Two reviews in a week? What sorcery is this, 2021?
Queen’s Domain caught my interest as soon as I found out about it! In one of the busiest release schedules I’ve ever seen in the gaming industry, I was so pleased to see this game perform well. While I received a review code for Queen’s Domain, this won’t be a full review by any means. Given my notorious reputation for being awful at these dungeon crawler games, it will take me a while. The game is Steam Deck Verified and I wrote a little piece about it’s Steam Deck performance over on SteamDeckHQ.
It runs great, by the way! I focused more on the actual performance on the Deck over there, but I’ll go into more detail on the gameplay for this little piece. Queen’s Domain is developed by Freshly Baked Games LLC, and for just a two man team, they have made something truly special. The game has sold over 100,000 copies already, with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam. I don’t know yet how it will fare in my Game of the Year list, but I won’t be surprised if it ends up pretty high on my Top 10.
If I could think of one of my annoying analogies to describe Queen’s Domain, it would be if someone took King’s Field from the old days and introduced her to the excellent Dread Delusion. After a whirlwind romance in which the obvious happens, they gave birth to a happy little child called Queen’s Domain. At its heart, it is a retro style, old school action RPG packed with content and character, and exploration is the name of the game.
The game blends together brutal combat with an immersive atmosphere that absolutely does not care about you. There is very little handholding, no map, and everything on the island wants you dead. It is the little details that really sells Queen’s Domain, and it is a game that requires attention. Between the visuals, the sound design, and the combat system, there is so much to like that I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Sure, the game is challenging and I’ve died countless times due to my poor skills, but it is that kind of game. The information is all there, you just have to find it.
The early stages will feel like playing Dodgems against a bunch of very irritating creatures that want to rip your skin off, and you start off with no tools but a rather crappy sword. You have to explore to find the rest of the weapons. Throwing daggers helps against those annoying eyeball things that blast my health off with a single laser beam, and you definitely need the club to avoid dying against the skeletons. There are secrets everywhere, and it is the subtlety of the world that excites me the most.
I am still rather early in the game so far so this is the earliest of impressions, but I love what I am playing so far. Queen’s Domain feels like a love child of the King’s Field era with a ton of polish, and it is only $19.99 at full price. Honestly, I am shocked it wasn’t priced higher. My opinion will change as I play of course, but so far, this is a winner for me.
