Evil Genius
Underrated, Under-The-Radar Game of the Decade - Just the way an Evil Genius would like it.
Imagine to my surprise when Rebellion revealed that, after so many years, Evil Genius is getting a sequel! Who woulda thought? Let’s just say that this news snuck up on me like the sneaky under-the-radar original ended up on store shelves.
For an impulse buy in boxed form when it first came out 16 years ago, this game has received more playtime than any other game in my possession that I also impulse-bought. It is clever, hilarious, and surprisingly challenging.
– Real player with 88.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Base Building Comedy Games.
An old favorite of mine. I distinctly remember just seeing this on an EB Games shelf when I was 14. I loved the box art at first glance and upon further inspection, I discovered that this game involved the building of a secret island lair, from which countless dastardly schemes could be unleashed upon the world. “Perfect,” said young Myself. The only reason I really remember this experience was because the oldest woman I have ever seen working at a video game store tried to get me to show her some form of ID because it was rated Teen. I told her I was fourteen years old and I didn’t know of any kids my age who had IDs who weren’t sheltered because I didn’t know any of these kids because they were sheltered and sat at home playing games about learning and stuff and living life like an inspirational poster, only to dream secretly at night of escape and perhaps even breasts or penises or whatever body parts they learned to like.
– Real player with 88.0 hrs in game
KeeperRL
For the developer of KeeperRL thanks for making a great game.
My impressions from playing the game about 1 ~ 2 years ago versus today (I haven’t played for 1-2 years waiting for the game to be finished but recently played it again).
Rating 1~2 years ago: 9/10
Sandbox dungeon keeper freaking awesome and satisfying exploration and village pillaging.
Powerful and fun spells that allow you to mess with the NPC’s and dominate the map.
Left feeling satisfied when you close the game because you felt like a powerful warlock/wizard dungeon keeper.
– Real player with 119.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Base Building Roguelike Games.
KeeperRL at it’s very base is a Roguelike, in which you take on the role of a “Keeper”, who’s job is to build a dungeon and maintain it, all the while encouraging monsters to come to your dungeon. There’s a handful of monsters and they all fill a role.
People have been comparing it to stuff, such as Dwarf Fortress and while I can see how it’d be easy to compare KeeperRL to that game, the reality is, it’s not nearly as deep, complex or polished as Dwarf Fortress; it’s no comparison at all. This statement still stands even after a the updates given to the game.
– Real player with 79.9 hrs in game
Lords of Nether
NOTE: Lords of Nether is in an early state of development and will be undergoing many exciting changes and additions in the coming times! The contents presented in this page are not final and serve to show the baseline of where the game is headed! Expect far more to come in every way!
A dark power returns to the ancient and blood-soaked world of Antioch, to claim what rightfully belongs to it and bring the world of Man to ruin! That power is you, my Netherlord!
Discover a New Era of Dungeon Management
Lords of Nether is a Dungeon Management Game that blends Real-Time Strategy and God Game elements to create a new and more involved take on the genre. You may control your creatures directly in typical RTS fashion, allowing for complex combat strategy and management. You can manage space efficiently and creatively, through the use furnishings and other building tools. Taking control of the villain, one of four powerful, dark demigods known as Netherlords, you return to the world after centuries of banishment with the singular purpose of bringing it to heel under your control. Immerse yourself in a deep, storied world of Dark Fantasy and bring it all to ruin!
Build Your Dungeon
You will carve out and build vast, intricate and deadly underground dungeons, where you will gather minions to your cause, research new magics and knowledge and build devious trap gauntlets to protect yourself from invading heroes.
Amass a Dark Army
You will grow and be able to directly control an army of fiendish, living, thinking creatures, a vast menagerie ranging from cowardly goblins to terrifying, blood-thirsty demons. You will need to provide them with necessities and comforts and make sure they grow strong, so that they may turn your enemies into gory heaps.
Vanquish Mighty Foes
As any self respecting Dark Lord, you will find wretched heroes at your doorstep, seeking to undo your sinister plans and put an end to your evil. Show them just how misguided they really are, Lord.
Conquer Different Game Modes
Explore a multitude of different planned game-modes:
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Sandbox - Free building mode that allows you to express your wicked creativity!
