I first played Payroll during a recent Next Fest, not sure if it was the last or if before then, so the 1.8 hour count is misleading and is closer to 6 hours. In fact, most of the demos I tried to play 30-60 minutes of and no more so that I could get through a dozen or so, but by the time I realized I had played at least 30min of Payroll, it was 4 hours later.

The core loop is extremely enjoyable for Payroll; customizing your dice and creating synergies is extremely fun. I'm not super good at games in general, nor do I often venture into high difficulty modes, but at least base difficulty, I've found the balance to be a good mix of challenging yet not frustratingly punishing.

My only complaint, if you can call it that, is really more of a mixed bag. At the start of a run, you're given random faces on your dice from a large pool of possibilities -- and that can basically make or break the beginning of the game. I've had some runs where I struggled to even beat the first table (and eventually started just checking the dice an abandoning any 'trash' runs), and others where the faces I get are so good that I finish the first bet in one roll. When I say that this game is a roll of the dice, that's not maybe how I wanted to mean it. I do think many people will view this as a positive though, as it keeps each run feeling fresh, but I can't help but feel like there's a better way to do it somehow. Maybe instead runs could start you with a certain number of pips and you get 1-3 rounds of shops to pick from? Idk what the best solution is, but it feels like there's really high variance that's completely out of the player's control at the start.

In general, I definitely recommend Payroll. I'm not sure if I'd fully recommend it at $13 personally, even if I bought it for 90% of that on launch, but if you're not hurting for cash, it's definitely a fun game. And if you ever see it on sale for $5-8, then I think absolutely anyone with any passing interest in chance-based roguelikes should pick it up for that much.

Excellent game, really tests your strategy. Recommend to anyone who wants a challenge