Maze Keeper

About

Maze Keeper is a single player turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Spaceward Games and was released on September 24, 2024. It received neutral reviews from players.

Maze Keeper is a reverse Dungeon Crawler, combining Tower Defense, Roguelike and Auto Battler. A game where you're not the classic hero, the brave adventurer, but instead the guardian of a haunted maze. Your mission? Stop the adventurer from reaching the exit ! ⦿ A wide range of monsters Monsters that are increasingly powerful but also increasingly difficult to place, with d…

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44%Audience ScoreBased on 71 reviews

story9 positive mentions

optimization1 negative mentions

Unique and innovative tower defense with roguelike and puzzle elements, offering a fresh gameplay experience and a deep, engaging story.
Challenging and rewarding gameplay that provides a sense of accomplishment when mastering complex strategies and overcoming tough levels.
Cute, appealing art style and an addicting gameplay loop that keeps players engaged, especially in classic mode and through discovering different monsters and synergies.

Heavily reliant on RNG, causing frustrating randomness that can make progression feel unfair, punishing, or impossible without luck.
Steep learning curve and poor balance, with difficulty spikes largely due to complex and obscure mechanics, and the adventurer scaling too quickly and overpowering player defenses.
Technical issues including poor optimization causing freezes and stuttering on various systems, as well as a lack of intuitive UI and insufficient in-game guidance or tutorials.

story
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
57%
11%
The story mode offers a unique and refreshing tower defense experience with a deep and interesting plot, but progression is heavily impacted by random chance and obscure mechanics, making it very difficult and often frustrating to advance. While the narrative is charming and the concept engaging, the limited guidance and reliance on luck can lead to a slow and punishing experience for many players.
- “The roguelike in the story is very interesting as both the adventurer (the enemy) and the monsters (your minions) can get buffed.”
- “The strategy, concept, and story are refreshing; it's different from most tower defense games.”
- “It's pretty cool and the story is surprisingly deep.”
- “At least in story mode, your choices are limited, you have to figure out the 'correct' strategy to win, then rely heavily on RNG to win.”
- “After beating the game, most of the difficulty comes from obscure mechanics. If you know them, the game is doable; if you don't, it becomes a desperate spiral, and with inter-level mechanics that punish poor performance, the game can become impossible around level 5 or 6. As of writing, about 18 months after release, only 4.8% of people have beaten story mode.”
- “The game progress resets after you lose at a certain enemy level, sending you back to weak spiders and maybe a new map alongside a few lines of story that barely make sense and gives you new currency/resources that the game won't tell you how to use.”
gameplay
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
31%
19%
The gameplay features a unique and strategic core involving maze navigation, monster and trap cards, and an "anger" mechanic that adds depth, though some mechanics are obscure and poorly explained, causing steep difficulty spikes and frustration for many players. While the game can be addictive and rewarding once its systems are understood, issues with randomness and lack of clear guidance hinder accessibility and fun for newcomers. Recent updates have improved balance and added helpful features, but the gameplay loop remains complex and polarizing.
- “After beating the game, most of the difficulty comes from the obscure mechanics. If you know them, the game is doable. If you don't, the game becomes a desperate spiral, and with the inter-level mechanics that punish you for poor performance, the game can become impossible around level 5 or 6. About 18 months after release, only 4.8% of people have beaten story mode.”
- “The game gets very addictive once you understand the basic mechanics and makes you want to play more to discover the various monsters to add to your summoner grimoire!”
- “The recent patch makes it even better by fixing bugs, adding an item to avoid RNG, and incorporating a new mechanic: the adventurer's anger, that makes the game even more strategic.”
- “After beating the game, most of the difficulty comes from the obscure mechanics. If you know them, the game is doable. If you don't, the game becomes a desperate spiral, and with the inter-level mechanics that punish you for poor performance, the game can become impossible around level 5 or 6. As of writing, about 18 months after the game's release, only 4.8% of people have beaten story mode.”
- “Also, there is a new mechanic in the latest update where you can store cards for future turns... nowhere in the game does it tell you this.”
- “Updated review: mechanics are still convoluted and frustrating.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
The graphics feature a unique and cute art style combining 2D and 3D elements, which some find charming and innovative. However, the visual design can feel dull to some players and is notably demanding on CPU performance. Overall, opinions on the graphics are mixed, with both appreciation for the style and criticism of its execution.
- “Amazing game, very innovative and with a very cute art style.”
- “Cute graphics, cool design, had all the potential to be a good or amazing game.”
- “The graphics and gameplay idea are really lovely and I bet the story is too.”
- “Combine that with a bizarre graphical combo of 3D and 2D, and I found it dull and was surprised by the amount of pressure it puts on my CPU.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization is challenging due to obscure mechanics that heavily impact difficulty and progression. Poor understanding and performance can lead to punishing penalties, making certain levels feel nearly impossible for many players, as reflected by the low completion rate of 4.8% even 18 months post-release.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game experiences occasional freezes during specific interactions, requiring users to force quit. This stability issue disrupts gameplay and may affect overall user experience.
- “Game sporadically freezes on certain interactions and has to be force exited.”
music
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the music settings inconvenient, as the music cannot be permanently disabled and must be turned off each time a new run starts, even within the same session.
- “You can't permanently disable music, having to do so every time you start a new run, even in the same session.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the grinding aspect more engaging than the game's RNG mechanics, appreciating that it avoids feeling tedious.