The King is Watching

Overall, I had an absolute blast with The King is Watching. The main gameplay loop is extremely well thought-out and incredibly engaging, and I can't wait to continue playing the game and seeing what all the Kings and advisors bring to the table. Speaking of, I feel my gaze needs to fall on to Steam again now. The King needs to watch his subjects, after all.

The King is Watching is one of the most addictive roguelite strategies of this year. It has excellent visuals, humor and variability in settlement development. So far the game has problems with randomness and balance, but this only makes the playthrough more interesting.

Roguelikes and roguelites feel like an indie release staple at this point. Coined from the 1980 release of Rogue, the rise of small game studios, digital distribution, and the success of hits like Spelunky and Slay the Spire have seen a growing cornucopia of roguey releases for players to choose from. This year alone has already seen Blue Prince and Monster Train 2 sparking early GOTY conversations alongside other solid titles like Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, Luck be a Landlord, Rift Wiz...