Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot offers a short and stout take on the auto-battler
As a throwback to classic side-scrolling RTS like Age of War, it also offers varying levels of challenge
Send out your dwarves to do battle with the orcs, growing stronger and collecting precious loot along the way
Dwarves: Death Glory & Loot is a tricky game to review, not because it's particularly obtuse or difficult to understand, but because it appeals to a very specific niche and comes with a lot of depth. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. So while I am a bit reticent to give my judgement, I’ll try and give my impressions.
So, not to start off too descriptively, but Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot is, at its core, an auto-battler. You recruit units, outfit them and then send them into battle, although of course the main appeal here is the fact that your units are the hard-drinking and doughty dwarfs. And while I do call it an auto-battler, it's very different to something like Teamfight Tactics or AFK Journey. It’s a side-scroller for one, and the tactics are, I feel, a bit deeper than either of those.
And that's what I found to be particularly appealing about Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot, the fact that there are actual tactics involved. Of course, they're pretty simple and mostly about how your dwarves are outfitted or the weight that they have – because knocking back your enemies is a part of the strategy here. Even as someone who doesn’t like auto-battlers, I feel that this small amount of additional depth really helps to elevate the game.
The fact that the dwarves feel distinct already just based on what they have equipped is enough to really give this actual strategic depth, which gives it a very distinct appeal.
You also have a little bit of variety involved because you're not just killing off the same enemy over and over. The orcs that you battle against will have different abilities and different equipment that can often mirror yours, and that means that you'll have to adapt and think about what you're going to be doing as they grow more powerful. The clans that you can play as each have different abilities, which means that you'll have a little bit of additional tactical depth involved there. Although you can easily just synergise with what their special abilities are, it all depends on your playstyle.
The graphics are also comfortably retro, and again, it's a known fact that I quite like pixelated artwork because I feel it's something that works well no matter if it's a big screen or a small screen. The music itself is what I'd call ‘Flash game generic’, though. It works for what it is, and it certainly adds a little bit of hype to the battles, but it's not something that you'll find particularly memorable.
Speaking of small screens, that is where the first of my complaints really comes in. It’s very clearly built for a large screen like a tablet or a PC, and when you're using it on mobile you basically have to rely on tooltips by holding your thumb over items and buttons to get the information that would otherwise be pretty easy if you were just using a cursor.
In that way, this really made me appreciate exactly why games like AFK Journey have the automatic upgrade button, because it can get quite tedious going through and figuring out what is more powerful in terms of items for your dwarves, what their stats are, how to synergise, and whatnot. Which is not necessarily a mark against the game design, because that’s clearly very solid, but it's not necessarily built for mobile.
But again, I have to temper this complaint with a compliment because of the fact that it shows Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot has a lot of depth to it. And, especially for a premium game, what you really want is value for money. Which you're certainly getting because there is already an entire official wiki dedicated to it, plenty of items and higher rarities of them to sort through, as well as upgrades for the rune system and even different formations depending on what abilities your dwarves are dedicated to.
So, putting aside all the waffling, what is the bottom line? Is it worth your money? Well, I feel that if you value gameplay depth and potential playtime over graphics, you’ll definitely get a lot out of Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot. At the same time, even if you are that kind of person, if you are not looking for an auto-battler that is asking you to really get into the mood for multiple similar battles, and slowly upgrading your units with new and incrementally better equipment and abilities, you might not get as much out of it as some people will.
With that in mind, consider my score to be more of a general appraisal of my experience so far. I definitely see the appeal, and I can 100% see a certain audience really, really enjoying it. However, the one key mark I have against it is the fact that it feels as though it wasn't really polished up or properly adapted for mobile, and that there was a lot that could have been done to make it more accessible for a smartphone audience.
And if you're looking for even more exciting releases to play on mobile, why not take a look at our list of the best strategy games on Android for some more choice picks?
Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot review – “A hard-drinking twist on the auto-battler"