Play Dark Spire, The (US) Online

Dark Spire is one of those old-school dungeon crawlers that doesn’t hold your hand—you’re thrown straight into a shadowy tower with nothing but your wits and a grid-based map to guide you. The first time I played, I got lost almost immediately, stumbling into traps and running from skeletons in the flickering torchlight. But that’s the charm of it.

The combat’s turn-based, with a party you customize from scratch (I went with a thief and regretted it when my lockpicks kept breaking). The music’s got this eerie, almost unsettling vibe that makes every floor feel like you’re digging deeper into something cursed. And yeah, the difficulty’s brutal, but in that satisfying way where every small victory—finding a hidden door, barely surviving an ambush—actually matters.

If you miss the days of graph paper maps and punishing RPGs where death lurks around every corner, this one’s a gem. Just don’t expect the spire to go easy on you.