Welcome Back to the Dungeon

Today's game review is of the 2016 release, Welcome Back to the Dungeon.  For 2-4 players, it plays in 30 minutes.

Overview
Welcome Back to the Dungeon is the stand-alone sequel to (wait for it) Welcome to the Dungeon.  The goal is to take one of four adventurers into a monster-packed dungeon and come out alive.  Each adventurer has six pieces of equipment, each granting a special ability (like slaying certain monsters or giving you Hit Points- HP).  But it's unlikely that they'll enter the dungeon fully prepared . . . for each round, players will bid on who enters the dungeon by successively adding monsters or removing equipment.  Will you press your luck and enter, or let someone else chance it?

one adventurer with associated equipment tiles (image from here)

Simplified Gameplay
The game is played over several rounds.  For each round, choose one adventurer with associated equipment tiles and lay him/her out on the table.  Each round has two phases:

1. Bidding phase
In the bidding phase, you either:
   a. Draw a card (from the monster deck) and look at it; put it face-down in the dungeon pile OR in front of you; if you do the latter, take an equipment tile of your choice and put it on top of the monster
   b. Pass your turn (you no longer participate in the round)

Once every player but one has passed, the phase ends.

2. Dungeon phase
The player who did not pass enters the dungeon, starting with the equipment and number of HP indicated by the remaining tiles.  Reveal a monster one at a time, defeat it if possible or lose HP equal to the monster's strength.  Continue until either there are no more monsters (congrats- you get a success card!) or your HP is zero.

Then the next round begins.  The monster deck is re-shuffled, a new adventurer is chosen (the same can be used repeatedly if desired), and play continues until one player has two success cards OR everyone but one dies (if a player dies twice, they're out).

Review
This game (and its predecessor) gets good reviews.  It's a press-your-luck game, pure and simple.  During the bidding phase, you have to try to make the dungeon hard by adding monsters or removing equipment (so others don't get an easy win), but not too hard (so you don't die, if you get stuck entering it).  You know only the cards you've placed in the dungeon, so finding the sweet spot is an educated guess.

Though it plays fast and is enjoyed by many, I prefer games with more depth and less 'gambling.'  Once the player is determined, they (probably) don't have a lot of options to defeat the monsters they encounter, which makes the bidding phase dominate the game (perhaps that's intentional).  More variety on the dungeon phase would improve this experience.

Rating: B-