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Sets itself apart in a genre of singleplayer and coop experiences | Review - Darza's Dominion

4K View2024-01-04

Darza's Dominion

6.7

Lore-RichDungeon CrawlerAction RPGAction RoguelikeActionBullet HellRoguelikeCrafting

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✨Overview

Darza's Dominion is an MMO rogue-like game that originally released on mobile five years ago. It was subsequently shut down, brought to PC last year, and has now just relaunched on Android a few days ago with a complete rework of the game.

I've seen a lot of rogue-like games come out in the past few years, as well as bullet-hell twin-stick shooters. However, most of them aim for a single-player experience, and if there's any multiplayer, it's usually just co-op. Now, this is the first time I've heard of Darza's Dominion , and I'm surprised to see this concept of a rogue-like twin sticker shooter being done in an MMO fashion. I’m a bit late to the party, but its nonetheless a good timing for me to try out the game since it had just a rework.

🟩Pros

+Unique blend of MMO, Rogue-Like and Bullet Hell twin-stick shooter elements
+A simple but accessible and engaging experience
+Straight forward non-complex combat system
+Optimized performance
+Welcoming tutorial experience

🟥Cons

-Simplicity might be limiting as an MMO experience
-Classes lack real variety since the combat is limited
-Can quickly feel repetitive over time

⭐️Score: 7/10

The game throws players into the unforgiving Dominion, a land filled with dangerous creatures and challenging terrains. The objective is to fight for survival, strengthen your hero, gather allies, and take on the formidable challenges presented by Darza. There’s no set story for this, at least for the current version I’ve played, but the tutorials are pretty decent and well informative in guiding the players throughout the early parts of the game.

🎨Visuals and Art

Darza's Dominion features your typical pixel-based graphics on a top-down view, but with pretty cool lighting and vibrant colors, which, while not groundbreaking, serve their purpose effectively. The recent rework introduces a day and night system, lighting effects, and bloom, which modernizes the look a little bit.

🎮Gameplay

As a twin-stick shooter, Darza's Dominion offers a straightforward yet challenging gameplay. Left stick to move, and right stick to shoot and aim in a 360 degree angle. You have one ability that is determined by your class, and that’s about it. You just have to survive and get stronger. If you die, your character resets.

The starting classes I was offered was Paladin, Assassin, Archer, and Mage, and I’ve tried all four. There are also other classes too like Berserker and Wyrm Rider. You’d think there will be a melee system seeing class archetypes of that style, but all classes actually does ranged damage, some only a bit longer than others. The aiming system has no aim-assist whatsoever, so hitting is harder that most games and may be considered unforgiving and can take some time to get used to. The game also currently lacks the ability to directly aim some abilities.

As part of the MMO experience, you’ll see other players in the world, with the option to interact with them, form guilds, and defeat epic bosses together. It’s not really a typical MMORPG game with all the features you would expect from a full pledged MMO, but it still fits the description as a massively multiplayer online experience, as the game supports up to 100+ players in a single instance.

⚔️Combat

Combat revolves around basic attacks, occasional ability use, and stat-based power. It’s fast-paced, exhilarating, and challenging. The simplicity of the combat system is both a strength and a weakness. While it makes the game accessible, it may lack the depth desired by seasoned MMORPG players. Straightforward non-complex combat system is good, but the focus on ranged combat deprives the player of any real variety and can quickly feel repetitive over time, even with the randomly generated dungeons.

⏫Progression

Darza's Dominion offers a progression system through looting for better gear, leveling up, and combining gems. The simplicity of the progression system caters well to a mobile-centric experience. Not too complicated. Players can upgrade their characters by gathering and consuming gems to permanently increase stats. The difficulty increases as you move north on the map, in which you will encounter stronger enemies and dungeons.

The recent rework introduces affixes, changing the dynamics of looting tiered and untiered items, potentially adding more depth to itemization and progression. The rework also introduces attainments, adding more goals for players to achieve and showcasing their accomplishments in the leaderboards.

💵Monetization

The game follows a free-to-play model with microtransactions limited to premium currency (Gold), inventory slots, character slots, cosmetics, and pets. The recent rework introduces affixes and the soon to-be-ability to re-roll existing items. While microtransactions exist, they don't seem to hinder the overall gaming experience, as most of the real progress can be attained without the need for money.

📊Technical Performance

On my Snapdragon 888, Darza's Dominion performed beautifully, and allowed me to maximize the graphics settings without encountering issues. However, the registration process is somewhat cumbersome, lacking the convenience of sign-in through popular platforms like Google Play or Facebook so I had to register manually inside the game. Not a big deal though.Some gripes that I would add though: is the lack of an option to resize the chat text size, as it tends to block the view when the messages are long; as well as the inventory system being a bit clunky to interact with, especially when looting and changing gear.

🚧Recent Rework and Updates Highlights — The developers have introduced several notable features in this recent rework, which are the following:

Affixes: A game-changing feature altering how items are played and looted.
Semreh and Attainments: A new endgame system with attainments and leaderboards.
New Player + General Experience Improvements: Introducing new dungeons, tutorials, and changes to the overall experience.
Functioning Guilds: A fully functional guild system for better collaboration and communication.
Account Customization: Titles and emotes offer players a chance to express themselves.
Day and Night System: Adds immersion with time-dependent enemy spawns and encounters.
Updated UI: Improvements to UI elements for better information delivery and experience.

⚖️Conclusion

Darza's Dominion, with its recent rework and updates, reinvigorates itself as again as a fresh but familiar MMO rogue-like experience. The game provides a simple but accessible and engaging experience especially for mobile players. While the simplicity of some aspects and lack of real variety in combat may deter hardcore MMORPG enthusiasts, especially those who are eyeing the PC version; it’s still a solid title worth checking out, especially that it’s free-to-play.

Mentioned games

Darza's Dominion

6.7

Lore-RichDungeon CrawlerAction RPGAction RoguelikeActionBullet HellRoguelikeCrafting

Get