Dungeon Settlers' First-Day Steam Reviews: What Players Are Saying

The first player verdicts on Dungeon Settlers are in. The game opened to a “Very Positive” Steam rating on September 5, 2026 — roughly one day after the Early Access launch — with 161 of 188 user reviews positive (~86%).

What do positive reviews praise?

The gameplay loop comes up first. One 4-hour player: “Really fun and good gameplay loop… Overall great so far.” Another, after 13 hours: “I found the gameplay loop to be fun, research tree is a little small, but besides that the game has quite enough to keep me engaged for some time.”

The RimWorld comparison is the recurring frame — usually favorable. A 6-hour review: “Normal feels more like Rimworld with a fantasy dungeon twist.” Others describe it as an easier, more dungeon-focused take on the colony-sim formula.

Stability surprised several reviewers. A 4-hour player: “no bugs so far, which is quite impressive for early access.” (CanOpener’s own known-issues list is longer than that — individual mileage clearly varies.)

And the art direction wins people over even against genre preferences: “I’m not a fan of settlement sims but this game is so charming and easy to get into, I’m having an absolute blast.”

What do critical reviews say?

Of the 27 negative reviews, three themes repeat:

• Content volume vs. price — several Korean and Chinese reviews say the current build feels thin for the Early Access price, with one noting the full release is estimated two years out
• The random reroll system — characters roll random stats, traits, and classes; one Chinese reviewer reported rerolling for an hour looking for a usable start, and wants an option to lock at least one role
• Skill micromanagement — a Korean review complains that triggering each of four party members’ skills individually on every cooldown is tiring

One English review, positive but waiting: “I will wait to fully dive into it when/if they add a way to create your own characters.” Character creation is not on the published roadmap — the closest planned item is the Update 5 modding beta.

One tip players keep repeating — and how it changed

Multiple first-day reviews independently reported that the game started on Hard by default — one puts it bluntly: “Game Auto starts on Hard” and calls it “a real struggle.” That was the launch-day state, and it no longer applies: v0.4.19 (September 6, 2026) changed the default difficulty to Normal, and Hard remains selectable manually. Our difficulty guide lists every launch-week difficulty change. If you’re starting out, our beginner’s guide walks the opening loop.

Where does the rating stand now?

As of October 27, 2026, the all-time rating has slipped to Mostly Positive, per Steam’s public review summary: 1,162 positive of 1,477 reviews (about 79%), up from 188 reviews at the one-day mark — the count has grown more than sevenfold, while the positive share slid from about 86% on day one through about 82% on September 11 to about 79%.

Launch-week patching answered two of the recurring complaints above: reroll locking arrived in v0.4.17 and v0.4.19, and the default difficulty dropped to Normal. Post-patch reviews keep the RimWorld frame — a September 7 review at 41 hours played: “Easily lose a few (or a lot, the game lets you play at your own pace) hours in this Rimworld-esque basebuilding game.” The same reviewer credits the developer’s responsiveness: “The developers are quite receptive and tracking of player feedbacks, so patches and updates had so far been released to address sore points raised by the community pretty efficiently, if that’s something you look for.”

The content-volume criticism hasn’t gone anywhere, though. A September 7 review at 9 hours, positive overall, sums it up: “It’s limited right now.” — and hopes more content arrives over time. That matches the published schedule: the next content milestone, Update 4, is targeted at Q4 2026 on the EA roadmap.

What to read next

• Early Access Goes Live September 4, 2026 — what shipped, the discount, and the roadmap
• Dungeon Settlers Difficulty Levels Explained — every launch-week difficulty change
• Update v0.4.12 Patch Notes — the first patch, shipped within hours
• Known Issues & Fixes — the official troubleshooting list