When you sit down and start describing Monsters Domain , it honestly sounds quite amazing, all the ideas should combine into a fun hack ‘n’ slash that fulfils your every overlord dream that can only be quenched by the likes of 2007’s OVERLORD.
When I first booted up Monsters Domain I had a rough idea what I will be getting into. The unreal engine logo always makes me wary of cheap games with flipped or cheaply acquired assets from solo developers that want to make a quick buck on Steam. But I was pleasantly surprised when present the main menu and a settings menu with extensive options, even including voice chat options which may indicate a future co-op experience. With 3 difficulty settings to choose from (and one locked) I went in with the hopes for a new OVERLORD successor.
We are presented by a cutscene that shows a small band of explorers open an ancient tomb and releasing the ancient evil that was sealed away from the world, us. The in game cutscenes suffer the same visual problems that the main gameplay loop also does, it isn’t ugly , it’s just boring. The voice acting can only be described as ‘passable’ and really nothing to pay much attention too other than the fact that the audio does not match the subtitles with every other sentence. almost like the subtitles were a draft and the audio is what the studio settled on later.
At it’s core the game is a first person hack ‘n’ slash with a fun companion system that becomes tedious later on. You possess one of the poor souls that have let you outside the tomb in the beginning cutscene and you use their body to kill your enemies (with the option to switch and possess other enemies. At the same time you also resurrect two companions that you can gear up and command while going through the mostly linear levels and hacking away at mostly the same enemies. I say mostly as occasionally throughout the level you will stumble upon a large gate that will end either being a platforming dungeon to get through or a slightly harder enemy camp. The game very quickly introduces you to the mechanics of gearing up your companions, making them use a variety of weapons from one to two-handed melee weapons, to bows and even magic staffs. The combat it self is pretty standard, you can slash, block, parry and dodge, as long as levelling up and unlocking spells from a few elements. You have to manage your Health, stamina and mana as well as your minions health in order to over come your enemies which range from human knights and guards to goblins and hellish creatures.
As you go through the level you accumulate a massive amount of loot from chests and fallen enemies it a struggle to juggle around your minions and upgrading everyone’s gear one by one ( max 3 active minions at a time). I really wish I could save a substantial amount of time with a simple ‘auto-equip’ button. When I came across the first side objective enemy camp is where most of the problems presented themselves. Facing a larger group of enemies shows just how janky the game really is , with minions standing and taking all the hits with no retaliation, enemies ignoring all impact and spamming attacks, getting stuck on small objects and clutter was unfortunately persistent through out my entire play time. So my first ‘combat puzzle’ ended with a lot of frustration as my minions stood still in a group of enemies, perish and when left alone the 7 or so enemies spammed me with attacks that I ran out of stamina to dodge or block and ultimately resetting me to my checkpoint.
Another aspect of the game are the puzzles and at first I was presented with one where I had to use my minions to stand on multiple different buttons in order to activate a door. But that was re-used in the exact same way and so often that it quickly lost its charm. The other puzzles are the side dungeons I mentioned that are short platforming parts where you avoid Indiana Jones style traps, which are so predictable and easy that the only challenge is not being bored of waiting for the floor spikes to slot back into the ground. Going through this first area doing the same loop of , kill group , resurrect minions to fill my team if I lost any and spend 5 minutes looking through gear to give them and occasionally be slowed down by a basic puzzle to open a door. Now I finally come across a boss fight, the cutscene plays, a hellish being jumps out in a huge arena that finally stands out from the rest of the level and I get ready to battle using every mechanic I learned! And its dead. Because I went through all the enemy camps on the side I was clearly stronger than I should of been at that moment, sadly raising the difficulty didn’t really change that for future areas.
So now here I am going to a new area, hoping for the game to open up but really expecting the exact same loop as before. I was wrong, as the game just through base building my way and I could not be more excited. Immediately I was ready to ignore all the jank and clank of Monsters Domain so I can create my ultimate overlord lair.
Unsurprisingly my excitement was short lived as the mechanics of using minions to collect resources, as well as levelling them up with gear and souls to then send them on expeditions was all for a frustrating wave based defence section. The overall base area is ugly bland, so repetitive that a mini map cant help you not getting lost. the structures are basic and there’s no decorations apart from some gargoyles but there’s no reason to ponder at them as moving around is a slog. It’s made more annoying that when you place structures they are highlighted green that’s so bright you can tell which way they are facing. This is also where I realised there’s a crafting mechanic that the game never mentioned to me and honestly , I never used because the gear I found was sufficient enough and the lack of gear for my minions wasn’t the problem. It was the minion AI bugging out and standing still, staring at the enemy slashing away at them.
My excitement vanished entirely when my whole progress of upgrading and levelling up my minions crumbled on the battlefield of my first base defence. As again all my decked out minions stood there and took hits with no retaliation. After the battle was finished I got a cutscene telling me to go to the next area to continue my quest. Upon the cutscene finishing, the battlefield was cleared up, all the loot dropped from my fallen minions was gone as well as any enemies I could resurrect to fill out my ranks. I decided to give the game couple more hours to see if it redeems itself within the next area or two but in my opinion it didn’t.
To conclude my time with Monsters Domain I’m honestly just upset. I feel like every mechanic in this game is a promise of something great. Every minute of gameplay is like a sales pitch that gets you more and more excited about the final product and what you will get if you just stick around and then as soon as you go to grab this GOTY idea, it just walks away. If this was early access I would maybe suggest waiting and wish listing the game for later but since it’s the full release, I can only suggest giving it your time if it comes in a bundle you were going to buy anyway.
