Dungeon Stalkers is an upcoming PvEvP dungeon crawler where survival of the fittest is key to escape from the witch’s curse. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the demo, and more.
Everything We Know About Dungeon Stalkers
Dungeon Stalkers Plot
As a Dungeon Stalker, you venture into dungeons to seek wealth, honor, and the truth. Fight alongside fellow Dungeon Stalkers as you look to escape the ever-changing dungeons filled with dangerous monsters plagued by the witch’s curse.
Dungeon Stalkers Gameplay
Dungeon Stalkers is a third-person PvEvP dungeon crawler that combines dungeon crawling and the escape survival genre. Choose among 9 different Dungeon Stalkers, each outfitted with their skills and abilities to go against the denizens of the dungeon. Discover and find stronger weapons and armor to fortify yourself as you delve deeper within.
The game features several game modes and matchmaking options that allow players to experience its intended PvEvP design or opt for a purely PvE mode called Adventure, which doesn’t match them against hostile players. Since the game is primarily a live service, it also features microtransactions like season passes and cosmetics that players can purchase to net them more rewards for playing the game.
Dungeon Stalkers Release Date
It was announced that the game will be released in Early Access for PC (Steam) sometime in August 2025.
| Digital Storefront |
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 Steam |
| Free-to-Play |
Dungeon Stalkers Review (Final Playtest)
Just Another Stalker
PvEvP is a hard concept to pull off. While there are some popular titles like Sea of Thieves, Hunt: Showdown, and Dark and Darker, it’s still a subgenre that’s particularly hard to handle and ensure players keep playing. The whole concept of having your hard-earned (or stolen) loot stolen from you when you get killed is a hard pill to swallow, but the appeal of turning it into a contest of wit and skill between players is something that I can understand. So it’s not surprising that there aren’t a lot of these games out there, and even more so that fans of these games are extremely dedicated to them.
Here comes a new game revealed back in late 2023 by the name of Dungeon Stalkers. From face value, it seems that the game is a generic-looking anime game with a very questionable armor system attached to it, judging from the game’s trailers. Not to mention that the whole concept seems ripped off from the aforementioned Dark and Darker game. Does it have enough to make itself different from its direct comparison and its competitors? Or is it just another one in the pack?
These Looks Aren’t Deceiving
Let’s get the white elephant out of the way first. The presentation of the game is definitely eye-catching. If anything, it’s the one aspect that the game has that makes it appealing. Obviously, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea since it seems like the intended audience is just after the eye candy. I can, however, applaud the fact that the character designs are distinct.
Each outfit is different enough for people to notice it. At least I did. The models themselves are pretty generic, and one could compare them to gacha game or MMO characters due to how they look. The problem is that the characters don’t look like they fit the world they’re trying to show off.
There are also issues with how the game is presented. An example would be the lack of ambient music. The expectation of going into a dungeon is already dark and dreary, but having no music makes it feel even worse. Adding ambient music and other sound effects to the environment would add so much to the game’s atmosphere and, ultimately, the experience. Lastly, the UI doesn’t look great either. The main menu doesn’t look fleshed out, and it gives more of a mobile game vibe than anything else.
Slow-Paced And Full of Lame Surprises
The game itself is easy to understand and easy to play. You choose a character among the roster of 9 playable characters, each with their own set of abilities and equipment. The game has 4 different game modes, of which 3 are in the intended PvEvP design, and Adventure mode, where PvP is not allowed but has fewer rewards. The objective of the game is to find loot and get out. That’s pretty much it. What makes the gameplay interesting is that players are in the same dungeon as you are.
So with the PvEvP design, all of you are fighting for loot while trying to survive against the monsters of the dungeon. The game periodically has a random event that happens in the dungeon named the Witch’s Curse.
These can range from different things, like instantly breaking your armor, spawning a set of enemies in the room you’re in, and more. While it’s a mechanic that should keep you on your toes, it felt more like an annoyance than something you should fear.
Combat and movement in general feel sluggish. It’s something you’ll have to experience to understand what I’m talking about, but let’s say that fights play out uncomfortably slow and that trying to move around isn’t fun when fights are very much one-dimensional. Additionally, the AI of the enemies is also very simple and easy to manipulate, which makes fighting them a cakewalk, especially when using certain characters.
When talking about the playable characters, it also felt off. For context, I used Hilda, the character with the sword and shield, for a few runs on PvE. When trying her out on a quick match against other players, I got kited and destroyed by other classes. The saving grace on this is that there’s an option to not make it a hardcore
game, where you can lose everything when you’re killed. There’s an option to lose your inventory and not your equipped gear.
However, I did try to play Nave, the mage, afterwards and the experience was so much easier to handle. Being a ranged character makes enemies easy to kite and deal with while having the option to mess with other players from afar. Due to the slower pace of the game, it felt natural to just hit-and-run against mobs and players alike. I won't point the entire problem to balancing since this could easily be a skill issue on my part, but I can't deny that my experience from playing a melee character and a ranged character was night and day.
Speaking of gear, it's also another pain point due to how it enhances characters. Some pieces of gear can have character-specific bonuses that upgrade a character to a whole other level, which can be the difference between two players. This can feel unfair, of course, but that’s something that players will have to live with, especially since there isn’t exactly a filter for how strong a character is.
Live-Service Pitfalls
The worst part of the game is that it’s a live service game that features tons of microtransactions. The game will be launching with a season pass, a cash shop, and other live service traps to keep players interested and hooked. It’s one thing to keep players addicted to the game; it’s another to keep them locked for a long time due to the random nature of picking up materials and currency. For example, players who have the season pass will ultimately just have more resources than other players and will have a much faster progression because they’ll have an upgraded hideout. Having an upgraded hideout means they have instant access to a shop, a crafting menu, and more, which will definitely give them a leg up against other players.
For a game centered around players fighting each other in a dungeon, having access to more items and better gear could blur the line between skill and just having a bigger number. This means that the gameplay suffers from that perspective and will make it hard to entice new players to try the game out. Cosmetics and emotes, sure, but having a design that rewards players who pay for a better start never ends well, at least for most of the live-service games I’ve experienced.
Too Much to Prove, Too Little to Show
So to answer the questions about the game being different enough, no. I don’t think there’s enough in the game to make it stand out from the rest, and having microtransactions will more or less bury it on arrival. There are things that the game can improve on to make it more bearable when it comes out on Early Access, but as it stands, the cons outweigh the pros.
The microtransactions make the game unhealthy, the random gear drops determine if you’re competitive, and the whole thing just feels way too slow. I can’t deny that the game can be fun, especially when you’re running with a 3-man team. But everything just feels generic, and the free-to-play aspect of it doesn’t seem like a benefit at all. Maybe Dungeon Stalkers can prove me wrong when it releases, but it sure doesn’t seem that way.
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Dungeon Stalkers Product Information
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| Title | DUNGEON STALKERS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2025 |
| Developer | ONEUNIVERSE Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher | ONEUNIVERSE Co., Ltd. |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | RPG |
| Number of Players | 1-12 (Online) |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Dungeon Stalkers Official Website |
