Impire Review Summary

Amusing story and characters with enjoyable combat, but repetitive gameplay, poor Dungeon Keeper imitation, and frequent crashes.

Amusing story and dialogue: The story and dialogues are frequently praised as funny, silly, and amusing, with a humorous main character and black humor. The plot is a main draw.

Excellent story and characters: The story is praised as excellent, well-told, and engaging, with great characters and a narrator voice. The plot includes meaningful choices and multiple endings.

Enjoyable combat and squad system: Combat is enjoyable, with a squad system that allows teaming up to four monsters with roles like tank/healer/dps. The squad combinations and teleportation add strategic depth.

Good gameplay overall: The gameplay is generally considered pleasant, okay, and fun, though some note it is flawed. It is enjoyable enough to finish and has plenty of action.

Great upgrade and progression systems: The upgrade system, including cosmetic changes, talent trees, and rune technology, is praised. Leveling imps and specializing them is fun, and the research system with three branches is interesting.

Repetitive and boring gameplay: Gameplay becomes tedious and monotonous after the first few missions, with repetitive tasks and same strategies required throughout. It feels like a chore rather than engaging entertainment.

Poor Dungeon Keeper imitation: The game is seen as a shallow copy of Dungeon Keeper, lacking the depth and quality of the original. Players find it a clumsy and dated knockoff that fails to capture the essence of the classic.

Clunky and frustrating mechanics: Game mechanics are clunky, annoying, and filled with tedious micromanagement. They make the game feel frustrating and unpolished.

Cringe dialogue and cutscenes: Cutscenes and dialogues are considered extremely cringe-worthy, with poor voice acting and humor. The jokes mostly miss and the humor feels childish.

Overall boring and slow: The game feels slow, tedious, and boring overall, with an uninteresting story. Multiple reviewers express general dissatisfaction.

Dungeon Keeper comparison: The game is frequently described as similar to Dungeon Keeper in style, mechanics, and concept. Some note it offers more direct minion control or is harder than the Dungeon series.

Dungeon building with rooms: The game features dungeon construction with preset rooms like nurseries, kitchens, and alchemy rooms, along with tunnel digging. This is a core Dungeon Keeper-like mechanic.

RTS squad management: Players highlight RTS-style squad management with unit assignment, squad-based controls, and micromanagement. Units can be grouped and teleported via a squad menu.

Heroes enter via ladders: Invading heroes descend from the surface through ladders that appear throughout the dungeon. Players must destroy these ladders to prevent entry.

Set in Ardania universe: The game is set in the Ardania universe from the Majesty and Warlock series, providing a familiar fantasy world for fans of those games.

Frequent game crashes: Many players report that the game crashes frequently, sometimes upon release or during saving, leading to frustration and loss of progress. This is a widespread stability issue.

Save corruption and loss: The game can crash while saving, corrupting quick save files and erasing player progress. This data loss is a critical problem for retaining player engagement.

Post-patch stability improvements: After patches, the game experiences fewer crashes and bugs, and is more stable compared to its initial release. However, some issues persist.

Stuttering in cut scenes: Cut scenes suffer from stuttering at various resolution settings, affecting immersion and visual quality.

Strongly negative recommendations: Numerous reviews advise against buying the game, with many saying 'do not buy' in strong terms. This indicates widespread dissatisfaction.

Wait for a sale: Several reviewers mention the game is only worth it on sale at a low price, typically for the campaign or a short experience.

Not a Dungeon Keeper successor: Many players feel this game fails to live up to the Dungeon Keeper series, with some explicitly calling it not a successor. They recommend looking elsewhere for that experience.

Better alternative games exist: Players suggest playing other games instead, such as Evil Genius, A Game of Dwarves, Dungeon Keeper 2, War of the Overworld, or Startopia.

Limited audience appeal: The game is recommended primarily for fans of the genre or those who enjoy specific elements like simple humor or tower defense.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 73.0h.

Story completion: 40.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

Impire starts off somewhat enjoyable but quickly becomes a tedious, repetitive slog with clunky micromanagement, losing fun after roughly an hour; co-op mode can alleviate monotony for some players.

Friction: tedious micromanagement with excessive clicking and menu switching; repetitive mission structure (build, raid, rinse, repeat); boring and monotonous gameplay after initial novelty; broken multiplayer limiting content to repetitive campaign; slow pacing and lack of strategic depth.

Unlock drivers: co-op mode with friends; tutorial that clarifies UI and navigation.

Co-op Campaign Enjoyer: Plays through campaigns at a relaxed pace, often in co-op, focusing on completing missions and building dungeons. Motivation: Enjoy cooperative dungeon building campaigns with friends or solo. Stance: sale.

Abandoned Multiplayer Fan: Would have played PvP or co-op, but now forced into single-player campaign which they find boring. Motivation: Wanted competitive or cooperative multiplayer experience but found the community dead and servers off. Stance: no buy.

Casual Dungeon Builder: Plays at a slow pace, tolerates repetition, doesn't care about multiplayer, focuses on campaign. Motivation: Enjoy the dungeon building and dark fantasy theme in a casual, low-stress manner. Stance: deep sale.

Game setting Ardania: A review mentions that the game takes place in the Ardania setting from the Majesty series, which may appeal to fans of that franchise.

Playtime feedback: A reviewer reports 10 hours of playtime, indicating a moderate amount of content or engagement.