Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #22 of 35 in that tierWatch the moment (1:57:08)
Ring of Pain
- Developed by
- Simon Boxer, Twice Different
- Published by
- Balor Games
$19.99
Enter the Ring of Pain, a roguelike card crawler where encounters come to you. Each step around the ring a dire decision. Go for the loot or backstab a creeping horror? Meet strange friends bearing gifts and treasure. Choose your gear wisely to survive and discover the secrets of the Ring of Pain.
Consensus
A75.6/100
Steam players91.4% positiveVery Positive5,107 reviews
Metacritic ↗74/100Users: 7.1/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈153K copies · ≈$2.1M gross
What creators say
Ranked Jun 2023 · #4 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #11 of 42 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A turn-based roguelike card crawler where enemies, loot and shrines sit as cards arranged in a ring around you and you choose what to act on each turn.
Ring of Pain is well liked by players (about 91% positive across roughly 5,100 Steam reviews, Very Positive) but only middling with critics and Metacritic users (Metascore 74, user score 7.1). Everyone agrees the ring layout, dark art and cryptic rhyming writing are distinctive and the core loop is easy to pick up. The dominant complaint in both critic and player reviews is that runs are decided more by RNG and item luck than by skill, with swingy balance and a hard late-game spike. It is a finished, complete game (released Oct 2020, later ported to Switch and Xbox One), not early access or abandoned; current Steam concurrency is tiny (about 30) and recent reviews are still positive. Several players say it is overpriced at $19.99 and lacks endless or modding options.
Players love
- The ring layout is a fresh twist on card crawling: you decide which card around you to hit, loot or skip, and each step is a risk/reward choice
- Dark, creepy art direction, audio and atmosphere are consistently praised; the rhyming dialogue and mysterious Owl character add personality
- Simple to learn in minutes yet with real depth in how stats interact with turn order and survivability
- Large unlock pool (Steam lists 300+ items) with real build variety, including combos like petrify, gem and spellbook builds
- Short runs suit quick sessions, and some players use it as a relaxed, low-thought game to play while listening to something
- Daily Dungeon mode with modifiers and multiple difficulty levels and endings add replay value
- Players who love the genre call it a creepier, harder cousin of Slay the Spire with its own identity
Common complaints
- Heavy RNG: the most common complaint, with reviewers calling it a glorified slot machine where a great build can die to one unlucky encounter
- Item balance is uneven: a few common items can reportedly auto-win a run while many legendaries need several other items to work
- Hard difficulty feels too hard while medium feels too easy, so the difficulty curve is awkward
- Late-game and final boss difficulty spike (TheSixthAxis describes a 500 HP final boss against a 29 HP player)
- Runs can be lost to misreading enemy info or a misclick, and some enemies in the back of the ring are hard to see
- Some players find the lore confusing and the ring format not adding enough beyond stats and items
- Some feel it lacks variety and depth once you know the dominant strategies, and compare it unfavourably to Slay the Spire or Balatro
Can feel tedious
- Some achievements require replaying the start of a run over and over for hours, and unlocks can be grindy or extremely nasty
- One player reports 802 runs started with 519 abandoned, largely because bad RNG made them give up early
- Final fights with some builds, such as petrify, can take around 30 minutes, which discourages trying hard mode
- Once you find a cheap winning strategy, the game feels samey and repetitive
- Gated difficulty and 'die 250 times' style achievements feel like padding
- The Owl mascot and overly stylised tone grated on at least one reviewer
What's unique
- Encounters are arranged in a ring around the player, so the core decision is which card to interact with rather than which card to play from a hand
- Gear, loot, enemies and shrines are all cards in the same ring, and standing still or sneaking past are real options
- Inventory is a limited slot set where swapping equipment and sacrificing health to shrines carry risk
- Horror-tinged dungeon crawl tone with an Owl narrator, a shadow figure and rhyming speech
- Two main endings (light and dark path) plus candle difficulty modes and a Daily Dungeon
Players want
- Add an endless or post-game mode, since players who hit both endings say there is little reason to continue
- Rebalance items and enemy scaling so fewer runs are won or lost on item luck
- Smooth the medium-to-hard difficulty jump and the late-game spike
- Let players unequip items without needing a replacement, and give shrines clearer information about outcomes
- Better information UI, for example a way to tab out and inspect the board while choosing stat upgrades or items
- Workshop or modding support, which a long-time player said would have helped the game a lot
- Lower the base price (a reviewer argued it is priced too high to convince friends to try)
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Dungeon CrawlerCard GameRogue-liteTurn-BasedDifficultRogue-likeDarkStrategyRPGStylized
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Ring of Pain is a dark, creepy deck-building roguelite where you move around a scrolling ring of cards and always face two at a time. Your equipment acts as your cards, and you fight and customize through it over each run. He loves the horror-ish vibe, art style, bosses and music. He finds the core gameplay a bit bland and repetitive, and runs feel samey unless you find interesting items. Overall it lands as a solid mid B tier.
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