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Dwarven Skykeep Review: A Lighthearted, Strategic Genre Mashup
Dwarven Skykeep combines several different genres to create a unique and challenging gameplay experience. The game takes elements of real-time strategy, tower defense, and deckbuilding, and envelops them in a medieval fantasy world that's full of amusing dialogue and varied environments - although some players may wish Dwarven Skykeep had more varied difficulty settings. Dwarven Skykeep comes from Ravenage and Hack the Publisher, which in the past has had a hand in games like turn-based adventure game Frozen Flame and tactics title Dwarf Tower respectively.
Dwarven Skykeep puts players in the role of mage Sevendar Kness, who uses a bit more avant-garde system of magic than many players may be accustomed to. Players will spend most of their time in the hub of Dwarven City, part of the Nameless Kingdom, which is being threatened by Warchief Poe and his goblin hordes. Both the city and game as a whole are full of incredibly entertaining characters, including Kness himself, with self-aware dialogue and amusing references to other media, all of which are designed in a charming pixel style.
The levels of the game are accessed through different mirror portals, each of which has different requirements for victory: some are centered around resource collection, while others focus on kill counts or survival. The levels combine real-time strategy mechanics with tower defense and card-based gameplay. Dwarven Skykeep doesn't follow the formula of a card game the way fans of deckbuilders like Slay the Spire and Hearthstone might expect, utilizing cards for much more than just moves or creatures. One of the largest of these deviations is the building aspect the cards are used for, with Block Cards and Room Cards being used to expand and specialize each level's base.
These Rooms are used to generate various resources like Dwarves, Mana production, and card draw to power things like building labor, spells, and fights. For example, a Brewery is used to attract new Dwarf recruits, a Crystal room generates Mana to be used on things like a Vortex to produce new spell cards, and a Warehouse can be searched through to exchange one card that's in hand for another in the player's deck. Players will also need to worry about producing tools like buckets, hammers, and pumps to put out fires, repair damaged rooms, and drain flooded areas.
Though not a game in the roguelike genre, Dwarven Skykeep does utilize random enemy events to keep players on their toes, and also lets them tackle problems in a myriad of ways. When a goblin starts a fire, for instance, players can choose to put it out with a bucket if one is one hand - however, they can also choose to cast a spell that causes rain to extinguish the burn, hope an ongoing flooded room takes care of it, or even ignore it completely and hope for the best depending on how far they are from their goal of victory. These same events can have larger consequences as well - if a room housing a Mana Crystal catches fire, the Crystal can explode and destroy much more of the ongoing structure, for example.
These things help set Dwarven Skykeep apart from generic tower defense hybrid games. As the game goes on and players get to new environments with their own unique challenges - like a snowy area that requires structures be kept warm - and acquire new cards, these in-level decisions as well as how players can best build their deck get increasingly complicated. The levels use a day and night cycle where players can focus on their ongoing structure and important crafting during the day and deal with threats once darkness falls, allowing for a satisfying balance of outright conflict and strategic respite.
Dwarven Skykeep prides itself on being incredibly hard to master, which is either a pro or con depending on the player. The game only has two difficulty levels, the lowest of which is Hard, and levels are meant to largely require multiple tries prior to victory. The game's boss battles are particularly challenging, which means they also provide a solid sense of satisfaction once beaten. Dwarven Skykeep is definitely best for RTS and tower defense fans, as it includes more of these elements in its moment-to-moment gameplay than it does deckbuilding, and certainly isn't for those who prefer the ability to adjust a game's challenge. While Dwarven Skykeep doesn't deeply reinvent any of the genres it borrows from, the way it combines them is very worthwhile, and alongside a silly and entertaining - albeit simple - storyline, Dwarven Skykeep comes off quite well-rounded and enjoyable.
Dwarven Skykeep is available now for PC and Mac via Steam.
