REVIEW: ‘Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder’ Brings Rogue-Lite to Auto Battlers (PC)

Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder is a rogue-lite auto battler developed by Konfa Games and published by tinyBuild. With a tongue-in-cheek tone, Despot’s Game challenges players to build an army of “squishy humans”—that can be armed with a wide array of weapons from ninja stars and lightsabers to thrown pretzels—to make it through mazes of industrial rooms occupied by robotic menaces. 

This is done in a traditional rogue-lite structure. Players begin runs by selecting a different starting squad that comes with varying combinations of weapons to start with. There are also a handful of game modes and modifiers that players can pick from to keep future runs challenging and different from what they’ve experienced before. These options do a solid job of keeping runs fresh even after hours of gameplay. 

Runs are also played out in typical rogue-lite fashion. Procedurally generated dungeons of corrugated metal and exposed wiring challenge players with navigating them and are filled with combat encounters that range in difficulty. Those encounters are then played out in an auto-battler format where the only control the player has is adjusting the positions of their humans at the beginning.  

This puts success almost entirely on the assembled weapons that one’s team is equipped with. Watching the battles play out can be really entertaining, especially once there is some attachment between the player and particular units in the army. However, it would have gone a long way if players had some possible interaction with battles in the form of using abilities or powers even sparingly to help keep them engaged. 

Players even unlock limited-use powers as they progress through runs, but they can only be used outside encounters. These include getting a few extra humans for free and healing up units. Being able to use these powers during battles would have added a lot to the feeling of control in Despot’s Game. Unfortunately, great moments like using them to barely win a boss fight or get the upper hand to finish a run are missed. 

Players can find stores to purchase food, equipment, or more humans between matches. However, players must balance the size of their army at any given time, as fighting makes them hungry, thus consuming the food supply. If the player ever runs out of food, they have to sacrifice a human or two to feed the rest of the army before continuing. 

This resource management and purchasing of items are where the vast majority of the gameplay in Despot’s Game actually lies. Since players have no control over their army during fights, the only way to influence their outcomes is by curating the gear used. A massive array of weapons can pop up throughout runs, especially once the player has unlocked more after a few runs. 

Each weapon is also categorized into one of multiple classifications. When players have duplicates of a single class of weapon within their army, they unlock perks that improve the performance of those weapons as well. This system adds an interesting foil to optimizing an army. However, it rarely comes up in a run’s early to middle stages because of just how many weapon classifications can pop up in stores. This leaves players mostly buying whatever they can to arm a force big enough to survive before having to deal with optimizing their army later, which gets very clunky and laborious. 

Despot’s Game also features a multiplayer mode that allows players to build massive armies and have them face off against one another. This mode is entirely asynchronous, and while playing through a little more than a dozen matches, there were no issues, and games were found almost instantly. The multiplayer matches are a fun side activity to jump into here and there. Still, only players who enjoy testing different army compositions will find it entertaining after just a couple of hours. 

Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder is a very interesting blending of genres that helps bring something new to auto battler games. However, its mixing brings far less to the rogue-lite genre, so fans of titles like Hades or Cult of the Lamb will only want to pick it up if they are big fans of auto battlers. 

Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder is available now on Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.