What reviewers and players say
Every criticism raised about Dicevaders outside the Steam store page, grouped by what it is about.
Under each subject the sources run from the most considered to the most immediate: written reviews first, then video reviewers — quoted, with a link to the second they say it — then Steam Community threads and Reddit. Each subject also links to the Steam review data for how many players report the same thing.
- Subjects
- 8
- Publications
- 3
- Video reviewers
- 3
- Points quoted
- 17
Hard to read what scores and why
5Reviewers report difficulty following score calculations and interacting unit/artifact effects, sometimes even after several runs.
3 press2 Reddit & social6 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“Intuicyjnym nazwać tego nie można.”You cannot call it intuitive.
“there are elements of how the scoring is being tabulated that elude me several runs in”
“the amount of information on screen can be hard to follow.”
Reddit & social
“I can't even say I fully understand why certain numbers are triggering”
“또, 아티팩트 효과가 다양한데 6개를 놓고, 유닛도 다양하고, 적들이나 이런걸 모두 트래킹하면서 플레이하기 어려운 느낌이 들었습니다.”With six artifacts of varied effects, different units and enemies, I found it difficult to keep track of everything while playing.
Feels like another Balatro-style clone
4Four Reddit authors express fatigue with Balatro-style score builders or disappointment that the spin-off follows that formula; this includes pre-release/demo impressions, not four reviews of the released game.
4 Reddit & social5 Steam reviews →
Reddit & social
“They had a really deep and exciting formula but had to shoehorn it into Balatro somehow. It feels extremely uninspired and a waste of their beautiful assets.”
“I feel the same. While I liked balatro for how well done it was I feel like the genre is getting too full and usually stop playing its imitators after just a few hours. I really loved Starvaders so it’s more sad”
“And I'm not saying this as a knock on this game whatsoever. Starvaders was well done and this looks like it is too. It's just getting incredibly hard to get excited for yet another game in this specific genre.”
“Yeah unfortunately I can't ignore the Balatro fatigue anymore. Really loved the previous game though.”
Most artifacts weak, a few absurdly strong
33 video8 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“It's kind of been a bit of a pain in my side, so get out of here.”
He drops the shooter because it had been actively annoying rather than useful.
“I'm actually not sure if I love the Pulsar”
He sours on the Pulsar once he realises its shield has to be repurchased repeatedly.
“40 strength is a joke. 40 strength is a a cruel joke.”
He dismissed an artifact granting 40 strength as laughably underpowered.
Shop luck and scarce reroll resources
11 video7 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“It is a pain to move them around, so this might seem like a bad play for now”
He notes that shuffling units around the grid is an annoyance that forces awkward plays.
Top difficulty works by blocking your build
11 video17 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“They cannot be budged until they're re-rolled, which is brutal.”
He calls the boss modifier that blocks budging until a reroll harsh.
Score targets ramp up too steeply
11 video8 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“So, this one sucks cuz I feel like I can't do anything”
He found one endless level unsatisfying because needing to bank chrono left him with nothing meaningful to do.
Runs decided by luck rather than decisions
11 video20 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“the repeater keeps hitting the thing that gets 15 points, which is kind of pissing me off”
He was irritated that the repeater kept randomly striking a low-value unit instead of his payoff piece.
Commanders unbalanced or too similar
11 video12 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“they're already the easiest character of all time and I won easily on the first attempt”
He noted an unlock made an already overly easy commander even easier.
Who reviewed it
12Everyone whose review is quoted on this page: 9 publications and 3video reviewers.
Publications — 5 scored, averaging 77%
- Game Critix4.5/5
- What's It Like?86%
- PlayStation-Universe.com7.9/10
- Siliconera7/10
- Nintendo News PL6/10
- Minna no IndieReview
- PC GamerFeature
- RoguelikerReview
- 电玩帮 (Vgover)Feature
Video reviewers
He loves Dicevaders, calling it a potential top-10 game of 2026 that he fears is destined to be criminally underrated and ignored like its predecessor Star Vaders.
- Flatly calls it great — He repeatedly and emphatically states the game is excellent, unprompted and unsponsored.
- Potential top-10 of 2026 — He frames playing it as potentially encountering one of his favourite games of the year.
- Destined underrated classic — He predicts it will be remembered as a criminally underrated gem in the vein of Into the Breach.
- Great time playing it — After hours with it he says he's thoroughly enjoying the experience.
He's enthusiastic throughout, calling the combos beautiful and ending on a win he immediately wants to replay at a higher difficulty.
- Combos escalate beautifully — He's delighted by how the engine keeps cascading into ever-bigger turns.
- Immediately wants a harder run — After winning he'd rather restart on a higher difficulty than stop playing.
- Dice manipulation is fun — He singles out budging dice into pairs as the enjoyable core of the game.
- Strong first impression — He opens by telling newcomers the game is a delight.
He's enthusiastic about Dicevaders throughout, calling it "gas" and celebrating that his one-unit build worked, with only passing gripes about randomness and endless-mode constraints.
- Game is excellent overall — He opens by flatly declaring the game great and runs it back immediately.
- Satisfying number-go-up payoff — He says watching the score escalate is itself a core pleasure of the game.
- Explains exponential notation well — He praises the game for actually teaching what E-notation means, unlike other games.
- Clear visual previews — He appreciates that the game visually shows what an action will do before committing.
Found but not yet read — 6
These reviews have been collected but nobody has been through them yet, so none of their points appear under the subjects above. Listed so the gap is visible rather than silent.
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