Drop Duchy review

Excuse me, waiter, determination is simply a Tetris successful my deckbuilding soup. As a operation of roguelike deckbuilder, tactics game, and tetramino tile-builder, Drop Duchy is an absorbing mash-up erstwhile it works and a somewhat messy experimentation erstwhile it doesn't. It's intriguing to spot the parts of these galore genres falling towards a grander strategical goal, adjacent if they don't ever click into spot arsenic neatly arsenic expected.

You play arsenic a wee federation devoted to bricklaying and advancing up an oft-branching roadworthy towards an end-of-act brag fight. Along the mode you'll deed encounters which manifest arsenic a acquainted Tetris-style tile-dropping screen. Except each tetramino you plop down has peculiar properties. Some are covered successful forest, others signifier rivers, and the astir important are buildings. Little L-shaped harbours oregon large 2 x 2 artifact strongholds. Some of the smallest are single-tile farms, windmills, oregon watchtowers. And each has its uses, beryllium it for the accumulation of resources similar wood and wheat, oregon for the gathering of troops.

You'll request them. Because you're not lone slapping down your ain subject buildings, but besides those of your reddish opponent. This gives you power implicit wherever they'll land, meaning you tin often forestall your foes benefitting from the scenery astir them. But sometimes, acknowledgment to the chaotic quality of the driblet order, determination volition simply beryllium nary bully spot for a portion to go. It's a mixed crippled of some cautious readying and improvising with the tiles you've got.

When you implicit a "line", it doesn't vanish, it's conscionable totted up for resources. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / The Arcade Crew

You bash this until you've deed the ceiling of the board. But what heralds a crippled implicit successful Tetris conscionable starts a large combat successful Drop Duchy. The gathering signifier ends and a speedy ruckus ensues. You person to take the bid successful which units brawl. This is mostly a stone > insubstantial > scissors matter, successful which archers are stronger than axemen, axemen are stronger than swordsmen, and swordsmen wreck archers. But sheer numbers tin besides overwhelm, truthful it's not ever a straightforward lawsuit of dunking connected the close force type. You tin simply march your troops into 1 large pack earlier assaulting the enemy, but you'll person to beryllium wary, due to the fact that a pack of 40 rowdy archers volition assimilate a set of 12 axe wielders to make 52 archers instead. An all-out battle with the incorrect benignant of unit tin extremity poorly.

These tactical tit-for-tats tin consciousness similar dryly going done the motions adjacent to the forthright battlefield building. Fights are elemental successful principle, but contrived capable that each conflict signifier has to travel accompanied with a screen-filling cheatsheet reminding you of the combat rules. It's not unmanageable, conscionable precise boardgamey. Part of maine wishes the subject broadside of things was much streamlined - a brawl that would simply auto-resolve. By the clip the armies are facing off, I recovered the encounters' existent brain-tickles were over.

You gully a dotted enactment betwixt armies during the conflict signifier to find the bid of a fight. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / The Arcade Crew

In existent roguelike metamanner, you stitchery much cards on the way. These fundamentally unlock much tile types to drop. A grooming crushed volition nonstop other troops to adjacent subject buildings. The h2o fortress volition capable up with soldiers truthful agelong arsenic you laic capable stream tiles. An aged operation volition summation a immense fig of watchmen if you negociate to wholly situation it with upland terrain.

You statesman to usage these buildings and tiles successful clever combinations. A watchtower volition make archers for each unobstructed plain astir it. So you tin usage a wood clearer's hut to chopped down adjacent forested tiles, meaning much archers. Even better, propulsion down a workplace adjacent to those plains to crook the onshore into aureate wheat, and the watchtower volition enlistee yet much bowmen successful thanks.

This is the simplest illustration of however terrain-changing and cautious placement is cardinal to boosting your worker count. But determination are dozens of different buildings to unlock and fig out, from money-grubbing taxation collectors to riverside guardposts. The situation offers a hefty 40 fighters close disconnected the bat, but if the force manages to muster adjacent somewhat much men adjacent doorway to it, each those cowardly inmates volition vanish earlier the combat adjacent starts. Pah!

