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The Rookery

The Rookery Game Cover
97%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:gameplay, replayability
Most mentioned negative aspects:graphics
97% User Score Based on 86 reviews

Platforms

PCMac OSWindows
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The Rookery Game Cover

About The Rookery

The Rookery is a single player tactical turn-based strategy game. It was developed by Glyder Games and was released on September 12, 2024. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

The Rookery offers all the army-building challenges and explosive potential of classic roguelikes with the timeless fun of chess. Your army will start meager but you will be offered many upgrades - will you go for a pawn-centric build, or try to get as many queens as possible? Will you go for the greedy options, preparing to destroy the final boss as long as you can sneak through the first act wit…

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The Rookery screenshot
The Rookery screenshot
The Rookery screenshot
The Rookery screenshot
The Rookery screenshot
The Rookery screenshot
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Reviews

97%Audience ScoreBased on 86 reviews
gameplay6 positive mentions
graphics3 negative mentions
  • Innovative and well-executed blend of chess and roguelike genres, offering a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
  • Highly customizable difficulty scaling and variety in relics, bosses, and abilities that keep runs fresh and challenging for players of all skill levels.
  • Strong strategic depth and meaningful decision-making that reward both chess skill and roguelike strategy, with clever game design balancing complexity and accessibility.
  • Occasional balance issues with some relics being overpowered and certain bosses feeling disproportionately difficult, impacting fairness.
  • Limited shop options per round and restrictive turn timers can feel constraining; some players desire better UI polish and more clarity in abilities and effects.
  • Repetitiveness in runs due to some repeated setups and relatively short run length, with suggestions for additional modes and more content for greater variety and longevity.

  • gameplay

    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    43% positive mentions, 36% neutral mentions, 21% negative mentions

    The gameplay cleverly blends traditional chess with new mechanics and roguelike elements, offering both challenge and accessibility through features like the ascension handicap system. It provides a variety of fun abilities, strategic depth, and engaging boss battles that require adapting to unique rulesets. Overall, it delivers an enjoyable and fresh experience for both chess enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

    • “Chess skill matters a ton (in a good way) and adapting to the new mechanics is a lot easier than it seems at first.”
    • “But even if you pretty much suck at chess (like me), the "ascension level" system, which is more of a handicap level system, lets you have fun with all the crazy combo-building mechanics.”
    • “It's a combination of a few things that work surprisingly well together: chess with shogi mechanic, bosses with drawback chess rulesets, and a decent fairy-stockfish.”
    • “That's so fancy I feel so cool, but less so the parts involving memorizing openings and thinking about pawn structure and so forth; the gameplay of The Rookery is basically repeatedly doing the first thing without worrying about the other things.”
    • “At the time, I was convinced that adding a mechanic to choose your route through the map instead of a fixed layout would make the game more interesting, but I'm starting to realize that it would possibly just add more complexity without achieving what I naively hoped it might.”
    • “Relics are a mechanic similar to relics in Slay the Spire, except in The Rookery you only have around 3 relic slots (changes based on difficulty level and during each run).”

  • replayability

    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 33% neutral mentions, 17% negative mentions

    The game offers strong replayability with diverse opponents, relics, and customizable difficulty, making each playthrough engaging and unique. While some runs may feel somewhat similar, its blend of variety and roguelike elements ensures a consistently enjoyable experience.

    • “Shockingly high replay value!”
    • “A single run of the game (about 20 chess matches) takes me about an hour, but the game has enough different opponents, relics, and boosts that it has good replay value.”
    • “The rookery has a combination of elegance, customizable difficulty, and replay value that makes it a gem of the roguelike genre.”
    • “It hinders a bit the replayability because the runs feel somewhat similar.”

  • humor

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game features a witty and clever sense of humor that shines through its unique effects and amusing achievements, such as the "vegan" challenge. Players appreciate the playful interactions and delightful surprises that add charm and levity to the experience, making the humor more engaging than in many similar games.

    • “There are literally hundreds of clever and/or adorable ideas packed into every corner, from unique effects like draco’s, to hilarious achievements like vegan (win without killing a donkey).”
    • “The game has a humor and wit that jumps off the screen, more overtly clever than many of its genre peers.”
    • “If you've ever seen the Stockfish vs ChatGPT meme and thought it was hilarious, well, often it can feel like you're ChatGPT wreaking havoc on the board - making their queen into your queen, spawning knights out of the aether, and teleporting pawns across the board to do your bidding.”

  • graphics

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The graphics are basic and straightforward, matching the screenshots, with a functional UI that is easy to navigate without a keyboard. However, users suggest adding more animations or enhancing visual coherence for effects like teleportation and explosions.

    • “A tad more animations or more coherent visuals for things like teleport and explosions would improve the graphics.”
    • “The graphics are as basic as the screenshots suggest, lacking visual depth.”
    • “The user interface is functional but the overall visual presentation feels quite simple.”

  • music

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The music is praised as fantastic and complements the game's polished and cohesive production quality, enhancing the overall experience alongside great art and responsive UI.

    • “The music and the art are both great.”
    • “The music is fantastic, the UI is responsive, cohesive, and polished, and overall, the production quality is top-notch.”
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Play Times

5h Median play time
5h Average play time
5-5h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

The Rookery is a tactical turn-based strategy game. Common tags for The Rookery include turn-based, roguelite, 2d, family friendly, roguelike and others.

The Rookery is available on PC, Mac OS and Windows.

On average players spend around 5 hours playing The Rookery.

The Rookery was released on September 12, 2024.

The Rookery was developed by Glyder Games.

The Rookery has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked The Rookery for its gameplay but disliked it for its graphics.

The Rookery is a single player game.

Similar games include SpellRogue, Circadian Dice, Slice & Dice, The Ouroboros King, LONESTAR and others.