Recent reviews by Hemtroll

I'm gonna recommend this game, but be aware that the general consensus you might get from other reviews is not entirely accurate. Comparing KeeperRL to Rimworld or other management games feels unfair to the developer. The base-building in this game is bare-bones at best. You only really need a handful of rooms and there is no real reason to build a huge base or otherwise expand across the entire map because not only are the available resources limited, they are all clearly marked from the get go. This isn't a game where you're meant to build and manage a growing colony like in Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress. The base is really only there to provide a rudimentary progression tree as you unlock more unit types and a few different tiers of equipment.

Units require no food, money, or other upkeep, and the only real downside to losing an orc or other monster is that you'll have to spend more time waiting for the replacement to get up to the same level and that you might lose the equipment if the monster dies where you can't easily retrieve it.

The game is a roguelike, but more in the sense that you shouldn't grow attached to any part of your base or character, because it'll probably be over soon. The main problem I have is that the limited resource cap means that the best way to play is to turtle up at your base until all your monsters have trained as high as they can and are wearing the best equipment you can provide before venturing out to attack factions on other maps. Since research is directly tied to how many other factions you destroy, this also means that you're pretty much sitting around waiting for numbers to go up before wandering out, hopefully taking out a faction, and then going back to wait some more.

To summarize, I recommend the game if you're interested in a new take on the roguelike genre influenced by Dungeon Keeper. Don't buy it if you're looking for a solid base-builder.

If you like Xcom but feel like ragequitting because of those 90% misses and random BS killing your guys, I recommend this game. The only randomness in 20 hours played is some slight variation in damage, the map chosen for a given battle, and the enemy spawns in some areas. The game feels extremely fair as far as mechanics go, but be warned that it is easier than Xcom. Not too easy to be enjoyable, but you can pretty much min-max your characters right from the start.

One of the best 4X games I've played. True to Paradox marketing strategies, it pretty much requires DLC to reach its full potential, but the game continues to get better and more interesting with every patch.