Roguelike dungeon crawlers are fantastic to play if you really like the way the battlefield changes with each run and how you, as the player, grow with experience and items acquired before each death. The genre works well in almost any setting and it seems that this is Folder Dungeon trying to prove.
As you can guess from the name, Folder Dungeon is a roguelike dungeon crawler where you fight your way through a computer’s operating system. You have to fight your way through enemies, earn powerful upgrades to hit them harder, and reach the exit before your time runs out and the computer overheats and shuts down. I really like how it takes inspiration from a genre I associate mostly with fantasy and puts it in context by using the types of computers I grew up with.
There is no quick fix for the blue screen of death here
Every run in Folder Dungeon is constructed like a dungeon crawler map. You have enemies to defeat, items to collect, and folders that act as doors, allowing you to go deeper into the system. However, every action generates heat that threatens to shut down the entire system, killing your run.
Combat is turn-based, so you’ll need to think about how many hits you’ll take if you leave enemies alive longer than necessary if you just want to grab some treasure and leave. Not everything is as it seems, as secrets are hidden in some folders, meaning there are some awesome rewards potentially hidden just a step away from your path. But that move could also cost you all of your progress so far.
Aspect Folder Dungeon What excites me the most is the way you can combine upgrades. It looks a lot like the system that makes runs in Isaac Binding so much fun, adding upgrade after upgrade until you have an incredibly powerful build that you can quickly go through every folder with. If the system is well balanced, this can make the game infinitely replayable as you start it over again to see how long it takes you to finish with certain build type restrictions.
The only downside at the time of writing is that Folder Dungeon will not be released before 2025. But you can add to wishlist on Steam to keep up to date with all the latest news from YouTuber turned micro-publisher 2 Left Thumbs.