RNG Can Get in the Way of Dead Finger Dice’s Fun

I wish I liked Dead Finger Dice more, and with it being a roguelike take on Yahtzee with customizable dice, I would have thought it was for me! The aesthetic is amazing. The idea is cool. Yahtzee is always a solid dice game. The problem is that while all roguelikes feature some degree of luck being on your side, it almost feels like RNG is perhaps too overwhelming here. If everything is on your side and it feels like the billionaire opponents aren't cheating too, it's great. But I felt like that was too rare a situation.

In Dead Finger Dice, we’re trapped on a yacht for the sake of amusing billionaires who also seem to resemble classic monsters like Nosferatu and Medusa. When we’re summoned from our meager, prisoner’s cell, we’re put in front of one of them and forced to place a game that resembles Yahtzee. We roll five dice, with three rerolls possible, in the hopes of getting a better “hand” than our opponent. As we do, we bet fingers to determine who wins or loses. When one opponent is all out of fingers, the match ends. If we win, we get to return to our cabin and craft new dice with our won fingers to perhaps “cheat” our way to victory with their properties. If we lose, all of our fingers are cut off, we’re tossed overboard, and the game restarts with a new person and any resources you “banked” in the cell due to the permadeath feature.

Now in general, the concept is quite sound! By combining materials with fingers, we can create dice that get additional effects. For example, there could be BOUNCE to make the dice bounce. SCRATCH increases the value of the number on the die face by one if its value is under 6. SWITCH will switch that die with the current boss’ highest value one. FINGER STEAL steals a finger from your opponent if it is possible. And the fingers you have influence things too. For example, the most basic level 1 finger involves a 50% chance of an effect triggering. But since we do have effects that have a certain percent change of triggering and may not even guarantee a better position, it might feel a little frustrating.

Yes, roguelikes test you like this. You never know what deck you’ll run, levels you’ll face, or bosses will appear sometimes. But in the case of other titles, there are certain degrees of skill that come up and you feel like the challenge can be fair. Like sure, there’s uncertainty and you don’t know what you’ll take with you to assist your run. But you do know who you’ll face, and there aren’t odds against you at every turn. Some elements of it can be mitigated here by hoarding away resources and crafting dice, but I felt like sometimes it was a bit much. 

It might sound odd to say so too in a game about cheating when playing in high-stakes Yahtzee matches against billionaires, but the RNG in Dead Finger Dice makes it feel like they’re cheating too. This isn’t so much of an issue with the early foes like Nosferaone. But against Bobby Froggic and Kraangle? Absolutely. 

Also, as an aside, I didn’t enjoy playing Dead Finger Dice on my handheld gaming PC as much as I hoped I would. When I played, there was no controller support. It seemed odd! Playing it with the tiny, built-in mouse pad on the controller isn’t the most comfortable, so I’m hoping that is updated soon.

Dead Finger Dice features an interesting aesthetic and can be fun for folks who enjoy Yahtzee, but I feel the randomness of it all really makes it difficult to truly enjoy it. Yes, we can influence things and rig the game. Even so, RNG rules here. And if you already get an idea a run is going wrong, there’s not much you can do. On the plus side, it is quite an affordable game at only $5 normally, so at least it isn’t too expensive if you want to take a chance on rolling these dice. Perhaps after a few patches, it might feel a little more balanced.

Dead Finger Dice is available for PCs. 

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