Despot's Game Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "Puny Humans" 👿 @Despotism_3k @tinyBuild #IndieGames #GameDev

Vampire Survivors really opened the door to games with a certain level of automation built into the design, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed that game – although I didn’t completely lose myself in it for a worrying number of hours (I look at you Pixel Hunted, oh beloved colleague of mine) – I absolutely welcomed the more casual approach gameplay over complex, involved (notice that I didn’t say intense, oh yes – this game is intense!) mechanics.

The story behind Despot's Game is that you are in control of a group of puny humans, and you must make it through the Despot’s labyrinth. Boom. Good. 

Each run starts you off with a handful of generic-looking pink humans – with amusing names – and a swift text-prompt guide of how things roll. In each stage there is a boss room that marks the exit to the next floor, and in-between you’ll need to manage food resources as well as the myriad mutations on offer for your humans as you dish out weapons to them from an incredibly varied and highly whimsical armoury.

It’s a roguelike, in that each run is different, and each time your final puny human dies – it’s back to the start of the entire shebang for you, but the tonal approach of the game and the feisty blasts of commentary from the despot/developer really do make this a unique title.

There’s a lot to love here, from the often hilarious text adventure-like prompts each time you enter a new level of the cold, steel labyrinth through BxCx’s score, which is absolutely vinyl-worthy in the throaty, gutsy electronica and synth-wave that bounces off the corridors in each room and keeps the energy and vibes up.

The controls do take a bit of getting used to, and irritatingly often I’d press right on the d-pad to select some items or food – generally spend some of my hard-earned tokens -, but find myself commanding all my folks to hurtle into the next room instead. Whoops. It’s not so much of an issue early on in your run, but as you get deeper into the game, this can literally spell the end of your excursion if you aren’t careful.

SUMMARY

Despot's Game has a wonderfully simplistic, accessible premise that is boosted by the developer’s sharp eye for writing, humour and clever placement of pop culture references.

The music is awesome and the pace feels on the ball, but I found that there wasn’t the variety in each run to completely suck me in as games in this genre need to.

After a couple of hours, the sense of randomness felt just slightly too out of my hands for my personal tastes and, whilst I still enjoyed the gags and writing, the main thrust of the mechanics and gameplay lost their lustre a little.

In writing this, I can see that the trailer for the next title in the series – Slime 3K – is certainly taking on more of a Vampire Survivors vibe, and if the combination of writing and audio continues at such a high level, then that sequel will surely be a game to be reckoned with.