The strategy genre has been flanking the roguelite space for some time now. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed the likes of Against the Storm and, more recently, 9 Kings amassing a small force of highly focused and endless replayable strategy games at the border. Now another fantasy kingdom has arisen, and it offers a fresh take on a well-established setup.
What is The King is Watching?
Developer Hypnohead describes the game as a roguelite city builder, and that works for me. The King is Watching is quite unlike any other city builder I’ve personally played before, however, and that’s not because it’s all packaged up in a roguelite wrapper.
What makes The King is Watching both interesting and challenging is all in the name. The royal character you choose will determine the size and certain aspects of your starting kingdom. Then, over the course of a campaign, you’ll unlock new buildings, earn resources, and recruit people to fight for you.
However (and it’s a big “however”), you will only be able to perform the actions mentioned if your character’s gaze – a mere 3 of the 16 blocks available at first – is fixed on the required tiles. This means that most of the time, much of your growing kingdom is sitting idle while you rush production elsewhere.
The real-time strategy feel of the game, whereby the players must grow a base and produce resources of all kinds as efficiently as possible, is therefore shot through with a puzzle element where you must constantly twist your gaze to cover different blocks and activate their production to earn the many resources needed for growth.
To make things even more complicated, there’s a constant threat from enemies. You get a fair degree of choice when it comes to the military challenges you’ll be facing, and you’re able to see when they’re about to attack. Your enemies appear as cute little pixelated monsters who attack from right to left. If they get past your soldiers, they’ll attack your defences until you either stop them, or your score dwindles down to nothing, and it’s game over.
A challenge fit for a king
I’m not going to lie to you – apart from when I tell you about my impressive physique and chiselled good looks – I found The King is Watching to be a really difficult game to get my head around. I like it, I think, but that’s more in theory than in reality, because the reality is that it keeps kicking my ass.
Old school RTS games like Command & Conquer and Warcraft used to be my favourites, but as the genre evolved it became more and more about efficiency and effective build strategy. I’d get bullied in multiplayer games because my IRL time blindness makes it a total bastard to compete logistically, and every tactician knows that wars are won and lost in the supply chains.
I’m reflecting on my own tactical inadequacies (obviously, my physique remains impressive) because the constant need to move one’s focus around the grid meant that I was in a state of permanent regret about the placements I was making. You can tear down buildings, move things around, grant blessings to certain tiles, and even cast spells, but doing so will naturally hamper your progress.
While it has been boggling my noggin, I think a lot of RTS nerds are going to like it because there is so much depth baked into the cake. There’s a whole host of buildings, units, and even spells. If you’re the sort who likes to efficiently and methodically build your way to total victory, The King is Watching is going to make you work for it.
The king is dead, long live the king
This is a roguelite, so you’ll be unlocking things during play for use in future runs. There’s an upgrade system that works across four different areas, but for me, this feels like a slightly bloated part of the game. Of course, these systems are intended to provide longevity, but sometimes the most interesting parts of games like this can feel too far away.
Elsewhere, I love the pixel-art style, which is super cute and full of pleasing detail. There’s a vague hint of Studio Ghibli to the aesthetic, and overall, I thought the atmosphere was spot on. It’s charming, irreverent, and I even liked what little of the soundtrack I listened to.
I’m impressed by the twist that Hypnohead has applied to the base building formula, although I’ve personally struggled with it at times. The fantasy setting has just the right amount of whimsy, but the learning curve is steep, especially if you’re like me and struggle to see too many steps ahead. That said, if you’re after a pausable real-time strategy game that’s going to push you, The King is Watching has a royal challenge just waiting to go.
The King is Watching is out now on PC (Win), and I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer, their publisher, and their PR buds – thanks for that!
