Despot's Game

Despot’s Game – Get Those Puny Humans Ready for a Dystopian Battle

Waking up Naked and Confused With a Group of Strangers in a Post-Apocalyptic Labyrinth Never Looked So Good

A Terrifyingly Amusing Look into a Dystopian World

Despot’s Game is an indie gem developed by Konfa Games and published by tinyBuild. The tactical, roguelike auto battler allows you to build up an army, equipping human fighters with various weapons to attack numerous enemies in a dystopian labyrinth. Despot’s Game is generally a single-player game, but you can face other players through online PvP. What began as an Early Access game is now complete and available on PC (via Steam and Epic), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, iOS, and Android.

Sacrifice Your Army of Meager Humans to Reach the End

It is easy to find yourself roped into playing Despot’s Game for hours on end. As a commander, it is your job to equip this group of confused and trapped humans so that they can fight off the variety of enemies found within the labyrinth.

Players find themselves more of the mastermind in the game rather than active participants in the fighting. Instead, you must equip these humans with different weapons that range from effective to absolutely ridiculous.

Besides that, you must balance the fighting classes so that you have a well-rounded army. Otherwise, you may not make it far against the different enemies that range in power and skill, as well as from killer robots to man-eating cabbages.

Although the concept of a tactic battler isn’t new, Despot’s Game manages to make it refreshing, entertaining and bound to take up all your free time.

Concept Rating: 4/5

An Interesting 2D World

The developers of Despot’s Game focused on 2D graphics with pixel humans and creatures. There is plenty of color and action shown throughout, especially during the battles. The humans all have the same look, but they start to stand out when you equip them with clothes and weapons.

The in-game audio has plenty of cool sound effects perfectly suited for battle scenes. There is even some hype fight music to go along with it.

Graphics & Audio Rating: 4/5

A Roguelike Tactic Autobattler

In auto battlers like Despot’s Game, once a fighter is chosen, the fight is auto-generated. In other words, you are the commander who strategizes everything but you have no input once the fight begins. However, strategy is everything. Without your tactical input, the armies go in naked, unarmed, and will surely die.

So, it’s up to you to find out what to equip them with so that they have a chance to survive the upcoming fights.

The most entertaining part about all this is that you don’t just have standard weapons to equip your fighters with. Rather, you get some pretty unique and funny items too.

Get something awesome like laser swords or see how some will fare with throwing pretzels as their choice of weapon.

Depending on how you equip them, you can turn these humans into range fighters, close-combat warriors, or ones who simply protect everyone around them with shields.

The weapons are as absurd as some of the enemies, so it all balances out quite well.

Besides getting them ready for battle, it’s up to you to use some tactical skills in how you set them up on each level. Find different class perks and combos to truly enhance their abilities so that they’re ready to face off against other players once they survive the entirety of the labyrinth.

Gameplay Rating: 4.5/5

An Entertaining Time-Killer of a Game

Once you load it up, it’s quick and easy to get sucked into the tactical side of Despot’s Game. You want to find everything you can to equip these pathetic humans, transforming them into hardened and skilled warriors. You’re eager to explore the labyrinth, discovering new and powerful enemies.

It's a game that never fails to be equal parts entertaining, amusing, and a bit challenging at first if you’re not used to these types of auto battlers.

On the notion of whether it has any replay value, in its current state, not much. Once you get through it, there’s not much difference when you start all over again besides choosing some different weapons and battle setups.

Replay Value Rating: 3.5/5

TL;DR

Despot’s Game is a tactical rogue-like army battler where you push your squad through a dungeon labyrinth to fight a slew of different enemies and players.