Duncrush Review

Click to Kill, Click to Climb

Duncrush strips the dungeon-crawling RPG down to its most basic verb: click on monsters until they die. The store page is upfront about that simplicity — "Duncrush is a clicker RPG where you attack monsters by clicking and conquer challenging dungeons!" — and reviewers largely agree it delivers exactly that pitch without much padding around it. One summed the whole loop up plainly: "Very short (2 hours or less) idle game where you enter one-screen dungeon levels, beat the local monsters until a boss appears, kick said boss' butt, and then proceed to the next level, until you get killed." It's a game built for short, low-commitment sessions rather than a sprawling RPG campaign, and for players going in with that expectation, several reviews describe exactly that experience delivered cleanly.

A Skill Tree and Gear Loop That Mostly Works

Underneath the clicking, Duncrush layers in gear collection and a skill tree meant to give runs some shape. Reviewers responded well to the core upgrade loop: "Smooth progression and gear upgrade system with a skill tree on top of it all. Eventually you are able to unlock some little guys to join your party and start kicking even more ass," wrote one. Another praised the moment-to-moment feel more than the systems underneath it: "very fun, click to move mechanic... small to medium length, enjoyable without overstaying welcome. I enjoyed the smooth upgrading system and diff biomes/music per biome." The addition of recruitable party members and distinct biomes gives the otherwise minimal click-combat some visual and mechanical variety as runs progress, even if the core interaction never changes. Achievement hunters found the structure rewarding to optimise around, too — one reviewer described deliberately planning "specific levels near the end" to farm particular boss kills for a clean, full achievement clear, which suggests the skill tree and gear systems offer enough build choice to reward that kind of end-of-run min-maxing even in a short campaign.

An Easy Two-to-Four-Hour Game, and Reviewers Are Fine With That

Duncrush's brevity comes up constantly, and mostly as a selling point rather than a complaint. One reviewer described finishing "within 3 hours to 100% all achievements," while another put it at "about 3 hours" for full completion, and a third called it "decent incremental game, quite short... and easy to 100%, fairly cheap and doesn't get too repetitive." At NZ$5.99 with no ongoing monetisation to speak of, several reviewers framed that short runtime as good value rather than a shortfall: "Extremely good $/hr ratio," wrote one, while another called it "a good game, simple, but good," noting the option to replay or try Infinite Mode for extra mileage once the main campaign is done. Not every reviewer agreed the short length justified even the modest asking price, though — one who bought it discounted wrote "I'd like to give the game a mixed review, but I can't... there are way better premium and even free idle/incremental games out there," a reminder that Duncrush is competing in a genre with a lot of established, free alternatives already on Steam.

Progression That Sometimes Jumps Too Hard, Levels That Repeat

Not every review was satisfied with how the numbers scale. One player was confused by sudden spikes in gear power: "I don't understand progression in this one. One moment you are upgrading your 50 damage sword and getting +4 damage upgrades, the next moment you're suddenly getting +3000 damage upgrade, making your gear completely irrelevant." Others pointed to repetition in how dungeon floors are built: "Levels are repetitive, though — each floor is exactly the same as the last, just different sprites with additional health." A more critical review put it bluntly: "The game is OK. It is nothing more than that, but also maybe nothing less either. It doesn't really do anything wrong, but also doesn't offer anything special to stand out. It's a near picture perfect definition of 'mid.'"

Rough Edges: No Remapping, Steam Deck Trouble

Interface complaints center on a handful of missing quality-of-life options. One reviewer flagged the lack of keyboard support entirely: "You can't move with WASD or the arrow keys, you can't access the settings while playing to lower the volume." Steam Deck compatibility was a sticking point for at least one player, who reported the game failing to launch properly: "i open the game on my steam deck.... i get a purple screen with cursor..and that's it." These aren't universal complaints — most reviewers who mentioned Steam Deck play reported no issues, and mouse-only controls were even framed as a plus by players who wanted a low-effort session — but they're a real gap for anyone expecting broader input or platform support out of the box. It's a fairly common blind spot for a small studio's budget release, but it's worth knowing about before buying if handheld or controller-first play is the goal rather than a plan-B.

Verdict

Duncrush knows exactly what it is: a cheap, click-driven dungeon crawler that gets in, delivers a satisfying gear-and-skill-tree progression loop, and gets out again in two to four hours without overstaying its welcome. That focus is also its ceiling — the core interaction never evolves much beyond clicking, dungeon floors repeat their layout more than some players would like, and a handful of technical rough edges (missing keyboard remapping, inconsistent Steam Deck support) show through in a budget release. For players wanting a short, inexpensive clicker RPG to fill an evening rather than a deep, sprawling one, Duncrush delivers close to exactly what its price tag promises.