Crimson Keep

Crimson Keep is good fun. Its gameplay is enjoyable, its graphics are fit for purpose, and its replay value is high.

Despite its issues I kept on plugging away at Crimson Keep, not just to review it, but because it feels like if I can just figure out how to work around its shortcomings there's a great dungeon crawl waiting to be found.

Crimson Keep is a decent enough title that you'll get some entertainment out of it, however, the story is barebones, the gameplay at its core is bland and basic, and progressing throughout feels like it's done at a crawl. On the positive side though, the design and overall look of the game are definitely noteworthy, being two aspects that help make this title more appealing from a visual perspective. Long story short, it's up to you in this case, I personally would save my money for something else.

Crimson Keep does a terrible job of recapturing dungeon crawler magic. Instead of using randomization in effective ways, it just prolongs its runtime with padding, terrible visuals, and audio issues.

I personally think despite crimson keep being released already there is still a lot of work to be done on it to ensure it’s not a broken game, they need to fix their game so you don’t crash, they need to give you better chances of having food, and health to ensure you can survive that little bit longer otherwise you’re going to get bored real fast of doing the same exact stuff, I guess if you’re lucky enough to get past a certain point it won’t be so bad.. that is until you get crashed to the main screen over and over again. Co-op would really help this game, two people playing would make it a hell of a lot more fun than one person playing, dying a few hundred times and then moving on to the next game, Merge games have stated they have no plans for a co-op within crimson keep but if they get desperate enough for players I’m sure they’ll soon drag their feet back and create a mode for this. The game would be amazing and has so much more potential if it wasn’t a broken game, so I will not be giving any form of award for this.

I have to say that I really didn’t enjoy any of my time with Crimson Keep, all I got from it was Crimson Mist as it just made me mad with frustration, I really can’t bring myself to recommend the game in any way.

Simple but entertaining roguelike that may not be a GOTY but can take a few hours of your time if you are into this kind of games.

I generally try to give every game, the benefit of the doubt, firmly believing that not every game, is going to be for everyone, others may thrive on this sort of hardcore difficulty, I do not.

Crimson Keep has very few redeeming qualities. The reflective light effects on the monsters look great, the procedural generation means that each new run is different and the music is pleasant enough. That’s about it. Roguelike purists that can dedicate enough time and effort to overcome this game’s hefty challenge might get a kick out of dying repeatedly here – but in a genre that’s becoming ever more accommodating and innovative, the luck dependent progress, sluggish combat and deeply punitive nature of the game feels archaic compared to its modern day peers.

I'm sure the developers of Crimson Keep had a clear vision of a fun dungeon crawler in mind but what they actually made is one of the worst games that I've played in a long time.