Rogue Empire

About

Rogue Empire is a single player tactical role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Portal Entertainment and was released on January 25, 2019. It received positive reviews from players.

"Rogue Empire is a single-player Fantasy Role Playing game with awesome gameplay, wonderful graphics, and a compelling soundtrack. Explore the huge map of Ethistos, play through two story campaigns, or tackle randomly generated dungeons with unique challenges. Create your unique character through a trading card-style class building system and collect legendary items with special effects. Engage in battles against champion monsters and bosses, and prepare to face permadeath with soul essence rewards upon death."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

84%

Audience ScoreBased on 314 reviews

gameplay21 positive mentions

grinding10 negative mentions

Rogue Empire offers a modern take on classic roguelike mechanics, combining depth with accessibility, making it enjoyable for both veterans and newcomers.
The game features a unique card-based leveling system that allows players to choose from randomized abilities, adding variety and encouraging experimentation with different builds.
The graphics and sound design are appealing, with vibrant visuals and a fitting soundtrack that enhance the overall gaming experience.

The user interface can feel clunky and overwhelming at times, making navigation and inventory management cumbersome.
Some players have reported issues with enemy visibility and auto-explore mechanics, which can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.
The game may lack the polish and depth of more established roguelikes, with some players feeling that it doesn't offer enough unique content to stand out in the genre.

