Again in 2022, I spent numerous time enjoying the Dome Keeper demo on Steam and I actually loved it however I by no means acquired round to completely reviewing it which is why I wished to speak about this recreation that I’ve been enjoying so much through the years.
Developer: bippinbits
Writer: Uncooked Fury
Style: Indie, 2D, Roguelike Tower-Protection Administration
Launch Date: September twenty seventh, 2022
Reviewed on: PC
Out there on: PC (Win, mac, Lin)
Copy was bought.
Dome Keeper (previously generally known as Dome Romantik earlier than they modified their title for copyright causes) is a Roguelike-Technique recreation that’s all about time and useful resource administration. You spawn on an alien planet in a dome to mine sources and uncover a relic.
This relic could be very highly effective which is why you danger your life to retrieve it… however the native fauna on this planet you’re on isn’t too pleased with you not simply touchdown right here however primarily exploiting their planet.
As such, you’ll spend your time throughout so-called “cycles” mining sources and bringing them again to the dome. Then, spend these sources on upgrades on your defences and higher mining effectivity so to seize sources much more simply. On the finish of every cycle, you’ll defend your dome in opposition to an onslaught of alien attackers that come at you with all the things they acquired – and extra per cycle you spend on this planet. It will get troublesome.
It’s a really revolutionary recreation that mixes core facets of the roguelike method, particularly useful resource administration and decision-making, with a moderately completely different method to gameplay.
The sport will get fairly troublesome rapidly, particularly in higher-difficulty settings, the place your expertise and bought data get their time to shine. As you go deeper, it takes longer so that you can mine blocks and sources may grow to be scarcer. Thus, you develop methods on your character, attempt to optimize your mining habits, make the most of sources effectively, and check out to not get too grasping.
Fight itself is comprised of your dome going through assaults from the sky, the west aspect and/or the east aspect. You usually have an assault button and a few motion choices – and in case you dig up corresponding dietary supplements and devices, you may even have additional lively talents or objects to help you in battle. It’s fast-forward and easy however provides a ton of tactical gameplay.
Moreover, every dome comes with issues they’re good at and issues they wrestle in opposition to.
The default “Laser Dome” struggles in opposition to teams of enemies however performs very well in opposition to singular enemies, particularly as a consequence of its infinite vary – in the meantime my absolute favorite dome, the Sword Dome, is phenomenal in melee fight however struggles in opposition to flying enemies as a consequence of its reliance on charging up a “stab” assault and in addition touchdown it.
Every dome could be upgraded alongside numerous paths to both compensate for weaknesses, bulk up defences or additional focus on particular instructions. Be it a second laser because the laser dome, wider explosions or greater affect injury on the artillery dome, an agile shock blade versus a sluggish heavy blade on the sword dome, and extra.
There are numerous choices to actually customise your expertise and maybe even cope with particular person challenges as you please.
I discussed devices earlier than. They’re important objects you choose up as you go deeper into mining sources. You may encounter these 2×2 blocks of tech that, when dug up, grant you a capability of types to additional improve your capabilities. Among the tech applies to the cellar of your dome, permitting you to develop performance-enhancing shrooms or produce very unstable mining bombs.
Different devices may make it easier to with gathering sources – just like the carry that transports sources upwards into the dome or the scanner that helps you find stated sources within the mines. There are numerous them and every certainly one of them can be upgraded within the useful resource tree.
Dome Keeper is a reasonably easy recreation at first look but it surely has a stunning quantity of depth, and I haven’t even talked about two comparatively completely different characters that the sport options, the varied main devices you may take in your journey, and numerous recreation modes which are out there for play.
All of that is accompanied by a splendidly serene soundtrack that actually permits you to calm down in between the vicious waves, in addition to a superbly crafted visible fashion comprised of comparatively detailed pixel artwork, numerous color palettes and “alien world” backdrops & designs, in addition to small particulars, like little critters and numerous crops inhabiting your mines as you dig deeper.
The expertise does wrestle, nonetheless, to maintain issues contemporary in the long run, in my expertise. I’ve performed, on the time of writing, sixty hours through the years, which is an effective period of time spent on a recreation like this, in fact, however I do play in sporadic bursts moderately than numerous it at one time, and that’s for a purpose.
When you’ve tried all of the completely different builds, you’ll simply find yourself enjoying the sport with no matter feels finest for you on the time. You optimise the expertise based mostly in your acquired data and the runs do get fairly same-y. Sure, the procedural technology, particularly with the considerably random distributions of more durable and extra brittle rocks does support in making runs extra diversified however they solely assist a lot.
In reality, that final half is one thing that I additionally discover a bit tough, personally, as there are occasions the place you may simply wrestle to search out the proper sources on the proper time, or in any respect. I’ve had runs that had been stricken by a scarcity of water and therefore utterly missing particular upgrades, particularly for all the devices. I’ve had runs that had been misplaced as a consequence of a scarcity of devices… and looking out on the timelapse afterwards, I wasn’t shocked to see that there weren’t any sources I wanted wherever near the place I used to be.
The procedural technology could be fairly punishing at occasions however the larger situation right here is the repetitive nature of the sport that doesn’t get mounted by different core mechanics of the rogue-like style. Particularly, The Binding of Isaac, a really completely different recreation, retains issues contemporary both through the introduction of latest characters or through the various, many, many various objects within the recreation. Dome Keeper’s listing of things is pretty restricted as compared. There are additionally solely two characters within the recreation and the Assessor feels simply odd to play.
The sport does, nonetheless, additionally function a status mode that performs a bit in a different way, in addition to the various “Guild Assignments” that present distinctive and extremely fascinating challenges, to not point out modded content material that you may add fairly simply to get the sport and modifiers you may apply to your runs for extra customized experiences.
All in all, I do love the sport. I spend chunk of time right here, in any case… however I can’t assist however generally drift away from it to then not play it in any respect for a lot of moons earlier than finally returning again to Dome Keeper. I believe that’s positive for roguelikes. For many video games, that’s the way it’s presupposed to be performed, in a manner, and truthfully, I’m glad that the sport remains to be getting updates even so lengthy after its 1.0 – to not point out multiplayer being within the works.
When you do like distinctive gameplay experiences which are simple to get into, extremely addictive and comparatively relaxed even with the tougher waves of enemies in a while, I extremely suggest Dome Keeper.
When you’re a aggressive individual you may take into account racing in opposition to different individuals on the status mode leaderboards the place it’s best to discover loads of individuals to compete in opposition to and in case you’re extra laid-back, there are many “pets” to gather and you may even disable enemy waves altogether to only calm down within the mines.
Dome Keeper is a recreation that I do return to now and again. It’s distinctive sufficient in its premise that I simply get an “itch” for it every time I don’t play it for some time. There haven’t been too many video games that hit that exact same “itch” to today, so that is some nice reward, in my view.
Therefore, I’m undoubtedly recommending the sport to followers of roguelites and tower defence video games of any variety, particularly in case you do take pleasure in a way of company, even when the procedural technology can at occasions screw you over a bit.
On an unrelated be aware, in case you’d prefer to see me make foolish errors on this recreation, be at liberty to take a look at my playlist of assorted runs over right here. Been getting again into importing content material extra recurrently on my channel and figured it might be a pleasant extension to opinions like this one in case individuals wanna see among the gameplay and never simply learn in regards to the recreation.
This put up was initially written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
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