Slots & Daggers Review
Wonderfully addictive slot machine RPG roguelite Slots & Daggers feels great to play.
Slots & Daggers. Credit: Friedmann / Future Friends Games
Developer Friedemann, cofounder of GrizzlyGames and one of the minds behind Islanders and Thronefall, has released his second solo project, Slots & Daggers. He has somehow made slot machines and dungeon crawling feel like they were always meant to be together. Slots & Daggers takes two seemingly incompatible genres and creates something genuinely addictive.
There's no story here, just pure dark fantasy vibes. You trek through monster-infested lands, battling creatures with wonderfully eccentric names. The setting exists purely to justify why you're pushing buttons on a slot machine to determine whether you live or die, and that's enough.
Slots & Daggers. Credit: Friedmann / Future Friends Games
Choose three starting items, then begin your adventure. Spin your slot machine’s wheels to generate attacks, shields, magic, and healing for your turn. After spinning, you can activate bonus items by spending coins, reusable within limits, offering strategic edges like extra healing, bonus damage, or temporary defense. Enemies telegraph their next move, giving you a little wiggle room to better plan. Rather than totally random enemy attacks, damage escalates predictably across each battle, building natural tension without feeling cheap.
“To make this game I combined a lot of things I deeply love—weird fantasy worlds, crude drawings of strange little guys, old school crunchy hiphop drum machines and addictive arcade games that go PLING PLING PLING as they spit out little coins—with classic roguelike mechanics.”
Slots & Daggers. Credit: Friedmann / Future Friends Games
Each level consists of several fights, capped off by a boss encounter. Between fights, coins buy new goodies for your wheels, active items you can trigger multiple times per turn or fight, and passive buffs. As you play, more goods are unlocked for the shop or as starting items. A big part of the game is carefully choosing what items you buy so you don’t overload your wheels and balance your attack, defense, healing, and money. The items are varied enough to offer plenty of possibilities and silliness.
Metaprogression creates the compulsion loop. Performance earns chips for permanent slot machine upgrades from the title screen shop: damage resistance, attack boosts, cost reductions, extra spinner wheels beyond the default three, and more. Each failed run feeds into eventual success, like it should in any good roguelite.
Slots & Daggers. Credit: Friedmann / Future Friends Games
The stylishly chunky pixel art presentation pulses with energy; the whole thing is anything but static. Wheels spin satisfyingly, lights blink hypnotically, coins jingle authentically as they cascade into your tray. Enemy portraits subtly deform as if breathing while the camera bobs gently, then shakes violently on impacts and payouts. The whole thing feels alive. Friedemann truly understands game feel; every interaction feels crunchy, juicy, perfectly weighted.
Slots & Daggers is short, but while it lasts, it's pure compulsive pleasure. Few games feel this good to simply touch. Attention to detail in presentation and feel goes such a long way.
Slots and Daggers is available now on Steam.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: Steam Deck
