Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #7 of 14 in that tierWatch the moment (0:40:57)
Dead Estate
- Developed by
- Milkbar Lads
- Published by
- 2 Left Thumbs
$14.99
Cornered with nowhere else to turn, can you escape the monster-filled mansion? Dead Estate is a gory, fast-paced, challenging roguelike shooter with a heavy emphasis on horror.
Consensus
B75.1/100
Steam players94.6% positiveVery Positive6,662 reviews
VG Insights estimate ↗≈200K copies · ≈$2.1M gross
What creators say
Ranked Jun 2023 · #8 of 17 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #11 of 22 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A gory, horror-themed isometric twin-stick roguelike shooter by Milkbar Lads (published by 2 Left Thumbs) where you climb the floors of a monster-filled mansion with no persistent stat upgrades, so progress is pure skill.
Dead Estate is a cult-favourite indie on Steam (Very Positive, about 94.6% of roughly 6,660 reviews) and is widely described as a hidden gem with huge replay value, strong art and music, and a large pile of unlockables (200 achievements, 10 characters, hundreds of items and weapons). Players who click with it play dozens or even 100+ hours. Detractors, often with short playtimes, bounce off the isometric perspective (hard-to-read projectiles and flying enemies), visual clutter, RNG-heavy runs and, for some, crashes. Professional coverage is very thin: only two critic reviews exist (Video Chums 4/5, Nindie Spotlight 7.9/10), both positive, from the Switch release. It is not early access; the original 2020 itch.io build was relaunched on Steam in Oct 2021 and has received large free content updates since, including a Halloween 2024 update that players credit for a big content expansion. Its Steam popularity is partly fuelled by the playable witch Cordelia and the character art, which many reviews joke about.
Players love
- Playable-character appeal: the most-upvoted positive reviews are overwhelmingly about Cordelia the witch and the rest of the cast (Jeff, Jules), with many buyers saying they came for the characters and stayed for the gameplay
- Distinctive art style, strong character design and a well-liked soundtrack, frequently called out as the top strengths
- Huge amount of content for a small indie: 10 playable characters each with their own ending and playstyle, hundreds of items and weapons, run modifiers, curses and a separate challenge mode
- Hunting the roughly 200 medals/achievements is called addictive, with many unlocking 15 in a single run
- Skill-based design: no persistent power upgrades, so every run tests you equally and you feel yourself improving
- Run modifiers, curses and challenges add variety; one critical reviewer says the modifiers are the one thing it does better than Enter the Gungeon
- Items can be busted and build-defining, giving satisfying power-fantasy runs
- Assignment Anya, a separate Resident Evil-style survival-horror campaign, is praised as a cool bonus game by critics and many players
- Quirky characters, lore and humor; bite-sized runs that are easy to pick up
- Hidden and secret content (shrines, alternate floors) reportedly goes far beyond what a small indie would be expected to have
Common complaints
- Isometric 3D-in-2D perspective makes lobbed projectiles, flying enemies and verticality hard to judge; the most common complaint, with players saying they die without knowing what hit them
- Visual clutter and screen effects (one reviewer wrote about it emphatically) make fights hard to read in busy rooms
- Hitboxes described as janky or inconsistent, and enemies can hit you right on room entry
- Crashes, freezes and lag in some setups; multiple recent Steam reviews report crashes mid-run, plus Steam Deck issues such as cloud save and playtime problems per a review aggregator summary
- Heavy RNG dependence: bad weapon or item rolls can snowball into a failure spiral
- Menu and UI complaints: oversized text that grows on hover, no accessibility options, shop layout shifting
- Some rooms feel samey and cramped, with enemies lacking distinct movement patterns in the eyes of critical players
Can feel tedious
- Perspective and projectile-reading problems that make the core fights frustrating for some players
- Early difficulty wall: several positive reviewers almost quit before something clicked, and one took a year to get past floor one
- Completionist grind: 200 achievements and some punishing challenges are seen as a slog by some, though others love it
- Special floors, UFO pickups, looped runs and fire-rate-lowering items reported as infuriating by a 43-hour player
- Sameness of rooms and enemy patterns in the eyes of critical reviewers, who call it generic versus Enter the Gungeon
- RNG-heavy item and weapon drops that can doom a run early
What's unique
- Time-pressure mechanic: lingering too long in an area summons a strong creature that hunts you, pushing a fast pace
- No dedicated dodge button and no persistent upgrades; only a jump to avoid projectiles, making it purely skill-based
- Horror and Halloween theming with a cartoonish Scott Pilgrim meets Invader Zim look
- Assignment Anya, a fixed-camera survival-horror mode in the style of old Resident Evil, bundled inside a roguelike shooter
- Each of the 10 characters has a distinct playstyle and ending, plus curses and run modifiers layered on top
- No gun reloads, which keeps the action continuous (a pro for some, a source of dullness for others)
Players want
- Better readability of projectiles and verticality (clearer shadows, indicators, or reduced effect clutter)
- Ability to discard or sell items that do not fit a build, and a confirmation prompt to avoid accidentally swapping the single secondary weapon
- Rebalancing of a few unfair challenges (one reviewer singles out Fuji's challenges, especially Bulking Up, and Death from Above in the shrine with the jetpack)
- Stability and performance fixes, including Steam Deck support and crash/mouse-capture problems after recent updates
- Menu and UI redesign with scalable text and accessibility settings
- More distinct room layouts and enemy behaviours to reduce sameness
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeTwin Stick ShooterHorrorShoot 'Em UpReplay ValueRogue-likeDifficultDungeon CrawlerPerma DeathAction
Similar games
More runs with shared subgenres and Steam tags.
Tier list Part 1 (2023)
A goofy, deliberately Flash-game-styled action roguelike inspired by old Newgrounds animation and art, with a third-person 3D view where you can jump. He finds it fun, cute and full of secrets, and respects that it does not take itself seriously. The jumping in 3D feels awkward even after 10+ hours, the weapons feel random, and he dislikes its pixel art. He places it in C tier, stressing that C is not bad, just a game he is less likely to replay.
Liked
Disliked