dotAGE
- October 4, 2023
- Michele Pirovano
- 31h median play time
Get on Steam"DotAge is a single-player strategy game released as an indie turn-based title. With deep worker placement mechanics, players build and manage their village while discovering new buildings, professions, and resources. The game offers an intriguing story with a masterful soundtrack, plenty of humor, and high replayability, despite its grindy atmosphere."
Mac OS
PC
Steam Deck
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Engaging and addictive gameplay with a unique blend of turn-based strategy and city-building mechanics.
- Charming pixel art and humorous writing that adds personality to the game.
- Strong replayability due to randomized tech trees, events, and different starting characters (Elders) that change gameplay dynamics.
- Runs can be excessively long, often taking 10+ hours, which may lead to fatigue and a sense of repetitiveness.
- The game can feel punishing, with a single failed event potentially leading to a death spiral that is hard to recover from.
- Some UI and UX elements could use improvement, particularly in managing large populations and tracking resources effectively.
- gameplay309 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 1 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this title is characterized by its blend of simplicity and depth, allowing players to gradually learn complex mechanics at their own pace. The turn-based, resource management system encourages strategic planning while introducing new elements through a unique "memories" mechanic, enhancing replayability. While some players find certain mechanics frustrating or punishing, the overall experience is engaging and addictive, with a charming aesthetic that complements the challenging gameplay loop.
“This game's simplicity is what allows it to have a lot of depth in its strategy and gameplay.”
“The fundamentally simple gameplay loop, graduated complexity, thoughtful mechanics, satisfying synergies, and tangible love from the developer all come together to create something that stands out like a north star in its genre.”
“The gameplay loop is rewarding and addictive.”
“Unfortunately, sometimes it feels that it's just complexity for the sake of complexity, without a sense of progress by unlocking different mechanics or actions.”
“The gameplay loop devolves into appeasing gods and the apocalypse just is sadistic, not fun when you get unlucky RNG with the event timing.”
“I would agree with other reviews that say the game at first feels a bit too much like a spreadsheet simulator, and this is from a guy who likes a good spreadsheet simulator, and I think a lot of that comes from the turn-based aspect of the game combined with the mechanics being too... predictable?”
- graphics110 mentions
- 35 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a charming pixel art style that many players find cute and nostalgic, reminiscent of classic titles. While some reviews mention that the visuals can be simplistic or occasionally glitchy, the overall aesthetic is praised for its appeal and effectiveness in enhancing the gameplay experience. Despite some criticisms regarding performance and UI polish, the graphics contribute positively to the game's cozy and engaging atmosphere.
“The graphics and animations are very appealing with a lot of charm.”
“The game's visuals are also really charming!”
“The graphics are cute, and the gameplay is fun and quite addictive.”
“Graphics are a little ugly even for pixelated art, so care there.”
“Some of the graphics can be a little glitchy, like the prophecy meters at the top displaying completely incorrect percentages, and it can sometimes run really slowly.”
“The downside for me is the art style; I'm not a big fan of low-pixel things that are constantly jumping.”
- music68 mentions
- 41 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its catchy and immersive qualities, particularly its unique take on medieval tunes that enhance the gameplay experience. However, some players noted issues with repetitiveness and audio bugs, such as overlapping tracks and abrupt transitions, which detracted from the overall enjoyment. Despite these drawbacks, the soundtrack is generally considered a highlight, contributing positively to the game's charming atmosphere and engaging mechanics.
“The soundtrack is purposely unique, fitting, and very catchy.”
“At times, I caught myself humming or whistling the tunes from this game; they are so catchy and energetic for songs recomposed from over 500 years ago.”
“The music is really good; it stands out enough to be memorable but isn't obnoxious.”
“The sound and music could be better.”
“Not a huge fan of the 'authentic' medieval music after a few hours, and the UI makes way too much noise.”
“The music seems to bug out a lot from time to time, especially after doom events and day/night transitions.”
- replayability67 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 52 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game boasts high replayability due to its randomized maps, diverse starting characters, and dynamic tech trees, which create unique experiences in each playthrough. Players appreciate the variety of unlocks and events that enhance replay value, although some feel the game's length may hinder repeated runs. Overall, it combines elements of city-building and roguelikes effectively, encouraging players to engage in multiple sessions.
“Fantastic game, very replayable, very 'one more turn'able, enough to unlock and enough different on each run to keep it interesting.”
“Every starting map is randomly generated with different resources, the research tree is also slightly different every time, so there is a good amount of replayability there.”
“The roguelite elements fit into the game nicely and improve replayability.”
“I usually am the type of gamer who loves a replayable game (ranging from Factorio and Oni to crop rotation), but I am having a difficult time going for a second run in this game.”
“The first run will have the least content, which is a shame since replayability is fairly low.”
“It's not a bad game, but despite all of the replayability elements incorporated in it--the memories, the blueprints, the new characters, and the largest domain threat being different each time--I don't really see much replayability value in it... personally.”
- story58 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as engaging and well-integrated into the gameplay, providing a sense of progression and character development through various storytelling elements and random events. While some players appreciate the charming aesthetics and the replayability offered by different storytellers and mechanics, others find the narrative to be basic or tedious at times. Overall, the story enhances the city-building experience, though opinions vary on its depth and impact.