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Skirmish - Play against AI Netherlords to test your skills!
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Multiplayer Deathmatch - Pit yourself against other Players and determine who is the Greatest Evil!
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Survival - See how long your designs and tactics can help you last being assailed by wave after wave of never-ending heroic scum!
…And Take Over the World
Embark on an epic Single-player campaign to conquer the ancient world of Antioch! The mighty Empire of Ostoria stands in your way to world domination and it’s monarch, the great King Albrecht will do anything to stop you! Travel distant lands, from great rural plains, through scorching deserts and frigid mountain slopes, to the very heartland of the Empire and crush all that stands in your way! Take your armies from the underground to the very world above and reduce it to a burning ruin! This world belongs to you, Netherlord!
Read More: Best Base Building RTS Games.
Chambers of Devious Design
“Build me a lair… And it better be devious!”
The evil mastermind is in need of a lair suited to his devious demeanor. Can you come up with a fiendishly creative design to bury your competition?
Each room type comes with a unique effect that is boosted when the room is placed next to supporting room types. Try to come up with an optimal design that unleashes the full potential of your rooms!
Your opponent shouldn’t have started building so close to you… Teach them a lesson by planting a room full of dynamite next to their control room! Or maybe you should shoot at them with a cannon instead?
“No, no, NO! This will not do. We need to have a puppy jail! What do you mean “why”? Because we’re EVIL, duh!"
The evil mastermind knows exactly what he wants… And usually, it’s the complete opposite of what he wanted 5 minutes ago. If the boss wants his bedroom next to a snake pit, it’s best to follow along.
Evil Genius 2: World Domination
–-{ Graphics }—
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
—{ Gameplay }—
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It’s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don’t
—{ Audio }—
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I’m now deaf
—{ Audience }—
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☐ Adults
☐ Grandma
—{ PC Requirements }—
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
—{ Difficulty }—
– Real player with 127.3 hrs in game
Great take on the original, but could be much better
I played the original game when it first came out. I still remember playing it as a teenager. I loved that game, I played it so many times across many years.
Even after uninstalling, if I come across it again I will play it again. That’s how good it was. It was funny, it was logical, it was quirky, it had mod support and overall entertaining.
When Evil Genius 2 came out, I was super excited to play it again as I thought it would be much better than the original but it was missing a few vital quirks that would’ve made it better.
– Real player with 120.9 hrs in game
Dungeons 3
There are things I like and things I don’t like in this game. I have gotten and completed all the DLCs. I have also completed Dungeons 2.
I start from the things I didn’t like.
The trailer shows a nice movie - that is just an ad in the store. There are no such animations in the game. After some missions(not all) you are shown a partially animated 2d cartoon. No 3d animations like in the trailer, nothing like that in the game.
Dungeons… There were dungeons in Dungeons 2, but in Dungeons 3 there is just 1 dungeon in each of the missions. It was fun to visit and explore dungeons other than your own in Dungeons 2, nothing like that here. There are no other dungeons.
– Real player with 159.1 hrs in game
Disclaimer: I have not played any of the earlier installments in the series, nor have I played any other dungeon sim games, so I have nothing to compare this game to.
General
In this game, you build a dungeon, create an army of evil and invade the aboveground world, called Overworld, to defeat heroes and complete various objectives, while at the same time defending your dungeon from the heroes' raids. The game has single player, co-op, and multiplayer mods, but I have only tried out the single player campaign.
– Real player with 102.1 hrs in game
Ruinarch
A fun game that is definitely in early access.
Edited: 7/30/2021. The game has been significantly changed since I posted my first review, and its' unfortunately not all for the better.
The Good:
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Villagers have been overhauled significantly, and their interactions with each other and the world are much more interesting. They earn money to buy resources, have more robust individual trades, craft items, and all sorts of other fun stuff.
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The way monsters are used has been vastly improved. Rather than just spawning them next to a villager and letting them have at it, they are formed into parties, led by one of your demons, to accomplish a specific purpose. Marauder parties from the marauder building break stuff and attack villagers to sow chaos, snatching parties kidnap villagers or monsters for imprisonment, and defense parties protect your base full-time. It’s a bit monotonous to reform the parties repeatedly if you make heavy use of them, but this alone has made Ravager a lot more fun.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
UPDATE: hot damn, that’s one hell of an update. 10/10 guys, very cool.
