Dome Keeper

Dome Keeper also features two modes of play: Relic Hunt and Prestige. Relic Hunt is simple enough, dig until you find the relic and bring it back to your dome to trigger the escape. That mode can be played in three different sized maps which is nice for allowing you to decide how long of a run you want to play. I found myself playing a quick small map every once in a while between work breaks, or the larger maps when I knew I had more time to dedicate. Prestige is a bit different however, as you score points by collecting resources and you can’t escape until you buy the upgrade to allow you to...

Dome Keeper is an excellent rogue-lite for fans of 2D mining games.

The ultimate goal of a run is to locate a master upgrade of sorts, unleashing a powerful, deadly attack on all enemies in your vicinity. Locate it and bring it back to your dome, and you’ve completed a run. There’s plenty of reason to keep jumping back in, though, thanks to multiple difficulty levels and various starting perks that unlock the more you play.

A simple, but powerful blend of meditative mining and wave-based tower defence, Dome Keeper keeps you coming back for more.

Mine for your life in this smart, condensed roguelike.

Dome Keeper takes several common game mechanisms to form something that feels fresh and familiar in equal measure. Nothing about it is particularly innovative. It’s simply a rogue-lite where you mine resources and defend your dome from waves of attacking creatures. But it’s how Dome Keeper executes those mechanisms that give it a unique flavor.

Priced at under $20, Dome Keeper will keep you on your toes for several mining sessions. Its cyclical design is simple and executed fairly well, keeping the tension consistent throughout a run. However, upgrades quickly become restrictive in terms of effective builds, and both mining and defense become predictable in subsequent playthroughs. That said, the game has plenty of room for future updates that could help balance things out. Dome Keeper, without taking too many risks, fits simply and innocuously inside the world of the iterative survival genre.