Key

Despot's Game: Dystopian Battle Simulator
Developed by: Konfa Games

I want to get this out right off the bat by saying "god damn this game is good". Now that that's out of the way. God damn, Despot's Game is good, great even. It's an autobattler, it's tactics style combat, it's a roguelike, it's got upgrades, mutations, items, several ways to take on enemies every run since you can freely move your units around however you wish. Maybe you'll have a line of range fighters in the back and have some tank fighters up front to take the damage while the range fighters take down HP. I only say that because that was a run I literally just had. Convinced yet?

So, what is Despot's Game? Hell, I didn't really know how to answer that question myself, at least until I put a decent amount of time into the game to kind of figure it out and let it breath a little bit. From the outside, it just looks like your typical pixel graphics type game, but of course, with the brilliant minds of indie developers, this game has so much more than what it seen on the surface.

A typical run of Despot's Game, at least how it's been for me lately is this: you start with a group of 4 humans, one ranger, one tank, one swordsman, and one unarmed I believe. As you progress each room Binding of Isaac style, you take on enemies in each room, and the reward for doing so varies depending on what kind of room you're on. You can either use tokens that you gain through combat on food that you will need to continue to venture with your group further, or you can purchase more people to add to your team to create an arsenal of pain. However, this doesn't mean you can just keep buying more and more people to upgrade and subsequently have a powerhouse army that can't be messed with. No, they have something called hunger, which is where the purchase of food comes in. For every human you have on your team, it takes 1 piece of food to progress to the next room with that person. And so on for the rest. So, sometimes it's best to keep your team size low for the first few rooms or levels, then bank some food in your inventory by purchasing it after certain rooms. Then later on boost your army up. The only drawback to that as well however is you miss the chance to level them up, which can drastically change the look of a run depending on which kind of build you chose to go with. Basically, there's a positive and a negative to how you set your team up, which is why it's been so much fun jumping back in even after dying because one run never feels like the same run. You are open to try new strategies and see which weapons work well together which allows this game, as a roguelike dungeon crawler at its core, to shine, at least for me.

In a time where we see a lot of these devs try to mix certain things together and end up falling short, Despot's Game actually hits all the right notes for me. It's a roguelike dungeon crawler at its core as I mentioned before. But the different kinds of mutations and team builds you can come up with to take on the enemies floor after floor is some of the most creative that I've personally ever seen. It's also really nice that its an autobattler because it gives you all the satisfaction of going full on strategy mode, then basically having no control once you press "GO" and sometimes it's good to learn from your mistakes in certain situation which once again, allows the game to shine due to its high level of replayability. I strongly suggest playing the game for yourself to really get the feel for what I'm talking about, because if I were me and I had not played this game before and was listening to someone explain it, it'd be hard for me to get it, at least. It's certainly a different take but I love it all the same.

I'd also stretch a bit to say that my overall feeling towards roguelike dungeon crawlers in general is pretty positive so although this particular one took a little bit more time to kind of understand and see the depth of it, I actually have enjoyed every session I have played of it, and as of right now, I'm probably closing in on 10 hours. It's a great game to not only play, but a great game to get lost in, as most roguelikes are. Just an overall good time, and oops, I forgot to mention one of the most important aspects of any roguelike dungeon crawler, the music! And how is it?

Well...it's fantastic. Not only for this game but as a standalone soundtrack as well. Why do I know that? Well, I listened to the whole soundtrack on my way to work today and I got so immersed that I genuinely thought about playing this game the minute I got home. And I did. And it was wonderful. I'd rather not spoil it and explain what the music is like as I think it's worth it to jump in and see for yourself. It fits the game better than you'd expect, and the whole vibe that's going on really works in its favor. You can tell from the soundtrack alone that this was a work of passion from all sides, and it really shows.

Is it the greatest roguelike dunegon crawler I've ever played? Certainly not, there are many that do these same things and do it better. But what I love about Despot's Game that sets it aside from the others is that it has a lot of unique qualities working in its favor that make the experience of playing it all the more enjoyable. It's not just a roguelike, you're strategizing your team builds and finding out different ways to take on waves of enemies. It's a great time for if you're just looking for a relaxing getaway or really wanna get those juices pumping. It's also not the hardest roguelike I've ever played though it certainly does boost in difficulty as you traverse deeper and deeper. But that's what you'd expect.

I wholeheartedly recommend this as it is certainly a gem and a fun one to play.