Rezrog

My first impression of Rezrog was that someone had lifted the most tactically charged moment of a tabletop session, the part where you're moving cardboard standees one square at a time across a grid, and just... made that the whole game. That instinct is mostly correct, and whether you find it charming or hollow depends on how much you enjoy the repetition baked into that original format. The setup is modest by design. Seven heroes meet at a tavern that turns out to be mysteriously empty, and that threadbare hook sends them into the dungeons. Story wraps up early and stays out of the way, which is fine because Rezrog's attention is clearly on its systems rather than its writing. You pick one hero per dungeon run, rotating across a warrior, rogue, mage, paladin, archer, warlock, and summoner, each with a distinct starting stat spread and weapon type. Skills are discovered inside dungeons, upgraded between runs, and can be redistributed across the party. The gem forging system also lets you carry stat bonuses across a full party wipe into a new run, which softens the permadeath sting in a meaningful way. The tabletop aesthetic carries over into every detail: dungeon tiles drop into place like cardboard pieces landing on a wood-grain table, complete with cola cans and dice scattered in the background. Character figures visually update when you equip new gear, which is a genuinely nice touch for a game at this scale. Combat is turn-based with a line-of-sight layer that rewards positioning. Outside of active fights, you move freely to explore and loot rooms before enemies lock into grid-based exchanges. Early on, before skills are built up, encounters can feel slow and a little punishing, and the onboarding dumps its systems on the player without much ceremony. The capture mechanic, where a fallen hero stays imprisoned in the dungeon they died in until rescued by another hero, creates genuinely tense cascading scenarios. Lose your strongest character deep in a region and you might spend an hour grinding a weaker class just to get them capable of a rescue run. That loop is either the hook or the frustration, depending on your tolerance. Dungeon modifier events at the start of each run add some spice, ranging from enemy damage buffs to increased potion potency, but the procedural generation has a tendency to produce rooms that feel sparse rather than surprising. Across 100 levels and 10 environments, the repetition becomes a genuine grind for most players, and the audio loops without enough variety to carry you through the longer sessions. The honest picture from critics and players sits right around the 70 Metacritic mark for a reason. The character building and party management are the strongest parts of the game. The min-maxing space across seven classes, more than 60 skills, tiered loot rarities from green to orange, and a shared party inventory gives careful players plenty to tune. What it lacks is the narrative texture, dungeon variety, and moment-to-moment surprise that would make the grind feel earned rather than required. Some skills shipped bugged at launch, and while patches have addressed a portion of the instability, the game never fully shed its rough edges. It won the Latvian Game of the Year in 2017 for graphics and overall game, which tracks, because the tabletop visual execution genuinely holds up as a cohesive piece of craft. If you are someone who can lose hours to stat spreadsheets and enjoys the slow build of a party-management roguelite, Rezrog has a real loop worth finding. Go in with patience for a slow opening and low expectations for storytelling, and the tactical layer rewards the investment. If you need forward momentum and narrative drive to stay engaged through a grind, the walls will close in before the satisfying parts arrive.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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