At first, I thought this was the “Devil Simulator” I’ve always wanted. But the longer I played, the more frustrated I became with this game. I’ll start with the Good things, follow up with the Bad, and leave you with my suggestions for improvement.
The Good
-The AI is tremendously well made, just as advertised. Each NPC has different traits, different relationships with other NPC’s, and adjusts it’s behavior over time as it interacts with the other NPC’s. The level of care and attention that went into this facet of the game is dumbfounding, considering this is, at it’s core, “God Simulator meets Sim City”. As an example, if you turn enough villagers into vampires or cultists, they can split off and form their own societies.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
MachiaVillain
05/26/2018: I could say I’m surprised by the negative reviews, but since it’s Steam, I’m saddly not. Let me start by saying I have as yet to experience any of the “game breaking” bugs in this “unplayable game” some other people have and I’ve got a lot more hours in than most of the negative reviewers. I suppose it’s possible I’m expectionally lucky and got the one magical copy of the game that was bug free. More likely - based on having read the complaints in the forum - those suffering major issues are due to corrupted files or compatability issues. Are their glitches? Yes, but the one’s I"ve experienced are, frankly, minor and superficial things. Stuff like doors and traps facing the wrong way when placed. In my personal experience they still work and autocorrrected themselves after the first time the’re used.
– Real player with 190.0 hrs in game
The game is good and all. Its idea and such.
Here’s the thing. It says as a released version. Unfortunately, it isn’t. It’s very much in early access.. update is slow, very slow. Devs don’t listen to its playerbase.
I don’t think it’s a bug, coz a bug in a code works “somewhat”. In this game functions don’t really work! Their way of thinking is like this. “Meh, this’ll do” or somewhere along the line.
In example..
1.Battery’s don’t work, it doesn’t really store electricity as intended.
2.Hidden wall/door(a door only for ur minions.), Heroes and victims walk on them like normal doors regardless if scared or not.
– Real player with 55.1 hrs in game
Dwelvers
Updated: 3-16-2018
The primary developer has found new funding and energy. Development has picked up and the future of Dwelvers appears to live again!
Check the Update History for this game in the store page for all that info.
Updated: 6/3/2017
Yep… at this point the dev hasn’t been able to return and do anything with it. God what a shame. This thing is innovative and extremely interesting, and different, with its depth aspect and collapses.
It’s one of those games you can sit down and with just a little focus you wind up getting sucked straight into it - gathering, expanding, exploring, trying to survive multiple types of fatal threats.
– Real player with 310.6 hrs in game
I previously gave Dwelvers a thumbs down due to the fact that development seemed to have stopped. The developer has since resurfaced (as you can also see from the comments on this review). As far as I understand it, the dev has bought himself free of his contract with the previous publishers. To me, that suggests a level of personal and financial commitment that might yet see Dwelvers become the game it always had the potential to be.
I’ve played Dwelvers again recently after an absence of a year or two. While I haven’t yet finished a game, I have had a lot of fun playing around once I remembered how everything worked.
– Real player with 52.7 hrs in game
DARK FACETS
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
This game is, thus, just about perfect.
It feels like one of those tower defense games from a dozen years ago, or maybe one of those games from the eighties where the ideas of the writers far exceeded the capability of the gameplay and graphics (like Might and Magic: Book One), or maybe a demo that comes on the cd of a full game (fun, but it leaves you wishing for more than what the limited experience provides), or maybe that one poorly-translated foreign game with a strangely-intricate storyline you got from a garage sale twenty years ago that you wish you still had so you could explain to people why you like to pretend “funceame” is a real word.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
I was expecting Dark facets to be similar to the old flash games like Age of War or Stick Wars; And it was! Only much more boring. Age of war and Stick Wars had a fairly fast play style, but dark facets is incredibly slow paced. It takes a long time for resources to gather, a long time for units to march, longer to kill enemy units, even longer for your units to chip away at an enemy building. Then they just have to move to the second building (Of five). It feels less like i’m playing a game, more like watching a series of gifs that i switch between occasionally.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game