I first played Blood Dungeon during this year’s Summer Game Fest. Coming off of the incredible fantastical biking sim Wheel World, I was immediately intrigued by anything developer Messhof had to offer. The small Southern California-based studio is mostly know for the two Nidhogg games, but their catalogue continues to grow into an eclectic selection of great games. Now, after dozens of hours with Blood Dungeon, a survivor Rogeulike game, I can confidently say that anything they decide to make moving forward will automatically be placed at the top of my proverbial list.
Blood Dungeon is what you get when you combine the fast and frenetic survival mechanics of games like Vampire Survivors and throw it in a blender with the platforming chops of something akin to Spelunky. It’s an incredibly addicting Roguelike, where the phrase “just one more run” has never been more at the forefront of my mind. It’s easy to just jump in for a run on any of the game’s six arenas trying to rack up high scores on the leaderboard. But it goes significantly deeper than that. There are dozens of unlockable weapons, charms, spells, and characters, each with bespoke abilities and playstyles. After a few runs, I quickly found builds that I’d chase to suit how I liked to play games like this, like prioritizing area-of-effect loadouts or maxing out the shotgun.
A Fresh Survivor Roguelike Experience
The core gameplay loop is this: choose a character, then enter one of the dungeons. Once you’re in, you’ll jump around the environment as your weapon auto-shoots at enemies. When an enemy dies, they drop blood (you understand the name now), which acts as XP. Gather enough blood, and you’ll level up, which offers you a selection of upgrade rewards to kit out your character over time. You can upgrade your current weapon, grab an extra one, equip helpful passive charms, or find gear like the Jetpack to get around faster. Each stage has three bosses you’ll unlock after a set amount of waves, and they’ll drop a treasure chest for extra rewards upon completion.
“Each character moves at their own speed”
When first starting out, bosses can be extremely tough, but you’ll quickly learn movement patterns over time. If you die or finish a level, you’ll return to the hub. Throughout each run you’ll rack up Bones, the game’s currency, that you can use to buy permanent upgrades at the shop. Here you can increase your movement speed, get more hearts, jump higher, and so on. So even a short-lived run is valuable if you’re saving up for a permanent upgrade.
Each character moves at their own speed, but they all have the ability to stick to walls and ceilings. This is extremely helpful in a pinch, and it feels great to control. In late-game runs when enemies are relentlessly swarming you, being able to crawl around, jump to a ladder, and make a break for it is both chaotic and loads of fun.
Blood In, Blood Out
The gameplay loop is designed in such a way that regardless of if you die early on or after a couple of bosses, you’re still making progress. This is good for people new to the genre, especially since late-game runs of Blood Dungeon can get pretty difficult. And this is one of my admittedly only gripes with the game. I’ve poured in dozens of hours at the time of publishing this review. I’ve found that once you’ve reached level 10 and taken out the first two bosses, the difficult spikes tremendously.
Even with powerful builds using four weapons, I have a hard time finishing levels. Do I think the game should hold your hand? Definitely not. But I don’t know if it’s my reward decisions at this point in a run, but at a certain threshold it feels like none of my weapons are making a dent and that percentages of stat increases are futile. Despite this, I still can’t stop itching to do run after run.
“I’m the type of player to sometimes get pigeonholed into a singular build without much return”
Blood Dungeon sports virtually endless replayability, but there’s plenty of progression to focus if you’re wanting to improve. And you’ll definitely need to focus on quests (which you can keep track of at the game’s main hub area) to get further in subsequent runs. For example, you’ll need to kill the second boss in the Boiler stage to play as the Hypnomancer. Once you do one run as the stinky little weirdo, you’ll unlock his Gas weapon to find on runs with other characters.
I appreciate this sort of progression that incentives (read: forces) you to experiment with other builds. I’m the type of player to sometimes get pigeonholed into a singular build without much return. So the game weaving getting out of my comfort zone into its progression is a design choice that I really appreciate. I wouldn’t have discovered how truly overpowered Leech and his whip are without this.
Endless Variety
And while you can play any character on any stage, it quickly became apparent that there are definitely some characters better suited for some environments than others. Leggy, for example, can shoot webs you can climb on pretty fast. I unlocked the waterlogged Flood stage early, where half of the level is submerged, hindering my movements. But Leggy’s webs work underwater, so I was able to move a bit faster down there before I unlocked charms that helped with underwater traversal, like the Oxygen Tank that depletes my breath at a slower rate.
Once you get the hang of the game’s systems and mechanics and have unlocked some powerful loadout options, you can clear a level with whoever you’d like. But I’d recommend finding the right character for the right situation early on. It’s a Roguelike; trial and error through short runs is the name of the game. But Blood Dungeon has a sort of built-in recommended order that isn’t super obvious.
Blood Dungeon’s art style is an incredibly weird (complimentary) pixel vibe reminiscent of something you’d see on the NES. It’s minimalist in every way, from character and arena design to the literal stick figure art on charms and spells. And a lot of it is hilarious, like the sword-wielding Barbarian. The default character quite literally runs around naked, and even with the stylized retro design it’s clear he’s swinging his other sword around as he wipes out hundred of dudes with ease. Then there’s Baby, a magnum-toting infant who loves getting extra money, that quickly become one of my favorites to use. Even the game’s soundtrack, brilliantly put together by Thomas Hoey, is very catchy, and each arena’s track fits its vibe well.
Verdict
Despite the unprecedented release cadence of quality AAA bangers in 2026, Blood Dungeon is easily one of my favorite games of the year. I love when a game can keep me engaged for both quick single runs or long sessions of grinding quests to unlock more loadout options, and Blood Dungeon does exactly that. Despite some seemingly unfair difficulty spikes as a run goes on, the core gameplay loop is one of the most fun and satisfying survivor Roguelike experiences I’ve ever had. It’s one of those “just one more run games” that makes me neglect my responsibilities thanks to its eclectic variety of playable characters and levels, and no one run feels the same. And thanks to its great soundtrack and hilariously odd art style, Blood Dungeon is the full package if you’re in the market for a fresh take on the genre.
Score: 9/10
Blood Dungeon launches August 25 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC. Reviewed on PC, review code provided by the publisher.
