different rooms at the estate include places like the academy, the infirmary, and the incubator to name a few. Each of these rooms will be a valuable resource to your success as the Inquisitor. Let’s take a closer look at each of these.
Family
There are three different rooms that relate specifically to you and your growing family. The family tree is where you can go to view your family connections as they grow throughout the game.
You can see who is married to whom and which children belong to which parents. You can also modify each character’s looks and armor colors from this screen, as well as from many other screens in the game.
This is a pretty in-depth character customization menu, which includes things like eyes, hair, personality, and voice.
In the marriage room, you will be able to find a partner for yourself or one of your children. The higher the level the character is, the higher the level the possible suitors will be. So give them some time to grow before you start looking for partners for everyone.
Lastly, there is the incubator. This is where you will go to have children made from a combination of a married couple’s skills and stats.
As one of the nobles in the game states, you don’t have time to wait for them to grow to adulthood. The chromatic problem is here now.
The incubator skips the childhood step and gives you children ready for battle within a week. These children are still fragile, though, and come out at level one, so make sure you protect them as they grow.
Infirmary
The infirmary and academy are the two places in Dice Gambit that you will probably spend most of the money you earn from expeditions.
The infirmary is where you will want to go if one of your characters is badly wounded. You can also spend money to recover some of a character’s stamina. Stamina is something that affects the character’s stats as it depletes.
They will lose some stamina after every combat, but they can recover some of it if they stay home during an expedition. The infirmary can expedite this recovery.
Academy
The academy is where you will go to train your characters in new classes. You are required to multiclass every character as there is a level cap per class. This means that at set levels, you will have to train the character in a new class to continue leveling them up.
Each character has a unique special ability along with three other abilities that are specific to the classes they have studied.
On certain levels, you will be either selecting a stat boost or you will be selecting a new passive ability for your character. These passive abilities are also based on what classes they have. This means finding classes that sync well together will really benefit your characters in the long run.
Relations
Relations is where you will be able to view your status with the different nobles of Neo-Talis. As your relationship with each noble grows, you will unlock features like new academy classes and character bonuses.
One of the most important things to unlock with each noble is the population cap increase. This will allow you to grow your family even more.
Retirement
In Dice Gambit, retirement is used as a means of acquiring currency. You can retire any of your characters to get some cash.
The higher the level they are when they retire, the more money they get. Keep in mind that you lose any money you don’t use when you go on an expedition. Make sure you make that character’s retirement worth it by sending all the money you get from them.
Expeditions
The last place to visit in the estate is the table in the middle. This map shows Neo-Talis with all the current expeditions from the nobles.
You can see which noble you will gain favor with if you go on that mission. Some missions have a time limit, so be sure to keep track of them closely.
Once you select an expedition to go on, you will be presented with a map to explore. You have a set amount of energy to make your way to the boss fight and close the portal that the chromatics are coming through.
Each node on the map will use one energy. There is a wide array of nodes you will come across. There are treasure nodes, energy nodes, event nodes, combat nodes, and even special combat nodes to aid one of the nobles.
The maps feel evenly distributed and not dominated by combat nodes like a lot of similar games.
Combat
Let’s finally explore what combat looks like in Dice Gambit when you land on one of those combat nodes. First off, this is a dice rolling game.
That means the dice you roll will determine which abilities you can use. It’s a six-sided die with a different symbol on each side. These include a sword, shield, signature, chroma, and two movement symbols.
Each die can only be used once, but there is a reroll option if you are trying to go for a specific set.
You can store up to two rerolls if you don’t use them. That means one of your characters can reroll twice on their turn later in the round if you are really digging for certain symbols.
Each ability will have a set of symbols required to use that ability. The chroma symbol on each die is wild, but it comes at a cost. Each one that you use will fill the chromatic saturation meter.
The enemy units will get a 10% increase to both their HP and damage every time you fill the meter. This bonus to the enemies will last for the duration of the expedition.
With the exception of some of the special combat nodes, the majority of combat is focused on eliminating the enemy.
If you select abilities with a good range of symbol requirements, you can significantly reduce the luck factor in dice rolls. Combat can be tough, but not punishing. The tactics in Dice Gambit are all about using the dice you have to the best of your abilities. When done correctly, it can be quite rewarding.
All of the units on the battlefield follow a timeline based on their initiative. You can use this to your advantage by knowing who is attacking next.
When you hover over an enemy, you can see their movement and attack range as well as which of your characters they are going to attack. Use this to move out of range or take out the threat before it takes you out.
Death in Dice Gambit is permanent, so make sure you are watching your health closely. You don’t want to lose that new kid that just came out of the incubator before this expedition.
There is a range of enemy units, and they will continue to become more challenging with features like mutations that give them advantages in combat. So protect your lower-level characters until they have time to grow.
Conclusion
Well, that was a lot of information. At the end of the day, though, all that really matters is if the game is any good. Normally, I would say it depends. However, in this case, I think Dice Gambit is an absolute blast and something that everyone should check out if they are a turn-based fan. Hopefully, that is why you are here.
I really enjoyed everything about the game. I liked the quirky nobles and the character customization system.
I enjoyed each of the character classes that I used. They each felt unique and it was fun mixing and matching to find ones that fit together well for each of my characters. It was also a lot of fun growing out the family and trying to make the kids look like a mix of their parents.
Lastly, and probably the most important bit for a lot of people, I found the combat to be quite enjoyable.
There are so many different abilities between characters’ signatures and what they learned from the different classes; I believe the Steam page says over 200 unique abilities. Between the different enemies and combat environments, combat always felt fresh instead of repetitive.
I really enjoyed this one, and I hope you do too. The tiny team at Chromatic Ink did a fantastic job. If you are interested in checking out the game for yourself, head over to their Steam page to pick the game up.
A review key for this game was provided by the developers at Chromatic Ink.