“There is enough going on to feel like you are part of a story and that the setting isn't purely an excuse for the gameplay.”
“The game tells both an overall storyline as well as little moments based on how you are playing the game.”
“Each game session feels like a new story being unfolded, thanks to the roguelite elements that keep the experience fresh and engaging.”
“The game has a passable story and the bare minimum of characterization to stretch over its bones.”
“More puzzle game than story simulator.”
“Then the story elements become insanely tedious.”
- humor57 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is widely praised for its charm and quirkiness, with players enjoying the blend of lighthearted jokes, dark undertones, and amusing animations that enhance the gameplay experience. Many reviews highlight the clever writing and random events that keep the game entertaining, even amidst its challenging mechanics. While some find the humor hit-or-miss, the overall consensus is that it adds a delightful layer to the game's engaging and addictive nature.
“This game is fun and hilarious!”
“The writing of the descriptions has a lot of fun and humor to it.”
“The humor is surprisingly mature and intelligent.”
- grinding33 mentions
- 9 % positive mentions
- -6 % neutral mentions
- 97 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that grinding in the game can become excessively tedious and frustrating, particularly in the late game where micromanagement and repetitive tasks dominate the experience. While some players appreciate the depth and complexity of the mechanics, many find the need to constantly manage resources and navigate production chains to be a joyless slog. Overall, the game offers replayability, but the grind can detract significantly from enjoyment, especially for those who prefer a more streamlined experience.
“Grinding in this game is so immersive, it feels like you'll need a second life to keep up!”
“The grind is rewarding, offering a sense of achievement with every level gained.”
“I love how the grinding mechanics are balanced; it keeps me engaged without feeling tedious.”
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“The game is a tedious and boring slog.”
“The memory unlock process makes the game really tedious for no reason, locking you out of tech and resources until you lose enough times.”
- optimization24 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with players noting significant performance issues as the population increases, particularly beyond 100 villagers, leading to stuttering and low frame rates. While some users appreciate the game's beauty and smooth performance on lower-end PCs, they express frustration over the lack of optimization in mid to late-game scenarios. However, recent updates have shown improvement, suggesting that developers are actively working on enhancing performance.
“I think just some slim down and optimization on the game experience and UX would make this just amazing.”
“The constant juggle of food, heat/cold, population, expansion, tech progression, city planning, and optimizations is so stimulating.”
“Optimization feels very rewarding as it goes from barely surviving to going 'what totally unnecessary production chain do I want to add to this mess'.”
“The game's performance is surprisingly going down at midgame, when around 40 pips are alive.”
“I had to say though, the game starts to have heavy performance problems once you reach 100+ villagers, which is a shame because the whole point is to scale the highest possible and once you reach 100-150 villagers the game freezes all the time and drops to very low FPS.”
“It seems to have performance issues as the town scales up, which is a little concerning but hopefully this improves in the future!”
- stability14 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 79 % negative mentions
The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with many users reporting frequent freezes and bugs, particularly during events and transitions between turns. While some players have experienced significant issues that required restarts, others noted that the game runs well on their systems and praised the developer's responsiveness to feedback and troubleshooting. Overall, while there are notable stability concerns, the presence of an auto-save feature and ongoing developer support have helped mitigate some frustrations.
“I came upon this game by chance when searching for something to play on my MacBook Air, and it runs great.”
“Complete, bug-free, tons of content, lightweight, no gacha/pay-to-win/lootbox, has a demo, and the developer is taking feedback from the community for balance and improvement.”
“But it just released, developed by one person, and I have not noticed any glitches or bugs other than the zoom functionality not being bound correctly.”
“I also get some weird freezes, like I got the eureka event and the camera zoomed to a pip who stood there for several seconds before it started the event animation.”
“Cons: it freezes on occasion between turns and I had to restart it a few times, but luckily there is an auto save feature and you should be back to the turn you just played when you reopen.”
“Game is great but freezes constantly on the 'work' screen.”
- emotional3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the game emotionally impactful, experiencing a rollercoaster of feelings ranging from guilt to confidence and despair. The heartfelt messaging from the developer enhances the emotional depth, contributing to a profound sense of completion.
“My last run was an emotional cascade from god-like confidence, shot down to panicked despair shifting in mere moments.”
“Mostly because of the heartfelt messaging from the developer, but also for the sense of completion.”
“A good, quirky, and innovative game that made me feel guilty for playing it after a while.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that the game's monetization strategy may involve intrusive advertising, as users express concerns about pop-up ads and the developer's promotional tactics on social media.
“The monetization strategy feels overly aggressive and intrusive.”
“It seems like every feature is locked behind a paywall.”
“The constant push for in-game purchases ruins the overall experience.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers praise Dotage for its exceptional ability to create an immersive village survival atmosphere, effectively drawing players into its world.
“Dotage is an amazing village survival game that perfectly captures the atmosphere.”
“The immersive environment and attention to detail create a captivating atmosphere that draws you in.”
“Every sound and visual element contributes to a rich atmosphere that enhances the overall experience.”