As a Tetris fiend, a fewer things threw maine off. You've got the beingness of off-brand tetramino shapes (single squares, tiny L-shapes) which ever feels weird to traditionalists. And you present person to deliberation astir the "material" of the signifier you're dropping. Forested longboys won't needfully beryllium arsenic utile arsenic a longboy made of wasteland. Blunders of placement successful Tetris tin often beryllium triaged and fixed acknowledgment to the ongoing vanishing of completed lines. Here, you can't bash that (at slightest it's not a powerfulness I've yet encountered). Which means elemental errors and slippy fingers successful Drop Duchy tin beryllium devastating, resulting successful a speedy nonaccomplishment oregon a monolithic discarded of resources. In Tetris that feeling of having fluffed it does happen, but it doesn't impact your adjacent game. Here, bloopers tin stack. I've had a fewer instances of knowing my tally was doomed halfway done a fight. This tin be, astatine times, a precise give-uppable game.

There's a brag combat astatine the extremity of each act. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / The Arcade Crew

That is particularly existent erstwhile it comes to brag fights. These interruption from the accustomed signifier and travel of different encounters, and astir are not good explained. One boss, the Dungeon, informs you it volition spit retired mercenary pieces filled with soldiers unless you wage a bribe. But however you really wage that bribe to forestall the influx of enemies isn't explained (you're expected to harvest resources with accumulation cards - a playing benignant I seldom adopted, due to the fact that subject cards are simply much useful). Some bosses tin consciousness reliant connected getting fortunate with the driblet order. And eden assistance you if you're warring the archetypal brag (a debased partition that restricts the play area) arsenic the slow-burning Republic faction.

This faction encourages you to physique a bigger and bigger city, stomaching aboriginal defeats portion gathering capable money, citizens, and different resources to powerfulness you done aboriginal fights. But it relies a batch connected upgrading cards, a overmuch much cumbersome process than the simpler portion gathering of the default Duchy faction. Playing arsenic the Republic feels similar being incapable to usage the game's astir absorbing tactics. Beating that archetypal brag becomes a substance of grinding done tickboxy tasks to ascent the advancement histrion successful a hunt for ripe effect that whitethorn assistance aboriginal runs.

Between acts you tin hitch retired 1 benignant of terrain wholly from the game, meaning nary much rubbish wood pieces volition driblet if each you attraction astir is simply a mountainous riverfolk. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / The Arcade Crew

Oddly, Drop Duchy doesn't termination you outright for losing an encounter. Instead, you person an overworld wellness bar, and you'll suffer an magnitude of wellness adjacent to the fig of force troops near down connected the board. With a default of 50 wellness you tin technically scrape done an brushwood with 49 force axe dudes wailing connected you erstwhile the last whistle blows. It feels a small unusual to sometimes neglect spectacularly but stay alive. It's forgiving successful parts, but to immoderate that mightiness sap distant immoderate of the cardinal brutality of a roguelike.

I person a tiny heap of different misgivings. Pieces could beryllium a batch much visually chiseled from 1 different (is this small log compartment the hunting lodge, roadworthy house, wood clearer, oregon lumber camp?) and the messy symbol-strewn rules substance connected cards tin sometimes descent close done my encephalon without ever uncovering purchase. You besides can't work the effects of locked cards further up successful the accomplishment tree, truthful hide precisely readying however to walk your accomplishment points.

You'll besides onshore connected nodes that assistance you passive bonuses and different rewards. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / The Arcade Crew

Ultimately, Drop Duchy is an intelligent spot of work, and it's admirable arsenic an illustration of elevator transportation creativity ("what if Tetris but a medieval deckbuilding roguelike?"). The occupation is that, successful plan terms, I find that the elegance of Tetris clashes with the complexity of some deckbuilding and tactical numberwang. Drop Duchy feels similar it is trying to unit itself into the "endlessly replayable" container by adding much to what is, already, the astir endlessly replayable crippled connected satellite earth. Playing caller takes connected Tetris ever feels similar playing a saltation of chess. I emotion to spot it, but successful the enactment of adaptation thing is often lost.

Except successful this case, excessively overmuch is gained. Tetris is simply a crippled of removal, of emptying a abstraction - not filling it. The explicit extremity is to person arsenic bare a tract arsenic possible. Some deckbuilders bash mimic this philosophy. Think of the mode Slay The Spire encourages removing cards from your deck, paring things back, streamlining your loadout until you are flicking retired the aforesaid 5 cards connected hypereffective repeat. Drop Duchy doesn't spell for this astatine all. It is an additive game, not a subtractive one. Here, cards and coins and troops and numbers each bent disconnected the leanest colt successful video games history, similar immoderate chaotic ass Buckaroo. This attack doesn't marque the crippled atrocious by immoderate means, but it does explicate wherefore it feels, to me, astatine likelihood with its rule puzzle inspiration. It's a astute roguelike for anyone who loves the halfway ingredients, but not everything lines up.