We're Hitting Peak Saturation For First Person Dungeon Crawlers,...

There comes a point in every cool new and/or retro revival indie genre where there are just way too many to play all of them, even if you love the style: Metroidvanias, boomer shooters, and Vampire Survivors-alikes (bullet heavens?) all spring to mind for me.

As a big fan of the genre, I can confidently say that first-person dungeon crawlers harkening back to King's Field (or recent trendsetter, Lunacid) have reached that point. But the upcoming Queen's Domain deserves to be raised up from the crowd.

We recently featured Queen's Domain in the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase, and its aesthetics really caught my eye. Everything's all crunchy and dithered, but the art and assets are clearly gorgeous and well-crafted underneath⁠—we're very deliberately lo-fi here, not just 'cuz.

In addition to the genre-standard medieval/renaissance gear and guys, Queen's Domain zags a bit by setting the game on a tropical island, with ancient, mossy stone ruins that call to mind Mayan cities or, in videogame speak, the Ruins of Rauh from Elden Ring. Maybe that one zone in Sonic 2.

The music is also killer, a euphoric, PS2-inflected sound cut with primal percussion and funkier instruments I can't quite place. There's the throwback indie stuff that feels like it's going "Hey, remember the Sony PlayStation One?" and the stuff that feels like it's tapping into a closed-off room in your brain, facing you with something largely alien yet strangely familiar. Queen's Domain is blessedly in the latter category.

But we knew about the looks, vibes, and beats from the trailer, while the reveal came alongside a demo on Steam. Unfortunately, that demo cuts off right as things are really getting good, but it shows a lot of promise. The exploration and atmosphere are exceptional, as expected, but the combat pleasantly surprised me once I came to grips with it.

The fighting here initially felt bad the same way so many first-person RPGs do: Walk up, bop a guy, backpedal before he can bop you. Depending on the year you were born, you might call this the Underworld, King's Field, Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim Shuffle.

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But Queen's Domain has two mechanical flourishes that really make it come alive, and I didn't take full advantage until I did a second run through the demo.

The first is a unique system of throwing weapons bound to cooldowns instead of an ammo count⁠—if the full game h

Source: PC Gamer