Developer Bippinbits and Publisher Raw Fury’s Dome Keeper is one of those games that are quite hard to put down once you get going. What starts off pretty simple quickly escalates into a frantic, yet strategic race against the clock.
In Dome Keeper, players will take on the role of a colonist on an alien planet. You’re the only one in your dome on the planet’s surface and you’ll have to dig for resources in order to survive. Players will be given the bare minimum in the way of a tutorial and it’s off with you into the depths.
Keeping the Dome Secure
Gameplay in Dome Keeper involves a mixture of digging for resources, gathering said resources and then returning back to your dome. It sounds simple enough but things get complicated quite quickly here. Once you’ve mined some resources and brought them back, you’ll be able to upgrade your Dome’s capabilities as well as your own. Want to move faster? Upgrade your jetpack. Want to dig faster? Upgrade your drill.
Upgrades consume resources and you’ll have to be strategic as to what upgrades you purchase and when. Investing too heavily in the jetpack upgrades for example means that while you’ll be speedy moving around, you’ll struggle to dig deeper into the planet’s surface. Once you’ve dug through the initial layers of substrate, you’ll start to encounter tougher rocks which take a lot more time to dig through. This is where the drill upgrades will become a necessity.
To add some further complexity to the game, the developers have also opted to include special upgrades which can be found deep in the depths. These upgrades when brought back to the dome itself can then be selected. You can unlock a bomb, a drillbot and more. Right now though, the selection of upgrades is pretty dry and since Dome Keeper is still in development, we’re hoping that there’s a tonne more added to the game over time.
The gameplay isn’t just all about digging for resources though. Players will have to survive waves of attacks from the dark creatures that live on the planet. These monsters will try to break into your dome and once they do, it’s game over for you. Thankfully, the dome not only has a system in place which lets you monitor when the next wave of monsters will be coming through but also has a laser defence system. Players will have to rush back to the dome, man the laser and blast away at the dark creatures to survive.
Gameplay Loop
This creates a very rewarding gameplay loop in Dome Keeper. Players will have to manage their time spent down in the depths gathering resources and race back to the dome itself when a monster attack is about to happen. You can upgrade your defences too but this might be detrimental to your exploration efforts. A balancing act between exploration, speed and defence is key to surviving in Dome Keeper.
As time goes on, you’ll unlock more upgrades, become more powerful and get more resources in the mines. At the same time though, the monster attacks become more intense and tougher to defend against. The sluggish bipedal monsters are eventually joined by flying bat-like creatures. Then, later on, there are smaller bomb-like spider monsters. Your dome might take some damage during attacks but you can fix it up somewhat if you use some of your resources.
Dome Keeper is an addictive game thanks to the gameplay mechanics on offer here. If you fail and the monsters do end up breaching the dome, you can choose to keep an upgrade and use it during your next run. This adds to the game’s longevity as well as its addictiveness since you’ll want to push yourself further with each run.
Graphically Dome Keeper features a minimalist pixel aesthetic and it looks fantastic. The monsters also look terrifying when coupled with the lightning on the surface of the planet. It really induces a sense of dread in you. The effects used in the game are also well done too with explosions looking good and the underground regions having different coloured rocks.
The soundtrack of Dome Keeper is fine but some more background music could be implemented here since there’s quite a lot of eerie silence in the game. There’s no voice acting here but the game works well without it with the sound effects of the drill and everything else being excellent.
Final Verdict
Overall, Dome Keeper is an addictive race-against-the-clock game that balances both resource gathering with some simple combat. Upgrading yourself and your dome is a lot of fun. The rewarding payoff you get when you survive a wave and can live to dig another day is what will keep you coming back for more. The only downside to the game right now is that it’s lacking content and is still actively being developed. If you want to support the developers right now, pick this up, otherwise, you should wait a bit longer until it’s fully fleshed out with additional content. This title does come highly recommended from us though.
Grab your copy here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637320/Dome_Keeper/
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