Impire
- February 13, 2013
- Cyanide Studio
- 58h median play time
A muddled collection of good ideas, Impire has charm enough but its flaws are likely to frustrate most players.
Get on Steam"Impire" is a fantasy real-time strategy game that allows for 2-player multi-player, co-op, and single-player experiences. Players control the demon Baal-Abaddon, who must rebuild his form and construct a dungeon underworld filled with evil creatures and spells to stop heroes from interfering with his return to power. The game is full of humor, but beware of bugs that may hinder gameplay.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a charming art style and humorous dialogue that adds to the overall enjoyment.
- The squad-based mechanics allow for interesting combinations and strategies, providing some depth to the gameplay.
- The concept of managing a dungeon and raiding the overworld is engaging and offers a unique twist on the genre.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and technical issues, including crashes and unresponsive controls, which detract from the experience.
- Gameplay can become repetitive and tedious, with a lack of meaningful variety in missions and mechanics.
- The fixed room sizes and limited customization options hinder creativity in dungeon building, making it feel restrictive.
- story81 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as a mix of amusing moments and frustrating repetition, with many players finding it ultimately forgettable and lacking depth. While some appreciate the humor and character interactions, the overall narrative is criticized for being random, poorly executed, and marred by bugs that disrupt mission flow. Despite its entertaining elements, the story fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion, leaving many players underwhelmed.
“The storyline is a lot of fun with plenty of little geek references.”
“While I found some characters annoying, I enjoyed the story enough to play through twice.”
“The dialogue and story in the game is really fun though, which is what you can expect from the guys who made Magicka.”
“The story is extremely random, and you never really know what the overall point is.”
“Extremely boring, and terrible story.”
“It's a generic, poorly written, unfunny story, which takes away the best aspects of a dungeon-sim to replace them with cheap-shot humor.”
- gameplay59 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 32 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it repetitive, tedious, and lacking depth, particularly in micromanagement and strategic elements. While some appreciate the humor and unique mechanics, others criticize the clunky controls and slow pacing, leading to a generally underwhelming experience. Overall, the game offers moments of fun but struggles to maintain engagement over time, resulting in a gameplay experience that feels below average.
“It definitely falls under the ‘dungeon-management’ subgenre of strategy games, also bringing some nifty ideas and clever mechanics.”
“A charming strategy, with pleasant gameplay, some original ideas and humorous wackiness.”
“The gameplay is intuitive and easygoing, even as the skills and challenges ramp themselves up.”
“The gameplay is repetitive and boring.”
“Tedious gameplay with little freedom to develop your own style made all the more painful by it trying too hard to be funny.”
“A very poor game, I'm sorry to say, repetitive and boring gameplay mixed with some rather game-breaking bugs.”
- humor50 mentions
- 94 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highly polarizing, with many players finding it hit-or-miss, often leaning towards the latter. While some appreciate the dark and sarcastic elements, others criticize the jokes as cringeworthy and reminiscent of outdated comedy clichés. Overall, the humor adds a layer of charm but fails to compensate for the game's repetitive gameplay and technical shortcomings.
“Its funny, the main character is our little (for now) demon who just doesn't respect the lord who summoned him lol.”
“A great game with a twisted sense of humor.”
“Very enjoyable game with a lot of hilarious references and moments as well as features and all this for just 9.99 euro.”
“Dialogues full of cliché jokes that are mostly not funny.”
“Shallow, grindy, and distinctly unfunny.”
“It's a generic, poorly written, unfunny story that takes away the best aspects of a dungeon sim to replace them with cheap-shot humor.”
- graphics23 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the art style and overall visual appeal, while others criticize them as dated and unoptimized, leading to performance issues. Many reviewers note that despite the eye-catching visuals, they lack depth and are overshadowed by poor gameplay mechanics and design choices. Overall, while the graphics are described as decent or pleasant, they do not compensate for the game's shortcomings in engagement and immersion.
“Personally, I liked the art style, and I hope they change it from an RTS squad manager to a full-on Dungeon Keeper-esque game where we evolve Baal and can do stuff like the newer games from the Dungeons series.”
“The graphical style and detailed overworld are quirky and creative but are ultimately overshadowed by the slow-paced and repetitive gameplay.”
