Dungeon crawler games belong to an exciting genre where the player is set to begin a journey through complex dungeons, defeating enemies and bosses along the way. You will often have to solve puzzles or avoid traps in order to be successful, oftentimes getting rewarded with special loot and treasure for your efforts. These games offer endless adventures that will keep you eager to see what lies ahead. We have compiled a list of the top 10 games that you should try if you are interested in the dungeon crawler genre!
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Diablo III
Diablo III is one of the most well-known hack and slash, dungeon crawlers that is currently around. This game places you twenty years into the future after the events from Diablo II take place. You are placed into the important role of having to save the world from the evil forces of Hell. Diablo III features fast-paced combat and multiple character classes to choose from. It also includes an amazing quest system, and randomized levels to allow for endless fun. This game also has multiplayer co-op, allowing you to play with up to 3 of your friends! This is one of the most recommended dungeon crawler games out there and if you haven’t given it a try yet, you should.
Metacritic Score: 88/100
IGN Rating: 9.5/10
Check out Diablo III on Battle.Net!
Torchlight 2
Torchlight 2 is another one of the most well-known role-playing dungeon crawler games for good reason. This game is packed with action and intense combat. In this game, you are on a quest to stop an evil villain who is using power to disturb the balance between the world’s elements. Torchlight 2 features randomly generated dungeons to create unique and new places to explore for additional playthroughs. You will get to pick a character class, such as an engineer, an outlander, a berserker, or an embermage. Each of these classes has its own unique weapons, armor, and abilities. You will experience tons of enemies and bosses to fight in your quest to stop evil and save the world.
Metacritic Score: 88/100
IGN Rating: 9.1/10
Check out Torchlight 2 on Steam!
Hades
Hades is a roguelike dungeon crawler game that comes highly recommended by the gaming community. In this game, you will play as the son of Hades while you attempt to escape from the Underworld and get away from your father. You will be trying your hardest to reach your mother Persephone at Mount Olympus. This game is broken up into four main dungeons that are meant to represent different regions of the Underworld and they are called Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and the Temple of Styx. In Hades, you will clear rooms and claim your reward as you fight to find a way out. You must defeat multiple bosses along the way until ultimately you need to fight Hades himself at the gates.
Metacritic Score: 93/100
IGN Rating: 9/10
Minecraft Dungeons
Minecraft Dungeons is a dungeon crawler spinoff of the beloved Minecraft game. In this game, you will not be in the open-world Minecraft game. Instead, you will thrown into the Overworld which is filled with both peaceful and hostile mobs, with a linear story that the game will follow. You will set out on a quest to defeat the Arch-Illager and destroy the Orb of Dominance while completing many smaller quests along the way and fighting tons of enemies. You will find various weapons and armor while looking for rare enchantments to increase your strength. Your biggest prizes in Minecraft dungeons will be rare artifacts that will give your character unique abilities to use on your quest to defeat the Arch-Illager.
Metacritic Score: 70/100
IGN Rating: 7/10
Check out Minecraft Dungeons on Steam!
Grim Dawn
Grim Dawn is an action role-playing game, with dungeon crawler aspects to it. In this game, you will be in a place called Cairn that has been faced with a trans-dimensional war, where people are faced with extinction. The war started when humans attempted to contact entities in another dimension by opening up a portal. This released the entities into the human world, who wanted to use this new world for their own benefit. Eventually, one race decided to start a war in an attempt to completely overtake the human world. Now, humans only exist in small groups, hidden away and preparing to fight and take back their homes.
This game features many types of character classes to choose from, as well as unique skills, crafting, and fast-paced action. You will be able to play with up to 3 other people, making a group of up to 4 players. To make the game more challenging when played with your friends, the difficulty of enemies will scale with the amount of people playing. This makes Grim Dawn one of the better dungeon crawler games to play with friends.
Metacritic Score: 83/100
IGN Rating: 8.7/10
Legend of Grimrock 2
Legend of Grimrock 2 is a true dungeon crawler game that is sure to not disappoint. This game contains action role-playing aspects within it. Each party member has skill levels for different weapons, magic spells, and other traits that will increase as you defeat enemies. In addition, loads of puzzles to solve and intense combat will keep you entertained and on your toes. This is a rewarding game to make your way through, as it is notorious for being quite difficult at times. In this game, the prisoner’s ship gets wrecked in a storm, leaving them stranded on an unknown island. The prisoners have to explore the new lands and crypts that lie below. Ultimately, you must defeat the island master and escape the island!
Metacritic Score: 85/100
Check out Legend of Grimrock 2 on Steam!
Etrian Odyssey
Etrian Odyssey is a turn-based dungeon crawler video game series that puts the player in a first-person view. A unique challenge is created by the presence of a mapping feature requiring the player to detail their own map. This game makes the player learn how to navigate through the intricate dungeon while making each action an important choice due to the turn-based nature of the game. Through turn-based combat, you must fight through random enemy encounters as you chart your way through the dungeon. RPG elements are a large part of these games, offering multiple different character job classes to choose from.
Metacritic Score: 75/100
IGN Score: 7.4/10
Check out Etrian Odyssey on Steam!
Final Fantasy
An old classic, the original Final Fantasy was released all the way back in 1987 and to this day has not lost its appeal. Best known for its fantasy and RPG elements, it is also a thrilling turn-based dungeon crawler. Explore large dungeons while battling monsters and other evil creatures. If you have yet to play this fantastic game or have not played it in a long while, you are in luck! This classic has been remastered for many different systems including PC, PS5, and even Android and IOS mobile devices. Final Fantasy, even after all these years, still satisfies as one of the greatest dungeon crawler games.
Metacritic Score: 80/100
IGN Rating: 8.5/10
Check out Final Fantasy On Steam!
Enter the Gungeon
Enter the Gungeon is a roguelike, bullet hell, dungeon crawler game that is very unique in its play style. In this game, you will wield firearms instead of the typical swords that you see in most dungeon crawler games. You will play as one of the four Gungeoneers, who must fight through the enemies and continue onward to the bottom of the gungeon to find a special gun. There will be five unique floors, each containing twenty rooms. Each room you encounter will be procedurally generated, giving you a very unique playthrough experience every time you play. Be careful though, this game has a permadeath system, which means that you will start over from the beginning if you die.
Metacritic Score: 83/100
IGN Rating: 8.5/10
Check out Enter the Gungeon on Steam!
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is a dungeon crawler action game that puts you in first-person view to play this game, which is unique for these types of games. This game focuses on co-op gameplay, so it is optimal to play with 3 friends. However, you can choose to play solo with 3 bots if that fits your playstyle better. This game is set in the Warhammer world, where you will have to battle with your teammates to take down the Chaos army. The Chaos Army is made of Skaven, which are men that look like rats. You will get to choose which character you want to play as in this game, with 15 different choices all with their own unique skills and abilities to utilize throughout the game.
Metacritic Score: 82/100
IGN Rating: 8/10