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The Rally Point: Ruinarch is a novel toy but a disappointing asymmetrical strategy gameFiending for yourself
Fiending for yourself
Image credit:Squeaky Wheel Studio, Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Squeaky Wheel Studio, Rock Paper Shotgun
Ruinarchis based on a concept many of you have thought of at some point. What if, instead of building up villages and hunting down hostile monsters and evil overlords, you were playing as the Dark Lord?
It’s been done most famously inDungeon KeeperorOverlord, but those were quite conventional structurally. Sure, you were playing as the baddies, but still doing mostly the same things as in other games, twirling your moustache the whole time. Ruinarch feels not like one of those thematic remixes of an established structure, but an attempt to build a new subgenre. Now that it’s reached a full release, it also, sadly, feels like a demonstration of how difficult that really is.
Ruinarch v1.0 - Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
Ruinarch v1.0 - Announcement Trailer
Image credit:Squeaky Wheel Studio, Rock Paper Shotgun
Of course you’ll want to keep them under control, though. The more powerful they get, the more dangerous they are to you. But also the more benefit there is in corrupting them to your cause, or turning them on each other. Three demonic archetypes determine your general playstyle: the brute force of demons who raid and kill with monster lackeys, the messy pestilence of the plaguemaster, or the more subtle puppetmaster. Although each can get access to randomised spells or buildings from the others each time you level up your portal, the archetype system feels a little arbitrary, and each has some spells that are niche at best and others that are indispensable. The first two also feel rather one note, as nothing they get is as entertaining or variable flexible as the puppetmaster’s ability to spy on the people.
Image credit:Squeaky Wheel Studio, Rock Paper Shotgun
Shadows of Forbidden Gods has this problem to a degree too, but its gods are more distinct and varied, and its use of a Chosen One nemesis character gives it direction where Ruinarch gives you another guy you can just kidnap or blast with lightning.Skyward Collapsewas similarly boring if played efficiently and cautiously, but its system of unleashing chaos and countering it with more chaos gave it a momentum that Ruinarch lacks.
Image credit:Squeaky Wheel Studio, Rock Paper Shotgun
It’s a damn shame. Maybe the whole ‘evil overlord’ concept works best exactly as in Dungeon Keeper; as an entirely thematic dressing for a conventional design. Perhaps screwing with the AI and cackling is always going to be asoftware toyrather than a game in the typical sense, and Ruinarch is at least fun if approached in that way. But there’s the germ of something almost entirely new in there, and I hope some future studio manages to bring it to light.