gameplay
82 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
69%
5%
The gameplay is characterized by classic roguelike elements, including strategic turn-based mechanics, diverse character classes, and a variety of unique abilities that enhance replayability. While some players appreciate the intuitive interface and engaging mechanics, others criticize the game for bugs, repetitive gameplay, and a lack of polish compared to other titles in the genre. Overall, it offers a mix of familiar and innovative features, making it accessible yet challenging for both newcomers and seasoned roguelike fans.
- “The moment-to-moment gameplay is classic roguelike: tight corridors, traps, hidden loot, and a steady stream of monsters to overcome.”
- “The granularity of the characters and gameplay is where it shines: leveling up, choosing 'feats', balancing your equipment.”
- “In summation, Rogue Empire provides a fairly accessible and well-rounded experience with content and mechanics that are sufficiently different from other roguelikes to give players interesting new challenges to solve.”
- “To top it off, I have already encountered a numerous amount of bugs during my 2 hours of gameplay, and even without them, the game was just too dull for me to go on.”
- “It's a shame such a great system is wasted on a game with such middling gameplay.”
- “The auto-explore algorithm is pretty janky and wandering, which is especially annoying in a game with a hunger mechanic.”
graphics
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
50%
5%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the colorful and detailed artwork, as well as the ability to zoom in and out for better navigation. However, others criticize the dated visuals and basic animations, noting that while the dungeon graphics are generally well-executed, the overworld graphics fall short in comparison. Overall, the game is seen as visually appealing for a roguelike, though opinions vary on the art style and polish.
- “The graphics are colorful, flowing with tabletop liveliness and rich with detail where you can zoom in or out of the map.”
- “One of the best true roguelikes on Steam with some of the best graphics you'll find in this genre.”
- “The artwork is also lovely and very pleasing to look at.”
- “The graphics in this are okay, the art style is strange though, especially the text.”
- “Overworld map graphics are bafflingly awful by comparison to the dungeon graphics; it's just weird how much uglier the overworld graphics are than the dungeon graphics.”
- “At first, I thought this was my underpowered tablet, but when I switched over to playing on my aging gaming rig, I didn't notice much difference.”
music
39 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
36%
8%
The music in the game receives high praise for its variety and effectiveness, featuring a mix of ambient tracks, heavy metal, and retro RPG styles that enhance the gameplay experience. Many players appreciate the expansive soundtrack, noting its ability to set the mood for different game scenarios, although some have experienced technical issues with choppy playback. Overall, the music is considered a strong point, contributing significantly to the game's atmosphere and enjoyment.
- “The music is fantastic, full of soothing retro fantasy flavor mixed with heavy metal 1970's excellence along with gothic horror melodies, all coming together into a fine audio alchemy mixture of action-packed and relaxing invigorating tones as one travels the lands visiting towns and roadside inns while scoping out the evils of the land such as dark dangerous dungeons.”
- “Fluid and entertaining gameplay, beautiful art, and music that (literally!) rocks.”
- “There's probably 25+ unique tracks in this game, from overland music to dungeon delving, each with its own flair and style, truly a pleasure on the ears and a perfect accompaniment to wading through hordes of enemies.”
- “The theme of the game is all over the place with heavy metal music one minute, then MIDI-style old RPG music the next.”
- “The music is odd; I had many times during my run where the music would become extremely choppy, and I had to go to the settings to change the track (which fortunately is an option), and that would make it better temporarily until it happened again.”
- “The music, as another reviewer noted, isn't much more than serviceable.”
story
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
57%
12%
The game's story is generally considered functional but not a standout feature, with a typical good versus evil fantasy narrative. While the campaign includes a lengthy tutorial dungeon and a more developed storyline, many players find the focus on gameplay and roguelike mechanics overshadows the plot. Overall, the story is deemed acceptable for a roguelike, providing a basic framework to support the gameplay experience.
- “I recommend this game because it has great gameplay and an interesting story campaign.”
- “A short premade adventure to get a general idea of the game mechanics, then a solid storyline to follow in the main (randomized) mode, and a great infinite challenge mode.”
- “An excellent roguelike with great sprites, deep gameplay, and a solid score and story.”
- “The story is just okay, but it's not the selling point of these kinds of games.”
- “There is a story I'd like to follow, but it's simply impossible for me to stomach losing 20 hours of play.”
- “The main campaign has a story and world events to drive you through it, but there is also an endless challenge dungeon mode if you just want to jump in and grind without any pesky plot getting in your way.”
replayability
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
43%
14%
The game boasts high replayability due to its diverse character classes, each offering unique gameplay experiences and strategies. The combination of randomized abilities, class/race options, and procedural generation enhances the replay value, ensuring players can enjoy varied playthroughs. Overall, the game's mechanics and systems provide ample opportunities for exploration and experimentation, making it a compelling choice for fans of the genre.
- “It’s not the most polished or modern-looking game out there, but its smart systems, strategic gameplay, and replayability make it worth the dive for genre fans.”
- “The variability of what skills the player is presented not only greatly increases the replay value of the title, but also, in combination with a simple class/race system, makes for a multitude of interesting decisions during the current playthrough.”
- “An accessible roguelike RPG with lots of replayability thanks to the number of races, classes, and the randomized ability system.”
- “It makes the game quite replayable because playing as a mage is totally different in terms of strategy and feeling than playing a ranger or a druid.”
- “Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses which really adds to the replay value.”
- “The game has a lot of replay value, even in its current state!”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while some describe it as tedious and slow, particularly with the food system and large dungeons, others appreciate the sense of progression and gratification that comes with leveling up and acquiring new talents. The need for grinding to achieve better equipment and complete achievements is noted, but many still find the game enjoyable and engaging despite these challenges. Overall, the grinding can feel heavy at times, yet it contributes to a rewarding gameplay loop.
- “The game felt extremely tedious.”
- “Pacing is sometimes slow, and dungeons can feel tediously large; the graphical UI is occasionally clumsy, requiring awkward zooming or even resizing of the application window to get one's whole field of vision onscreen in especially narrow dungeon levels; and occasional graphical or engine bugs will be encountered.”
- “There is a bit of grinding that needs to happen, a lot of times just because you want more money and better equipment.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
83%
The game's stability has improved with the new engine, but users still report persistent bugs, including glitches in random dungeons and issues with key remapping. While some players find the bugs manageable and resolvable through restarts, others express frustration, particularly in a roguelike context where progress cannot be saved. Overall, the game remains a work in progress with notable stability concerns.
- “I came back to try the new engine and it's still buggy, but better than the old, even buggier engine where it was impossible for me to remap keys.”
- “I really wanted to like this game, and at first it was very enjoyable; however, it's still pretty buggy, and that in a roguelike with no save & load can screw you up badly.”
- “The random dungeons have occasional glitches or oddly generated rooms.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Rogue Empire excels in character development through a unique blend of streamlined mechanics and randomized elements, making it a standout in the roguelike genre. Players appreciate its balance of story, combat, and progression systems, highlighting its appeal for fans of turn-based dungeon crawling RPGs. Overall, the game offers a compelling and tactical character development experience.
- “Where Rogue Empire stands out is a mix of streamlining and interesting randomized character development.”
- “If you like turn-based dungeon crawling RPGs with interesting character development and deep, tactical combat, then I highly recommend that you give Rogue Empire a try.”
- “The randomized character development is a core aspect of the game, and it's an interesting one.”
- “I've been experimenting pretty heavily with roguelikes lately, and to be honest, this is one of the most balanced games I've tried in terms of checking all the boxes for me personally: story, combat, character development, and progression systems.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
33%
The atmosphere is praised for its effective blend of vibrant natural settings and dark, menacing dungeons filled with villains and monsters, creating a fitting ambiance for the game. However, some reviewers note that more successful games often have environments that significantly influence gameplay or offer distinct atmospheres.
- “The atmosphere is a nice mix of living environments in nature and grim, death-drenched villain/monster-filled dungeons.”
- “It manages to create a very appropriate atmosphere.”
- “Better games have an environment that has a bearing on the game or provides a different atmosphere.”
- “Better games have an environment that has bearing on the game or provide a different atmosphere.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Reviews indicate that the game suffers from significant optimization issues, leading to performance drops and stuttering, particularly on lower-end hardware. Players have noted long loading times and inconsistent frame rates, suggesting that the game could benefit from better resource management and performance tuning. Overall, the lack of optimization detracts from the overall gameplay experience.
- “What lack of optimizations are going on under the hood?”
- “The game runs poorly on high-end systems, which is frustrating given the hardware capabilities.”
- “I experienced frequent frame drops and long loading times, indicating a serious need for optimization.”