Dungeon Crawler Carl seems to be on the verge of becoming truly mainstream, with a TV adaptation, graphic novel, tabletop RPG, and deck-building game all in the works. However, surprisingly, we haven’t heard anything about a potential video game based on Matt Dinniman’s books, despite it seeming like the perfect fit. Until that time comes to pass, fans must look elsewhere to get their fill of DCC-like goodness, and open-world RPGs are a great place to start.
What does a game need to have to qualify? I’d say it must hit the mark in five areas: system-breaking builds, hostile setting, dark comedy, loot, and high-stakes progression. Simply put, an open-world RPG exactly like Dungeon Crawler Carl doesn’t exist, but we can find something that scratches a similar itch.
Cyberpunk 2077 Ticks All The Most Dungeon Crawler Carl Boxes
Corporate Meat-Grinder, Alien Dungeons… I mean, What’s The Difference?
- System-breaking Builds: Stack cyberware and perks, and eventually become a ridiculous OP god.
- Hostile Environment: Night City.
- Dark Comedy/Satire: Johnny Silverhand.
- Loot: Color-coded loot.
- Tier Progression: Districts act like difficulty tiers to an extent.
In Dungeon Crawler Carl, aliens strip Earth and turn its survivors into entertainment fodder for the universe; in Cyberpunk 2077, megacorporations effectively accomplish the same thing, reducing human life to an expendable commodity. While DCC incorporates fantasy elements through its dungeon crawling, it ultimately belongs to the sci-fi genre, and C2077 tackles quite a few of the same concepts as the novels.
Both universes treat human suffering as mild entertainment, even if CD Projekt Red’s game isn’t quite as overt. In C2077, one of the most popular forms of entertainment is braindancing, a technology that lets users experience another person’s memories. Naturally, the black market sells violent, unsettling versions designed around cruelty. Night City itself acts as a meat-grinder fueled by corporate greed, where citizens need to mutate their bodies in the hope of achieving any sort of success or recognition.
However, the biggest reason DCC fans should play C2077 is V and Johnny Silverhand’s dynamic. A cynical terrorist who exists inside your head and makes sure to mock every failure, Johnny is like a combination of DCC‘s AI Announcers and Princess Donut. Also, C2077‘s fantastic cyberware systems let you transform V into an absolutely cybernetic monster, achieving unreal power at the cost of parts of his humanity. Not that different from Carl’s journey.
Elex Matches DCC’s Science-Fantasy Vibe
Two Types Of Power Fantasies Set In A Hard-As-Hell World
- System-breaking Builds: Create true science-fantasy combos.
- Hostile Environment: Magalan is a post-apocalyptic hellhole.
- Dark Comedy/Satire: Factions are so extreme they might as well be caricatures.
- Loot: Leveling system is heavily built around loot, as you need to level up your stats to unlock new weapons.
- Tier Progression: Head to an area too soon and prepare to be stomped into oblivion.
I bet some of you weren’t expecting this one.
Elex is, well, a Piranha Bytes game in every sense of the word, meaning it is simultaneously the greatest and worst open-world RPG you will ever play. Although not the developer’s most highly regarded release, Elex surprisingly fits Dungeon Crawler Carl well, although players need some tolerance for Eurojank gameplay if they want to stick with this one.
Rather than aliens, a meteorite wipes out a large portion of humanity, leaving behind a substance called “Elex” that grants magic powers but takes away emotions. Nowadays, factions rule the land, and the protagonist, Jax, must start from nothing as he tries to survive in a world where everything wants him dead and has the power to do just that.
Let’s get right down to Elex‘s most polarizing element: combat. Janky as the system feels in the opening few hours (and the last few hours, to be honest), it eventually reveals its potential for absurd builds. You could find yourself flying around on a jetpack while blasting enemies with plasma rifles, popping stems to tank damage, and spamming fireballs. You will find yourself putting attribute points into dexterity and intelligence to wield the Laser Blaster, or investing everything in strength to equip the Slaughterblade.
Magallan doesn’t have that fantasy aesthetic that DCC fans love, but you can almost treat the whole map as an expansive dungeon with enemies that act as level testers.
Fable 2 Oozes British Humor
Carl And The Hero Have Similar Bad Luck And The Will To Overcome It
- System-breaking Builds: Free to blend Strength, Skill, and Will to create absurd hybrid builds.
- Hostile Environment: Albion is governed by tyrants and cults.
- Dark Comedy/Satire: Dark British satire.
- Loot: Augment weapons and buy real estate.
- Tier Progression: Besides higher-level regions, The Crucible is a level-based fighting arena.
I know not everybody considers Fable 2 to be an open-world game, but it is adjacent to that genre at the very least.
Although not quite matching Dungeon Crawler Carl‘s penchant for existential horror and gore, Fable 2 nevertheless blends a colorful, vibrant fairy-tale aesthetic with a grim underbelly and dark satire. The Hero of Bowerstone’s journey mirrors Carl to an extent, as they both start as nobodies with basically nothing to their name. The Syndicate leaves Carl with only his boxers and Princess Donut, while Fable 2‘s villain leaves the Hero with nothing and on the verge of death. They are both seen as trash.
As Carl grows stronger, his body changes, taking on scars, marks, and mass. The Hero goes through a similar metamorphosis, his form evolving depending on the player’s preferred stats. More importantly, the Hero ends up in The Spire, which might as well be a DCC dungeon floor. He spends years working in an environment designed to crush his spirit, but he refuses to bow down.
Survival means breaking the system, and Fable 2 lets you do that through the story and systems; for instance, you can outsmart the real estate system and completely exploit the game’s economy.
Fallout: New Vegas Lets You Exploit The System
Welcome To The Wasteland
- System-breaking Builds: Deep character customization that covers stats and personality.
- Hostile Environment: You are left for dead in the first 5 minutes, and then end up in a desert caught in a three-way war.
- Dark Comedy/Satire: Yes, pick the Wild Wasteland trait.
- Loot: Modify weapons.
- Tier Progression: Some areas are much harder than others.
Although it might not have the explosive action that helps define DCC, Fallout: New Vegas gives you a brutal playground, brilliant perk and trait systems that let you morph your character into your definition of perfection, exploitable builds, and even ammo crafting. The Courier’s story begins with a shot to the head and a shallow burial, before heading into a wasteland so stripped of resources that it might as well have been seized by the Syndicate.
Carl’s greatest strength is his ability to think outside the box and find loopholes in the dungeon’s rules, and New Vegas gives players enough leeway to create builds that feel like they break the world. You can combine Shotgun Surgeon, Pyromaniac, and V.A.T.S. perks to become a walking death machine, and you can even pop Chems to gain stat boosts at the risk of addiction.
New Vegas‘ story takes itself fairly seriously, but players can up the surreal humor if they want. Wild Wasteland turns the game into a fever dream, while Bloody Mess ensures enemies explode into a shower of gore on critical hits.
