Diib's Dilemma

A very old-school, action battle game that was definitely made in the '90's, Diib's Dilemma is an RPG about discovery rather than exploration. The meat of the game is to survive through increasing levels of difficulty by upgrading the spells in your spell book with elements found battling in the levels. Unlike other games of this type there are no maps to explore, instead each level will be the same-sized, square, isometric grid (presumably one floor of Diib's Dilemma Tower) which you then have to defeat all the monsters of the current level in order to progress. You have a limited number of spell types to take into battle, 2 at the start of the game, and you must be able to cast spells to defeat monsters, and then dodge enemies as your spells slowly recharge. Your character does not have levels or stats that increase as the game progresses, just the spells in his book. At first there are 4 spells to choose from including attack spells, a trap and a heal spell. After you have c...

Ah this game brings back memories. I wasted too much time long ago trying to beat this one. Minutes to learn, lifetime to master, this game shows its age but the core game is still solid and fun. A warning to everyone right up front, this game can only be played with a keyboard. Clicking on menu options or spells does nothing. The sound and music and art also do not appear to have been upgraded at all since the original version was available. I don't mind the retro feel, but know before you buy this one that it really was released 20 years ago. The game is a devilishly deep puzzle game about strategy and resource management. Take in a limited number of spells and figure out a way to survive to.... well to as far as you can make it, I've never beaten it in all the years. There are a huge number of strategies to employ. You simply put a spell in a slot, and then after you cast it you have to wait for it to reload. Spells can be direct damage, summoning, traps, healing, score b...

This game is such a mixed bag, largely due to its age (which you can immediately tell when the game loads and you can see 'Copywrite 1999-2002'). Diib's Dilemma is an arcade style game where you are given a selection of spells to choose from which you take into a chamber to fight foes. More spells can be unlocked (built) by gathering soul stones, which are either dropped by enemies or given in groups of five each time you beat four rounds without taking damage. The battle screen is a grid, and its really up to you how you play. This game is not for the faint of hard, as it is quite hard. The gameplay allows you to pick your own strategy, especially as you gather more spells, and rewards a player for performing well. You use the arrow keys to move on the grid and the number keys to fire the spell assigned to them. However, as soon as you begin moving to the next square, you can be hit as though you are on it, and the same rules apply to enemies, making it risky to step up to enemies, ...

I've been playing this game since middle school, sneaking in rounds on the library computers. Diib's Dilemma is one of those games you keep going back to. The gameplay is simple but the spellbuilding system gives it a great personal flair. The game is old enough and hard enough that a complete guide for it just doesn't exist, so you don't know everything in the build tree. Cooldowns in this game are LONG. You'll spend a large chunk of your time running around the board, avoiding being utterly ransacked and destroyed by primitive but relentless AIs. If you can survive long enough for you spells to pop back up, you'll juggle remembering which squares you left traps in, timing your attacks just right so they hit before you get smacked, or crossing your fingers and hoping your summons attack the enemy chasing you instead of the others one or everything, including you, at once. Diib's Dilemma is a game of another time. Chunky, deep, and hard as #&$%. It's worth the delve.

I could see someone buying this game back 20 years ago in a bargin bin and thinking it was alright, but now you can find much beter options for this small price or smaller.

Well worth it for the nostalgia alone. Random Thoughts made some of the BEST games of its time, and it's great to see one of them again. I hope they'll port stuff like Mercenaries of Dosbar and Silent Frontier, next! Definitely buy this if you grew up in the age of the java game!

I remember playing this when system shock 2 and age of empires 2. The game doesnt have much to go off of, you mainly slay the monsters till you die. I got to level 25 and was like im bored!

Fun, original, cerebral and challenging game. You play as a mage fighting against various groups of monsters at a time, crafting and choosing from a variety of spells. The game plays in real time, but with the cooldowns the game emphasizes careful strategy over twitch reflexes. Its very hard, the graphics weren't even good for there and it can get repetive, but its a lot of fun and incredible value for money

Pretty chill classic game. Can't go wrong giving it a shot.

Diib's Dilemma is an ancient Java game from 1999. It's a whopping 24 years old at the time of this review. The game runs in a Java runtime environment and lacks proper widescreen aspect ratio support (it's locked at 4:3) or support for any modern gaming display resolutions, hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Alt + Tab will cause the game to crash immediately. Despite this lack of modernisation and zero testing, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge. I understand developers will often do these nostalgia gouges from games that were dearly loved fan favourites. But in this case Diib's Dilemma went straight into the shovelware bins at launch, it was never considered a quality game. Some context for anyone who wasn't around back then, but in 1999, PC gamers were pretty busy and pretty happy with Starcraft, Valve's Half-Life game (don't know if you heard about that on...