I picked up the old version of Desktop Dungeons a few weeks ago, and enjoyed it so much that I picked up the new version for myself and a couple of my friends. For a while, it was great. I had fun banging my head against the class challenges and the puzzles. I went out and did a bunch of the kingdom-expansion stuff. and was making good progress.
And then I hit Shifting Passages. And the all-mages challenge for it. It wasn't fun. The growing walls made the entire dungeon frustrating, because I couldn't depend on being able to get back to an altar, unexplored terrain, or the enemy I wanted to fight next. I ended up hunting around at semi-random to unlock the remaining gods (annoying, since there's nothing telling you where to look), particularly Binlor, and then scumming a Binlor start (because erosion is icky with that many walls) and demolishing most of the labyrinth. All-in-all, a long, tedious, and frustrating experience, but at least it was satisfying to finally finish.
The problem is that in the process, I kinda burned out. Since then, I pick at a level or two every once in a while, but the ones I need to progress are all just too difficult for my patience right now. It seems like every dungeon I go to now has a boss that at L8 takes 20 attacks to kill, does more than my total HP in each hit, and has a friend who's even worse. I know I'm exaggerating and that there are much harder dungeons that I haven't unlocked, but that's the mental state I'm stuck in. I don't want to spin my gears on the newbie dungeons, but the stuff I'd need to do to progress is just... ridiculous. I'm here to have fun, not to munchkin around and inspect every decision with an electron microscope.
I came back today to see if the update had anything to draw me back in, and most of what it has to offer just makes things harder. Gee, thanks. I'm sure there are people who will love it, but I'm not one of them. Me, I want a way to tone down the difficulty, so that I can get back into playing and not feel like I'm beating my head against a wall. I like difficulty, but right now, I need a break... and the game keeps turning the thumbscrews instead.