KeeperRL is in interesting take on a colony builder combined with a roguelike. The colony building is similar to Dwarf Fortress, with some simplifications, but KeeperRL also has an exploration mode that functions more like a roguelike with multiple characters.
KeeperRL looks appealing. I recognize some of the sprites from a common repository, but the style is perfectly fine and they look cohesive and easy to differentiate. Things in this world definitely lean a bit towards being lighthearted and fun, and the art reflects that.
I like the gameplay in KeeperRL, especially the mechanics around exploration. The gameplay loop is building up your army to go out and raid settlements to get better equipment, gold, and experience, which lets you build up your army further.
Building your army is a colony building game of creating a complex where your creatures can train and forge weapons. It works well and differentiates itself somewhat in how creatures work and how you can lay out your buildings. Your wealth, technology level, and buildings determine what monsters you can recruit to be your army.
Defense and assaulting nearby villages with your horde of orcs or zombies is fun and results in gold, experience for your overlord, and new technology. The two control options for this mode are a bit lacking though. Leader mode has your horde act on its own, which is basically useless and Full mode can be a bit tedious, since you are controlling every step of every character.
Exploration and building almost feed into each other in a symbiotic way, but KeeperRL hamstrings itself with how it handles creature experience. To explore (which is motivated by leveling up your overlord and getting more technology) you have to have competitive creatures, which means you have to spend time training them, which isn't difficult or dangerous. You end up just waiting for your creatures to train up so you can do the interesting and fun exploration. More encounters and sourcing creature experience from those probably would solve this problem, but as it stands this portion of the game is a bit tedious and grindy.
I do like KeeperRL and it is certainly trying some interesting things in the genre. It is a cool flavor of both colony sim and roguelike that I will probably return to eventually.
KeeperRL looks appealing. I recognize some of the sprites from a common repository, but the style is perfectly fine and they look cohesive and easy to differentiate. Things in this world definitely lean a bit towards being lighthearted and fun, and the art reflects that.
I like the gameplay in KeeperRL, especially the mechanics around exploration. The gameplay loop is building up your army to go out and raid settlements to get better equipment, gold, and experience, which lets you build up your army further.
Building your army is a colony building game of creating a complex where your creatures can train and forge weapons. It works well and differentiates itself somewhat in how creatures work and how you can lay out your buildings. Your wealth, technology level, and buildings determine what monsters you can recruit to be your army.
Defense and assaulting nearby villages with your horde of orcs or zombies is fun and results in gold, experience for your overlord, and new technology. The two control options for this mode are a bit lacking though. Leader mode has your horde act on its own, which is basically useless and Full mode can be a bit tedious, since you are controlling every step of every character.
Exploration and building almost feed into each other in a symbiotic way, but KeeperRL hamstrings itself with how it handles creature experience. To explore (which is motivated by leveling up your overlord and getting more technology) you have to have competitive creatures, which means you have to spend time training them, which isn't difficult or dangerous. You end up just waiting for your creatures to train up so you can do the interesting and fun exploration. More encounters and sourcing creature experience from those probably would solve this problem, but as it stands this portion of the game is a bit tedious and grindy.
I do like KeeperRL and it is certainly trying some interesting things in the genre. It is a cool flavor of both colony sim and roguelike that I will probably return to eventually.