Dome Keeper feels like a modern flash game. Beyond the very clear comparisons and inspirations from the classic Motherload, this game excels at something the classic web games excelled at, by actually living up to their goal of being a game that you can pick up and play at any time. I've often felt that other roguelikes and arcade styled gameplay sometimes struggled with how to balance the amount of content that you need to unlock on the long-term and how much they ask you from each session, something that Dome Keeper is able balance with flying colours.

Going back to the previous reference to Motherload, if you've ever played that flash game back in the day, then you'll immediately understand Dome Keeper's gameplay loop. You drop down with your dome into an alien planet, and must mine resources (Iron, Water and Cobalt) in order to upgrade your dome's defence capabilities and mining abilities. The deeper you go into a mine, the harder the terrain gets, and unless you have improvements to your mining abilities, the longer each individual trip down bellow will take. Every few minutes you'll have to pop out back to the surface to defend your dome, using either the laser or sword domes at your disposal to vanquish various enemies trying to destroy it. Likewise to mining, waves become harder the longer they go on.

It's absolutely nerve wrecking (in a positive way) how you have to balance decisions between mining and defending your dome, such as trying to find that last piece of Cobalt before popping back up to the surface to repair your dome and defend it at the very last minute. Relics and caves that you can find as you continue playing also spice up the gameplay, introducing favour-turning elements to your current run, from resource elevators, a pet dinosaur named Drillbert which helps you mine through the mines (when not asleep), to seeds that you can plant for resource trees. There's enough small but consequential decision making on every run to make each playthrough feel similar, but still unique.

Sessions can last as short as 20 minutes on the small map, up to 2 hours or more on the bigger-ones. Beyond map size, you can also adjust the difficulty, modifiers, and starting relic to your liking. While some players might find it undervaluing for Dome Keeper not to have as much unlockable long-term progression as other games, I think the small unlock of new map sizes, relics, and even modifiers to those relics give the game small goals to work with, but without ever forcing you into a given direction where you're completely stuck out of something you have to grind for hours to unlock too.

And of course, it also needs to be said, but the presentation of the game is also fantastic, with crisp pixel-art, changing palettes on each run, as well as ambient music (that you can customise the frequency off in the settings) for each of both unique characters that you can play as. The latest update also introduces small life-forms to the cave, so there's plenty for your eyes to look at as you explore!

I'm really glad to have grabbed this game right once it went on sale, and I'm eagerly looking forward to what other future content is planned for the game. The Assessor at first felt like a gimmicky character, but has quickly turned into my favourite character to play as, especially with its unique soundtracks and the way they power up as you upgrade their abilities. Thank you very much for the developer Bippinbits and the publishing team at Raw Fury for such a great time. Played primarily on the Steam Deck.

[b]Dome Keeper[/b] feels like a modern flash game. Beyond the very clear comparisons and inspirations from the classic Motherload, this game excels at something the classic web games excelled at, by actually living up to their goal of being a game that you can pick up and play at any time. I've often felt that other roguelikes and arcade styled gameplay sometimes struggled with how to balance the amount of content that you need to unlock on the long-term and how much they ask you from each session, something that Dome Keeper is able balance with flying colours. Going back to the previous reference to Motherload, if you've ever played that flash game back in the day, then you'll immediately understand Dome Keeper's gameplay loop. You drop down with your dome into an alien planet, and must mine resources (Iron, Water and Cobalt) in order to upgrade your dome's defence capabilities and mining abilities. The deeper you go into a mine, the harder the terrain gets, and unless you have improvements to your mining abilities, the longer each individual trip down bellow will take. Every few minutes you'll have to pop out back to the surface to defend your dome, using either the laser or sword domes at your disposal to vanquish various enemies trying to destroy it. Likewise to mining, waves become harder the longer they go on. It's absolutely nerve wrecking (in a positive way) how you have to balance decisions between mining and defending your dome, such as trying to find that last piece of Cobalt before popping back up to the surface to repair your dome and defend it at the very last minute. Relics and caves that you can find as you continue playing also spice up the gameplay, introducing favour-turning elements to your current run, from resource elevators, a pet dinosaur named Drillbert which helps you mine through the mines (when not asleep), to seeds that you can plant for resource trees. There's enough small but consequential decision making on every run to make each playthrough feel similar, but still unique. Sessions can last as short as 20 minutes on the small map, up to 2 hours or more on the bigger-ones. Beyond map size, you can also adjust the difficulty, modifiers, and starting relic to your liking. While some players might find it undervaluing for Dome Keeper not to have as much unlockable long-term progression as other games, I think the small unlock of new map sizes, relics, and even modifiers to those relics give the game small goals to work with, but without ever forcing you into a given direction where you're completely stuck out of something you have to grind for hours to unlock too. And of course, it also needs to be said, but the presentation of the game is also fantastic, with crisp pixel-art, changing palettes on each run, as well as ambient music (that you can customise the frequency off in the settings) for each of both unique characters that you can play as. The latest update also introduces small life-forms to the cave, so there's plenty for your eyes to look at as you explore! I'm really glad to have grabbed this game right once it went on sale, and I'm eagerly looking forward to what other future content is planned for the game. The Assessor at first felt like a gimmicky character, but has quickly turned into my favourite character to play as, especially with its unique soundtracks and the way they power up as you upgrade their abilities. Thank you very much for the developer Bippinbits and the publishing team at Raw Fury for such a great time. Played primarily on the Steam Deck.