Recent reviews by hastore

decent

decent lad

yeah it's alright

Decent little timesink, of particular note if you're into tabletop RPGs.
Can't recommend it for the mechanical gameplay, but otherwise it's a well realised vision of old-school RPG and old-school RPG accessories.


Combat gets quite repetitive quite quickly (your abilities don't fundamentally change beyond rank 1, besides a couple of one-time-buy items), but the plot itself is fairly entertaining and gets ridiculously meta.

Considering the small asking price, this is well worth picking up, even for the campaign alone. This is in addition to Patch 1.4, available for everyone with the base game.

These are devs you want to support - the vanilla launch was pretty awful, but they deliver on their promises.

Excellent pickup if you're the completionist sort - the campaign maps are much more open-ended.

Can't speak on the PvP side of things atm, but defenses certainly seem more durable and relevant. Sentinels should add an interesting gold sink late-game too; Colossus is fun to use although somewhat similar to the old Eternal (which may have been revamped, haven't checked).

My review of the main game is available here if you want in-depth info.

[Review written for 1.3]

Engaging RTS / dungeon management game where you get to play the bad guys.
Negative reviews are primarily concerned with WFTO at launch. Game is fully polished and well-optimised now, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Worth the full price, extremely worth during a sale.


I backed this during the Kickstarter crowdfunding phase, and was an avid fan of DK1 and 2. Bias confirmation confirmed, but this review is as objective as I can make it.

War for the Overworld is the spiritual successor to the cult hit Dungeon Keeper, a series by Bullfrog (later snapped up by EA - which is why DK3 never. ;_;).
You play as an 'Underlord', a wibbly wobbly non-corporeal being that seals its essence in a Dungeon Core (the room you start with in every game). Lose that and you lose the game; protect it at all costs.
But in order to enact your will (and defend said Core), you gain access to an assortment of rooms,


- You're the bad guy!

- Very polished. Backers and early buyers remember the... fiasco that was WFTO's launch (although they did explain why it released the way it did, which was understandable); it's come a long way since then. Virtually all bugs have been fixed, many quality-of-life features have been implemented/improved and the optimisation is much better.

- Unique. Although a successor to DK, there's nothing else like this on the market at the moment. WFTO isn't a carbon copy of DK either; it has its own fantasy, creatures and ideas (most notably, Potions and Rituals).

- Build your own Dungeon. One of the major attractions, you can build your Dungeon however you feel like (within the constraints of the map terrain, of course). If you want a massive open-plan ground, meticulously divided rooms full of doorways and corridors, then you can do it. (A more recent addition was Wall prop efficiency; to offset the fact you have less building space, rooms with reinforced walls will operate more effectively.)

- Playstyle variety [outside of the Campaign]. Every game, you'll start with no abilities or rooms unlocked, spending Sins (points) in a three-column Tech Tree to unlock stuff. You can rush for a specific tree's Titan, or you can spread Sins across all three trees. That said, I don't think it's perfect (see below).

- Entertaining. With Richard Ridings as your Mentor (the same VA for the DK Mentor) and the dark, tongue-in-cheek (and occasionally just plain silly) humour, it'll catch you out once in a while.That, with the excellent(ly awful) voice acting for the good guys makes for fun outside of the gameplay.


- Hotkeys. Hotkey support was enabled a while back, but the lack of visibility is a significant issue to learn hotkeys, especially if you're trying to micro combat / efficiency. Could easily be fixed by displaying the relevant hotkey in ability tooltips.

- The AI. It's alright, but once you get to grips with the game, it becomes a lot easier to fight against. Also, there's no difficulty mode for the campaign; although the early missions are newbie-friendly, the difficulty curve rises quite significantly, particularly if you're new to this genre.

- Hidden / unexplained mechanics. Following on from the previous point, the game introduces many additional utilities you can make use of. That in and of itself is a good thing; the lack of introduction and usage of them isn't great. There's still a few rituals and potions I never make use of, while others are pretty overpowered for their investment. There are user-written guides that provide in-depth explanations, but it shouldn't really be the place of the community to tell you how something functions in the first place.

- Meta playstyles Lack of depth to Tech Tree. Having tested a defensive strategy against Master AI, I can confirm that defensive strats do indeed work (Avarice + WDs, all I'm saying), though I can't see them being as effective vs players. Nevertheless, Although there are options and optimal choices do vary from map to map, I still feel more could be done to promote tech / build diversity. Possibly passive buffs (and nerfs?) for certain units when you invest into certain trees, or passives that only activate from speccing into multiple trees to complement your playstyle.

- RAM usage. I have 8GB RAM (DDR3, meh clock speed), but on larger maps I will start to lag; it's still playable, but everything goes slower and commands won't always register. For optimal experience you'll want 12 or 16GB, but it's fine on small/medium sized maps.

Congrats for getting this far!
Overall, I would strongly recommend picking this up (especially if it's on sale, but the devs definitely earned the money asked). Many of the negative reviews were released at launch, present issues that have since been addressed in virtually all cases. Most of the bad points are fairly minor, primarily to do with communication and visibility.

Yes, it's not Dungeon Keeper 3; but that's fine. I personally believe it's better that WFTO is its own game, drawing inspiration from DK but not trying to become it.

Easily one of the best purchases you can make for £7. (It's on sale quite often for even less if you're a stingy sort).

It's not a game that will hold your hand - but once you get to grips with it (and RNG doesn't screw you over) it becomes immensely fun to play. Even Easy presents a solid challenge, particularly if you're not using one of the 'best' ships. Normal and Hard really step it up a notch.

If you do struggle to progress there's some excellent guides online on how to git gud.

Buy it it's good

Originally posted by Isaac:

Isaac and his Isaac lived alone in a small Isaac on an Isaac. Isaac kept to himself, drawing Isaacs and playing with his Isaacs, as his Isaac watched Christian Isaac on the Isaac. Isaac was Isaac, and they were both Isaac. That was, until Isaac's Isaac heard an Isaac from Isaac. 'Your Isaac has become Isaac by Isaac, he needs to be Isaac.' 'I will do my best Isaac, my Isaac', she replied, rushing into Isaac's Isaac, removing all that was Isaac from his Isaac. Again, the Isaac called Isaac. 'Isaac's Isaac is still Isaac. He needs to be cut off from all that is Isaac in his Isaac and confess his Isaacs.' 'I will follow your Isaac, I have Isaac in thee', Isaac's Isaac replied, as she locked Isaac in his Isaac, away from the Isaacs of the Isaac. One last Isaac, Isaac's Isaac heard the Isaac of Isaac calling to Isaac. 'You've done as I've asked, but I still question your Isaac to Isaac. To prove your Isaac, I will ask one more Isaac of Isaac.' 'Yes, Isaac, anything.' Isaac's Isaac begged. 'To prove your Isaac in Isaac, I require Isaac. Your Isaac will be the Isaac. Go into his Isaac, and end his Isaac, as an Isaac to Isaac to prove you Isaac me above all Isaac.' 'Yes, Isaac', she replied, grabbing an Isaac from the Isaac. Isaac, watching through an Isaac in his Isaac, trembled in Isaac. Scrambling around his Isaac to find an Isaac, he noticed an Isaac to the Isaac, hidden under his Isaac. Without Isaac, he flung open the Isaac, just as Isaac burst through his Isaac, and threw himself down into the unknown Isaacs below.

Buy it it's good

MONEY MONEY MONEY

9/10 it's alright game of the year