The Fortress Demo: Is This Dice-Driven Dungeon Crawler Too Brutal?

We've just spent some brutal hours in the Steam demo for The Fortress, launching tomorrow, and our take is clear: this game is a stripped-down, dice-driven dungeon crawler with a murderous streak that will either hook you instantly or leave you swearing at your monitor. For players who live for high-stakes RNG and unforgiving roguelike loops, it presents a compelling, if simplistic, gauntlet. For those seeking a gentler introduction to the genre, be warned – *The Fortress* pulls no punches.

Our initial forays, embodied by the rather unfortunately named hero Lickity Split, quickly underscored the demo's brutal difficulty curve. Despite our best efforts to min-max his initial knight build, and a subsequent resurrection as a wizard, Lickity Split’s journey rarely extended beyond the initial six rooms. This isn't a reflection of poor play, but rather a sharp demonstration of *The Fortress*'s core design philosophy: every single encounter is a gamble, dictated by the roll of the dice.

Reminiscent of the unforgiving grid-based exploration of classics like *Legend of Grimrock* or *Eye Of The Beholder*, *The Fortress* sheds much of their navigational complexity for a laser-focused, fight-to-fight gauntlet. The retro presentation, with its heaving, pixelated enemies and walls of bruised shadow, immediately invokes that old-school dungeon crawl aesthetic that so many of us grew up with. However, unlike its predecessors, *The Fortress* funnels players through a largely linear series of combat encounters, punctuated by infrequent treasure rooms, placing the onus almost entirely on mastering its unique dice mechanics.

Core Combat Mechanics: A Roll of the Dice

The combat system is where *The Fortress* truly distinguishes itself, demanding strategic thinking within a highly randomized framework. Here’s a breakdown:

• Colored Dice & Health Pools: Each fight presents an array of enemies, each with health points designated by specific colors. Players roll three different colored dice per turn.
• Pip Spending: Pips from rolled dice must be spent to attack enemies whose health matches the die's color.
• The RNG Wall: If your dice colors don't align with enemy health types, you're forced to end your turn, taking unavoidable damage. This isn't just a nuisance; it's a primary source of the game's high difficulty and potential for swift, frustrating deaths.
• Super Mega Ultra AOE Attack: A crucial mitigation mechanic. Any unused dice pips contribute to a persistent gauge that, once full, unleashes a powerful area-of-effect attack, bypassing the color-matching requirement entirely. This offers a vital "get out of jail free" card, but relying on it too heavily can mean taking significant damage while you wait for it to charge. We found ourselves constantly weighing the risk of saving pips versus delivering immediate, albeit suboptimal, damage.

The system, while simple on paper, creates a dynamic push-and-pull between immediate survival and long-term resource management. The "murderous fixation on dice" isn't hyperbole; it's the game's pulse. This level of RNG is a double-edged sword: it ensures no two runs feel identical, but it also means an unlucky streak can prematurely end a promising build, a familiar frustration for any veteran of the roguelike genre.

Character Customization & Progression

Despite the combat's focus, *The Fortress* offers some meaningful depth in character development:

• Nine Character Classes: Each class is designed to favor specific dice hues or combinations, suggesting distinct playstyles and opening avenues for min-maxing based on preferred combat strategies.
• Equipment Slots: Three dedicated slots allow for gear that directly modifies dice rolls or provides temporary boons. We encountered items like a rusty shield that offered a one-time damage negation or an enchanted scroll adding a pip to a blue magic die. This system hints at deeper buildcrafting possibilities in the full release.
• Sinister Allies: The mention of "vampire merchants, fallen abbots, and other sinister figures, each hiding secrets and ulterior motives" suggests that political maneuvering or narrative choices could play a role beyond pure combat, a welcome layer of complexity in what is otherwise a very direct experience.

Our brief demo journey, abruptly cut short by a particularly tenacious ghost dog in room 6 – twice, mind you – left us wondering about the endgame. If the opening stretch is this merciless, we're genuinely curious (and a little terrified) about the dice combinations and tactical demands required to fell the Sorceror King himself. We don't just want to kill him; we want to see how many dice permutations he adds to the meta.

Ultimately, if you've got a soft spot for the no-frills, challenging nature of classic dungeon crawlers, and you don't mind putting your fate in the hands of the dice gods, the demo for *The Fortress* is absolutely worth your time. The retro charm is undeniable, and the core combat loop is tight, if uncompromising. Just be prepared for Lickity Split to make a few unscheduled trips to the afterlife.