“The graphics are decent and the gameplay is good.”
“Eye candy graphics, but without any depth or substance to keep players engaged, full of bad design choices.”
“Horribly unoptimized, taxing even most modern graphics cards.”
“Graphics and animations are dated, the voice overs ruin any immersion, the interface is bad and I don't even see a solid idea behind it gameplay-wise.”
- grinding22 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The reviews overwhelmingly describe the grinding aspect of the game as tedious and monotonous, with players expressing frustration over excessive micromanagement and a lack of meaningful progression. Many found the gameplay repetitive, often reduced to a cycle of building and raiding without much freedom or enjoyment, leading to a generally unfun experience. Overall, the grinding mechanics detract significantly from the game's potential, making it feel more like a chore than an engaging challenge.
“It's far too grindy, and a lot of people will go in hoping for Dungeon Keeper, only to end up with a squad-based RTS where every unit looks the same.”
“The game can get tedious and rather monotonous as the general tone of each level is essentially build up dungeon, build up troops, raid, rinse and repeat until you're strong enough to go into the main part of the level.”
“It's tedious to control your minions, the traps are useless, you're given little leeway in designing your dungeon, the 'humor' is embarrassingly bad, and the campaign is long and boring.”
- stability9 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of glitches that disrupt gameplay and require level restarts. Many users describe it as extremely buggy, with unresponsive controls and a lack of polish, leading to a perception of it being a low-quality product. Despite some improvements post-launch, the overall consensus is that the game remains too unstable for a satisfactory experience.
“Glitches ruin missions to the point that you have to restart levels to fix them.”
“The game is extremely buggy, with lots of bad ideas implemented into it.”
“Even after the patch, it seems to be quite buggy (or some may be features, I honestly can't say).”
- music3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The music in the game is criticized for feeling disjointed and lacking cohesion, resembling a random assortment of tracks rather than a curated soundtrack. While the integration of classic heavy metal references is appreciated, the overall audio experience is described as disappointing and uninspired, detracting from the game's enjoyment.
“The music and voice acting bring a tear to the eye in the same manner as an onion does.”
“The way they managed to weave a million classic heavy metal song titles into their script is impressive.”
“The music plays like a curated list of tracks, creating a unique atmosphere.”
“As much as I love the way they managed to weave a million classic heavy metal song titles into their script, the game falls flat as soon as you step away from their snarky humor.”
“Horrible grind and micromanagement, very odd controls and menus, music and voice acting that bring a tear to the eye in the same manner as an onion does.”
“Music that plays like a list of random tracks from Jamendo.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while the engaging story and impactful choices offer some incentive to replay, the limited content and lackluster multiplayer experience significantly diminish its overall replay value.
“It's filled with great voice actors, an awesome story, and the changes that the choices in the game grant you give it some good replayability.”
“There isn't a lot of replayability in this title.”
“Lack of content and uneventful multiplayer make this game have little replay value.”
- atmosphere3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is praised for its charm and humor, drawing loose inspiration from Dungeon Keeper, though it is not considered a direct successor. Overall, players express a strong appreciation for the game's unique ambiance.
“The atmosphere is fantastic; I absolutely love it.”
“It seems to have the look that could be perceived as a spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper, however, only the atmosphere and humor could be loosely based on it.”
“Not a successor to Dungeon Keeper, but it is loosely influenced by its atmosphere and humor.”
“Sure, it seems to have the look that could be perceived as a spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper; however, only the atmosphere and humor could be loosely based on Dungeon Keeper.”
“Tl;dr - not a successor to Dungeon Keeper but is loosely influenced by its atmosphere and humor.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game is criticized as a blatant cash grab, leveraging nostalgia for the Dungeon Keeper franchise without offering substantial value or innovation.
“They solely made this game as a cheap and quick cash grab based on nostalgic Dungeon Keeper vibes.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game is reported to be poorly optimized, placing a heavy strain on even the latest graphics cards.
“Horribly unoptimized, taxing even most modern graphics cards.”
“The game runs like a slideshow on my high-end PC, clearly lacking proper optimization.”
“Despite having a powerful setup, I experience frequent frame drops and stuttering due to poor optimization.”
