Dice of Kalma review – Balatro, but with dice

Are you a Balatro fan? If so, you might be interested to know that a new roguelike has entered the arena, one that’s very heavily inspired by Balatro. Swapping cards for dice, Dice of Kalma‘s deckbuilding gameplay is more Yahtzee than poker, but there’s more than a passing similarity to LocalThunk’s groundbreaking game. It may be a little derivative, but I’m still really enjoying Dice of Kalma, and if you’re a fan of the genre, you might too.

Its dark and foreboding atmosphere is perhaps the first thing that sets Dice of Kalma apart from its inspiration. Your goal is to escape Kalma, the guardian of the Underworld. But as you can’t outrun him, he challenges you to a game of dice instead. Manage to outwit him, and you can make your way back to the land of the living. The trouble is, doing so is easier said than done.

Like Balatro, you’ll need to make your way through a number of rounds, each one a little harder than the one before. There are twenty five in Dice of Kalma, each one giving you a target score to reach that increases each time. Your score comes from a hand of dice, and in each round you can combine the score of three hands. Hands include one of a kind, five of a kind, full house and straight, and each one provides a base score plus a multiplier. The better your hand, the better your score — and the more likely you are to survive Kalma’s trial.

After each successful round, you’ll be able to upgrade one hand and choose a modifier. Comparable to Joker cards in Balatro, these modifiers enhance your score in various ways. Perhaps you’ll automatically get a 2x multiplier if you have a 6 in your hand. Or maybe you’ll get a boost if your first roll gives you a pair. Others are a bit more random; you’ll score extra points if your played dice add up to eight, or if you roll three of the same number in a row. Alone, these modifiers don’t make a huge difference, but as they build up, they can massively impact your success.

They are, however, perhaps not as impactful as the Joker cards found in Balatro, which makes success in Dice of Kalma feel very difficult. Surviving 25 rounds of increasing difficulty can feel like an insurmountable challenge. But the nature of the game, and how easy it is to get to grips with, means you’re likely to keep on trying. Because you never do know when the dice are going to roll in your favour.

For each round, you’ll get three rerolls, where you can choose any number of dice to throw again in the hopes of getting a better hand. Maybe you’ll have chosen to upgrade one particular hand to make it worth focusing on, or maybe you’ll always aim for a high-value hand, like a four or five of a kind or a straight. Of course, the dice you roll are completely random in Dice of Kalma, and three rerolls don’t always go far. If you use them all up and still fail to get a good hand, there’s a very good chance you’ll be staring at a game over screen.

Despite the change from cards to dice, it’s hard to see Dice of Kalma as being truly original; some players might find it just too similar to Balatro to truly enjoy. For me, though, I’m appreciating its change in aesthetic — its dark, foreboding and retro art style is entrancing, and for many players, dealing with just five dice is going to be easier to get to grips with than a handful of cards. For fans of deckbuilders and card or dice-based roguelikes, then, Dice of Kalma is well worth taking for a roll.

This review of Dice of Kalma has been facilitated by a game code provided by the publisher. It’s available on PC.