Barony Review Summary

Deep and complex mechanics: The game offers surprising depth and complexity, with meticulously designed mechanics and systems that work together harmoniously. Players can discover new things even after extensive playtime, and the game rewards a slower, more methodical approach. The game emphasizes player knowledge and skill over meta-progression.

Challenging, rewarding, and addictive gameplay: The game is challenging but fair, with a high skill ceiling that rewards learning and adaptation. Overcoming obstacles and mastering the game mechanics provides a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. The difficulty enhances the enjoyment, encouraging continued play and character growth.

High replayability and varied runs: The game has high replayability due to procedural generation and varied content. Each run offers a fresh experience due to varied character builds and playstyles. The game offers plenty of ways to tweak your experience and keep each dive into the dungeon fresh.

Enhanced by multiplayer with friends: The game is best enjoyed with friends, enhancing the overall experience with cooperation and shared fun. Multiplayer mode is a key element, with options for local and online play. Playing with friends makes the game easier and more fun, opening up more opportunities than solo play.

Diverse classes and races: The game features a wide variety of classes and races, each with unique abilities and playstyles. This diversity allows for flexible character builds and encourages experimentation, contributing to high replayability. The class system is effective and doesn't restrict players to specific roles.

High, punishing difficulty; permadeath: The game is brutally difficult, featuring permadeath, a steep learning curve, and unforgiving mechanics like instant-death traps (especially boulders). Players frequently die, losing progress and requiring restarts, which can lead to frustration. Some reviewers feel the difficulty is overhyped, while others find it unbalanced and unfair.

Inconsistent balance; relies on RNG: The game's balance is inconsistent, with difficulty spikes and unpredictable enemy encounters. Luck plays a significant role, and some reviewers feel the game relies more on judgment than skill. Blocking can be unreliable, and the game can be easily cheesed.

Shallow, unreliable melee combat: Melee combat is shallow, simplistic, and unreliable, often boiling down to basic hit-and-run tactics. Hitboxes can be unintuitive, and the lack of combat options like parrying or dodging makes engagements feel janky and frustrating. Some reviewers feel ranged combat is superior.

Problematic, unintuitive multiplayer: Multiplayer suffers from various issues, including inventory management downtime, connection problems, and unintuitive setup. Experience point distribution can be unbalanced, and communication is limited. Some reviewers feel multiplayer is not worth the headache.

Punishing, tedious hunger mechanic: The hunger mechanic is a significant detractor, forcing players to constantly eat to avoid starvation. This frequent need for food interrupts exploration and combat, leading to frustration. The lack of a visual HUD element for hunger adds to the tedium.

Core dungeon crawling gameplay: The game combines roguelike and RPG elements within procedurally generated dungeons. Players explore, collect loot, fight monsters, and level up, with the goal of progressing deeper and defeating the final boss. The gameplay loop is typical of the dungeon crawler/rogue-like genre.

Flexible character development: Characters can develop diverse skills regardless of their initial class, allowing for flexible playstyles. Players can switch roles mid-game based on acquired items and weapons, reducing class identity to the early game. This freedom encourages experimentation and adaptation.

Unique playthroughs each time: Each playthrough is unique due to procedural generation, creating unpredictable and humorous situations. The game is a mix of roguelike and RPG elements, with randomly scattered lore within dungeons. The game constantly generates a unique story with each playthrough.

Strategic item management: The game features an appraisal system where players must identify items to avoid curses and negative effects. Item weight management is essential, as slow movement speed is a significant disadvantage. These mechanics add depth and require strategic decision-making.

Supports solo and co-op play: The game can be played solo or with friends in co-op mode, with difficulty scaling based on the number of players. Solo play requires careful planning, while co-op play can be more enjoyable and humorous. The game also supports split-screen for local multiplayer.

Excellent optimization, broad hardware support: The game is well-optimized and runs smoothly on a wide range of hardware, including low-end PCs, Linux systems, and Steam Deck. Some reviewers specifically noted that the game's lightweight spec requirements and simple graphics allow it to run even on older or weaker computers, with some comparing its resource usage favorably to other games.

Multiplayer lag and desynchronization: Some players have experienced severe lag and desynchronization issues in multiplayer, especially with high ping or when playing with others in different geographical regions. This results in teleportation, delayed enemy hits, and other frustrating issues.

Performance degrades later in-game: Some players have reported a significant performance drop in the second half of the game.

Steam overlay issues: Some players have reported that the Steam overlay is not working correctly.

Highly recommended, excellent roguelike: The game is overwhelmingly praised as an excellent roguelike dungeon crawler with high replayability. Reviewers consistently give it high scores and recommend it to fans of the genre, citing its addictive gameplay and unique experience. Many consider it a hidden gem and a must-play.

Worth buying, especially on sale: The game is frequently recommended, especially when on sale. Some reviewers suggest waiting for a sale due to the price, while others believe it's worth the full price. Purchasing the game on sale is often seen as a good value.

Mixed opinions on DLC value: There are mixed opinions on the DLCs, with some reviewers strongly recommending them for enhancing the game experience and others suggesting they are not worth purchasing. Some reviewers recommend trying the base game before investing in the DLCs. The best classes and races are locked behind DLCs.

Deserves more recognition/support: Reviewers express a desire for the game to receive more recognition and support, praising the developers' dedication. They encourage others to support the developers and spread the word about the game, considering it a hidden gem that deserves a larger player base. Some reviewers also hope for future updates, expansions, and community mods.

Boulders are amazing (questionable): One cluster mentions dying repeatedly to boulders and finding it amazing. This point is likely a joke or meme and does not provide constructive feedback.

Active development and community support: The developers are actively maintaining the game with regular updates and community engagement, even years after its initial release. This ongoing support includes new content and quality-of-life improvements, showing dedication to the game and its players.

Old-school graphics, gameplay focus: The game features an old-school aesthetic that focuses on gameplay quality over graphical fidelity. The visuals have a certain charm that may not be immediately apparent from screenshots, but contributes to the overall experience.

Steam Workshop support: The game has Steam Workshop support for mods.

Item variety diminishes over time: After extended playtime, the variety of items diminishes, with many items feeling similar. This can lead to a sense of repetition and reduced excitement in later stages of the game.

Low first boss completion rate: The low achievement unlock rate for the first boss suggests that many players struggle to progress beyond the early stages of the game. This could indicate a steep learning curve or high difficulty.