Rogue Empire: Dungeon Crawler RPG Review Summary

Fun, engaging roguelike with a responsive developer, but plagued by bugs, crashes, and repetitive enemies that highlight its lack of depth.

Excellent roguelike experience: Players consistently praise the game as one of the best roguelikes, highlighting its depth, fun, and advanced interface compared to traditional titles like ADOM. It is considered a well-constructed and visually appealing roguelike.

Engaging and fun gameplay: Gameplay is described as engaging, fun, challenging, and rewarding. The game is highly addictive and provides a satisfying strategic, turn-based tactical experience.

Responsive and active developer: The developer is highly praised for being active, friendly, and responsive on Discord and Steam forums, quickly resolving bugs and taking player feedback. This strong community engagement is a major positive point.

Great value for price: Players feel the game is well worth its price, often stating it is worth more than $10. The amount of content, even in early access, is superb for the cost.

Unique random skill mechanics: Randomly drawn skills and unique random skill mechanics make each game feel new and alter turn-based tactical battles. This adds significant replayability.

Numerous bugs and crashes: Players report a wide range of bugs, from occasional glitches to game-breaking issues like crashes, progression blockers, and teleportation errors. Some runs are unplayable, and achievements are often broken, indicating a lack of polish.

Lacks depth and complexity: Compared to other roguelikes, the game is seen as simplistic, easy, and lacking in interactions, complexity, and tactical variation. Players note few moments of feeling threatened and a flat, poor gameplay loop that doesn't stand out from the competition.

Repetitive content and enemies: The game suffers from severe repetition, with very little enemy variety, samey dungeons and maps, and repetitive environments. Mid and end game become a slog of mashing through rooms filled with the same enemies, leading to boredom.

Inventory management is inconvenient: Comparing items and weapons is difficult, with no stack splitting, no auto-loot except gold, and cumbersome menus without sort by weight. Players have to press P multiple times to pick up items and drag things to bars, making inventory a chore.

Lacks class and customization options: There are only 5 classes, which is fewer than older games like T.O.M.E. or ADOM, and players want more classes and character customization options. The skill system is also criticized for being random and lacking depth, with no deckbuilder mechanics like removing or rerolling abilities.

Roguelike with modern touches: The game is consistently described as a traditional roguelike with modern accessibility, featuring turn-based combat, procedural generation, and meta-progression. It blends classic roguelike elements with contemporary design.

Multiple races and classes: The game offers 7 races and 5 classes, each with distinct stats and abilities, providing a wide variety of character builds. This diversity is a key feature for replayability.

Card-based leveling system: Leveling up presents a choice of random perk cards, often every two levels, from a class-dependent pool. This card-based system adds strategic depth and randomness to character progression.

Multiple game modes: The game includes three distinct modes: a linear dungeon, a campaign with an overworld, and a challenge dungeon. This variety caters to different play styles and preferences.

Character development and leveling: The game features a unique character leveling system with predetermined stat increases and randomized rewards. This hybrid approach adds variety to character growth.

Performance issues and crashes: Multiple users report performance problems including frame drops, long load times, and occasional crashes. These issues are sporadic but can disrupt gameplay, especially in dungeons.

Crashes are minimal: A user notes that crashes and bugs are minimal, suggesting the game is generally stable despite occasional issues.

Recommended for roguelike fans: Many reviewers recommend the game to fans of roguelikes, describing it as a must-have for the genre. This is the most common sentiment across the feedback.

Good for beginners: Several reviewers suggest the game is a great starting point for newcomers to roguelikes, offering a less punishing experience than traditional titles. It is recommended for those new to turn-based dungeon crawlers.

Highly recommended overall: Many reviewers give the game a strong recommendation, praising it as an excellent addition to the roguelike genre. This is a general positive sentiment.

Try alternatives instead: Some reviewers advise playing other roguelikes like ADOM, ToME, or DCSS instead, suggesting the game may not be the best choice in the genre. This is a notable counter-recommendation.

Fine on sale: Some reviewers say the game is acceptable when purchased on sale, suggesting it may not be worth full price. This is a conditional recommendation.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $15.00.

Story completion: 3.5h.

Session length: 12.0h.

Rogue Empire is generally enjoyable, but for many players the fun clicks only after a few hours of learning the systems and making a few runs. Early friction like the tedious hunger system and a learning curve for newcomers delays the payoff, which then improves with meta-progression and familiarity.

Reported time to anchor: 3h.

Friction: tedious hunger system; learning curve for roguelike newcomers; tutorial lacks keyboard navigation guidance; repetitive early game quest; difficulty for newcomers.

Unlock drivers: learning the game mechanics; unlocking meta-progression perks; understanding rest and hallway tactics; getting used to the hunger system.

Roguelike Enthusiast: Compares mechanics to classic roguelikes, appreciates the meta-progression as a quality-of-life feature, and engages with the tactical combat. Motivation: To enjoy a familiar roguelike formula with modern conveniences and a more casual pace. Stance: buy.

Casual Beginner: Plays casually, relies on permanent upgrades, and appreciates the simpler mechanics. Motivation: To experience a roguelike without the steep learning curve, using meta-progression to make progress. Stance: buy.

Completionist Grinder: Grinds for Soul Essence, pursues secondary objectives, and engages with the meta-game. Motivation: To collect all achievements, unlock all meta-progression bonuses, and climb leaderboards. Stance: buy.

Linux and Proton: The available reviews only discuss Steam Deck compatibility expectations, noting the game is not officially Verified but is expected to offer a Playable-style experience. No Linux/Proton-specific issues such as crashes, performance problems, or required workarounds are reported, suggesting the game runs acceptably on Linux/Proton with only minor caveats.

Frequently compared to ToME: The game is most often compared to Tales of Maj'Eyal, with some reviewers considering ToME superior while others find Rogue Empire more polished and accessible. Comparisons also extend to ADOM, DCSS, and other traditional roguelikes.

Developer is highly responsive: Multiple reviewers highlight the developer's active presence on Discord and Steam forums, with quick responses to bug reports and community feedback. One reviewer noted a bug report was answered in half an hour with a patch provided in three hours.

Early access with substantial content: Reviewers note the game is in early access with the first campaign complete and the second about 70% finished, yet it already offers a large amount of content for the price. Some feel it still needs more content despite the volume available.

Ongoing updates and support: The developer continues to provide regular updates, including player-requested features, bug fixes, and balance changes, with some recent updates described as huge. However, one reviewer notes the last patch was 13 months ago, and another says the developer is responsive in discussions but not in making changes.

Game modes and difficulty options: The game features three game modes, three difficulty levels, and a challenge dungeon mode, along with a starter dungeon and campaign. A shorter 3-4 hour Eghoss campaign and a longer main campaign with race and class options are also available.