I’ve been playing Dysmantle lately on the Steam Deck. Perfectly functional on there. I do think after about 30 hours, I’m ready to take a break however. Which is not a statement about the game’s quality, but rather just the fact that I need a change of pace from its OCD triggering nature. I imagine I have another 20 hours at least before finishing the main story. That said, I did wrap up the expansion I own, Dysmantle: Underworld, which you can access pretty early in the game as part of your exploring. I’d say that part alone I invested 10 hours into (plus 20 or so into the main game story).

So, a little about the base game. It is a top down ARPG, with a splash of Soulsborne, and a fully destructible world, hence the name Dysmantle. In fact, destruction is how you’ll get consistent xp. It’s a tiered system where you get xp when you destroy anything, when you store the materials you get from said destruction, and I want to say when you pick up the items as well, although it’s kinda all blurring together, so that last part might be wrong. You also gain xp through defeating enemies, using skills such as fishing, etc…

Through the xp system, you level up and gain a buff chosen from a few options each level (this part is reminiscent of the rewards system in the Borderlands series). Leveling up also unlocks item recipes, from weapons to clothing to persistent skills (such as lockpicking) to buff trinkets. However, to craft them, you need materials you’ve been collecting from destroying things and defeating enemies. Additionally, one resource category is food items, which can then be combined using recipes found during the game. These recipes create single use dishes that give permanent buffs.

The Soulsborne aspects come into play with the campfire checkpoint system which also functions as character management, unlimited resource storage and fast travel location. You also find relay towers which are basically transport hubs which also give options such as allowing you to stop enemy respawn in an area. The combat is dodge strike dodge strike or the inverse, with a fair amount of strafing/circling necessary as well, although there is also limited ranged options also. If you die, you leave behind a skeleton from which you can retrieve any craftables you had on you at the time.

Speaking of craftable materials, you do have a limited amount of storage on your character for consumables as well as equipment slots. Your backpack can be upgraded. Your equipment slots upgrade automatically, periodically, as you level up.

The world is actually quite vast and exploration is essential in completing tasks and progressing the story quests. There is also an initially steep learning curve which can seem daunting. The intro to the Underworld DLC had a pretty ominous feel to it, which the main game also has to a lesser extent. To access this DLC, you will find a tomb network which will have you wondering uf you’re about to die at every turn lol. However, in practice, there are no enemies and you’ll eventually walk through a portal leading you to the Underworld, where you’ll find a pretty vast world and a lot of notes explaining how you weren’t the first to travel here. Your predecessors were a large expedition who became trapped here, built several towns and basically began living their new lives until dying horribly. Your goal in the Underworld is more or less to find out what happened and potentially stop it from happening again. I think I enjoyed this more than the base game actually. I’ve seen it get panned in its reviews, but for me, I enjoyed the setting more than the base game’s setting.

Anyway, it’s been a lot of fun, but as mentioned at the start of this, I need to take a break. The destructible world definitely triggers an OCD need to do exactly that, but for me, it reached the point where it was becoming excessively compulsive lol.

Anyway, TLDR. Really fun if hella grindy game. I feel it’s worth a look and definitely worth a purchase during a Steam sale. There is enough content just in the base game to probably get 80 hours out of the game, and you could sink another 20 hours into the Underworld DLC if you’re thorough. I think I’ll buy the other expansion during the Summer sale and use that as an excuse to get back to the game.