Dead Finger Dice Review

 Dead Finger Dice: A Billionaire Killing Game is a roguelike dice-builder developed by Rocket Adrift Games and published by Black Lantern Collective. The only other game I found from Rocket Adrift Games is called Raptor Boyfriend so, obviously, a bloody, horror-themed dice game is the next best move!

Uh, yeah. If you couldn’t tell from the title, fingers are going to be an important element throughout the game, and it usually involves cutting them off via mini-gulliotine. Even in black and white, it made me flinch, so for the squeamish, I advise you to avoid Dead Finger Dice with a passion.

Dead Finger Dice makes sure you feel uneasy from the get-go. The art style is extremely detailed, with every wrinkle and fold in the demons’ skin lovingly placed, contrasting the jerky animation. While the default palette is all grey, black, and white, you can change it to other colours either because it looks nice or to reduce eye strain. It features such palettes as Blorange, Winnie The, Matrix, GB2 and GB3, and Kirby. The sound and music are something I’d like to highlight too. Sure, it starts off ominous and droning, but the further you go, the more energetic it is as you bet more and more. It might make you feel like you’re on a hot streak… until everything goes wrong and the BGM starts to warp and distort.

Place your bets.

You will have a very unsettling feeling throughout the game, especially when the screen would suddenly flash a bunch of images that’s only there to creep you out… or give you clues on how to get out of this mess intact.

Speaking of the mess you’re in, it’s quite brutal. You are trapped on The Avarice, a super mega yacht filled to the brim with insanely rich demons who only want two things: entertainment and your life. You have no choice but to gamble in an underground tournament of poker dice and hope that winning it all will allow you to leave this hedonistic hellhole. Of course, you aren’t the first one to have been taken aboard the boat, and there might be a pile of bodies needed to climb your way out…

It’s pretty obvious the game has a very dim view of the ultra-rich. I mean, come on, they’re literally demons! Not only that, some of the emails describing their actions are frankly horrible yet unsurprising given what real billionaires have done with their wealth. If you don’t hate/pity them now, you will at some point.

That's encouraging.

But that’s enough about this messed-up setting, let’s play a messed-up game of dice! You’ll be playing poker dice against a bunch of billionaire demons, placing bets and rolling dice in hopes of bankrupting your opponent. Even if you’ve never played this classic pastime before, it’s pretty easy to understand and get into (think Yahtzee but with betting). However, it isn’t gambling without putting something at risk, and unfortunately, money isn’t valuable enough, so you have to bet your fingers.

If you win, the demon loses a couple of digits, but if you lose… well, there’s a reason why there’s a guillotine on the table. Select your least favourites, and click until you pay what you owe. Run out of fingers on your hand, and you’ll be thrown overboard and need to start again, losing all the dice in your tray and inventory. Thankfully, any fingers you earned from beating a demon can be bet too, so you won’t constantly need to risk your pinkies until you’re out of luck.

Choose wisely.

However, luck doesn’t have to be as big a factor as you can get yourself a clutch of special dice. After beating an opponent, you’ll be fed… or rather, rewarded with crafting materials needed to make new dice. All you need is a material (for the special effect), a finger (the chance of that effect triggering), and optional modifiers applied to the faces to make a rigged game piece. You can have up to three dice trays you can switch between every round, so you can change your strategy on the fly. Although it can feel like your chances of winning are completely random (and it is at the start), you have all the resources you need to turn flukes into guarantees.

When things are going your way, it feels great. Going all-in to take all your opponent’s fingers and having it pay off is a very, very satisfying feeling. Though these demons will never truly die (perks of being stupid rich), seeing them shake and panic when they’re down to betting their own hands makes me feel good… which makes all the harrowing defeats even worse.

Risk it all.

With that all said and done, it’s unlikely you’ll win on your first try (or second, or third, or 18th), but there is a way to ensure you have a better chance. There’s a hidden compartment in your cell where you can save your best resources, from crafting materials to the insane dice you create, giving you a leg up on the competition. With enough patience and knowledge, you can create sets of dice that are always weighted in your favour.

Even so, you shouldn’t be playing by the demons’ rules. You should be working on another method of finding your happy ending (if there are any). You’ll soon discover that there’s more to your cell than a place to prep your dice. People have been trying to escape before you, and maybe you’ll finally be the one to do it.

YAHTZEE! Wait, wrong game...

There are multiple endings that will require you to go out of your way to figure out; solving puzzles and deciphering the clues scattered throughout the game. Maybe it’s on the walls, written by a previous player or it’s a flash in the middle of a match. Some of these puzzles can be quite obtuse, though, so notes and the screenshot button will be your friend here. It’s interesting and keeps me on my toes even in the middle of a game. Hey, anything could be a hint.

While I found my time with the game enjoyable, despite leaning as far back as my hand-me-down gaming chair will allow, I did get bothered by a few minor issues. After the shock of cutting your own fingers wears off, it just gets… annoying? You have to click “Cut” for every finger, and while it is painful when your back is against the wall, if you lose the first round, I just found myself quitting the game so I wouldn’t have to go through that whole song and dance. A reset option (or, knowing this game, an instant drop button) would be nice.

I win! Gimmme your fingers!

Actually, um, I played sort of dishonourably because of this trick. The game will only save when you either die or click the bed, so it’s pretty easy to restart the match with no consequence. I was expecting to be screwed over at some point (possible jumpscared) but, no, it was fine. For how unsettled I was playing, I wanted to be punished for doing such a thing, like a scream the next time I booted the game up again.

Apart from that, I also tended to forget to save, so when I legitimately exited the game to attend to other things, I found myself facing opponents I’ve already beaten in a very high-stakes game, and then lost when trying to get back my progress. 

I liked my time with Dead Finger Dice, despite constantly losing all my fingers from very, very bad luck. I tend to enjoy dice-based roguelikes less due to cards being more reliable and less luck-based, while still making you deal with whatever hand you get. However, here I found myself coming back for more and learning how to be a better player. You need to play smart and be willing to risk it all for a slightly better chance to live.