Monster’s Domain Review — A Monster Dome Pain

Monster’s Domain is an example of an excellent idea for a video game that unfortunately failed in execution. The concept of being a long-slumbering necromancer awakened by foolish adventurers and turning their corpses into tools to fight back against the would-be heroes that would see you slain is a brilliant concept for a video game. I’m not the only person who feels this way, as evidenced by the huge following this game received. Unfortunately, the game does not live up to its hype due to severe bugs and shoddy design features. While I feel like it could have been something special, as it stands now, it’s just not worth your time.

I’ll begin by discussing the things I like about Monster’s Domain. As I said before, Monster’s Domain is a game where players take on the role of a Necromancy, an ancient and powerful Lich who can raise the dead and force them to do their bidding. A game where players can slay would-be adventurers with hordes of the undead is a popular idea. Hell, even I thought up a cool idea of a Necromancer game recently, and yet it seems to be a surprisingly untapped market. So when Monster’s Domain was announced, it’s safe to see why people were excited about it.

Some aspects of Monster’s Domain do the Necromancer fantasy incredible justice. It’s great that you can raise the bodies of enemies you kill immediately (albeit using a special currency, and you can only have four at a time). It’s even better that you can then fully customize their equipment, giving your corpse army access to powerful loot that you’ve collected. Your monsters aren’t just basic unit types and are instead fully dependent on you to choose their playstyle.

The way the game treats player death is also interesting and well-executed. When you die, or rather, when the frail mortal shell you inhabit is slain, your immortal Lich soul flees from its meat prison and freely floats around the level. You then have a limited amount of time to jump into another corpse’s body, and then boom; you’re back in the fight with the health and stats of whoever you stole.

I love this choice. It’s also cool that you can jump between your corpse minions at will without dying. The game’s developers definitely seem to have some idea of what players want from this fantasy, and while you’re not raising giant armies of the undead, you 100% feel like an immortal lich when you get the chance to play the game right.

Unfortunately, all the positive aspects of the game’s incredible take on Lichy magic are blinded by the terrible way the rest of the game feels.

You’re not some backline commander in Monster’s Domain. Be it swords, boys, or staff, you actively engage in combat against enemies alongside your minions. Said combat feels a lot like Skyrim, which felt outdated and clunky when it was released back in 2011. Defeating an enemy is a matter of spamming the left mouse button, interrupted by the occasional holding of the left mouse button for a power attack, dodging, or attempting to parry. All of these moves drain your pathetically small stamina bar, and when you’re out of stamina, you can’t do anything until it recharges. Fun.

To make matters worse, the animations on attacks are so clunky and weird that managing to land one is a special skill on its own. Your hitboxes are odd, like your character is constantly trying to hit an enemy with the hilt of their sword, and the long, pointy bit at the top simply phases through the enemy. Animations are also fast and have incredibly awkward frames for both player and enemy attacks, making landing an attack or parrying an enemy difficult. The latter meant I was stuck on the tutorial boss for a while since the game had one of those annoying “land three of this skill to proceed” tutorials. The parry, which is just the long start-up block animation, had too many frames before the sword rose, so every parry was by complete accident and thanks to the enemy’s super fast attacks.

To be fair. These complaints can be bypassed when using a staff or magic. Unlike the swords, which feel like limp cardboard when they hit unflinching enemies, the magic in the game feels incredibly satisfying, with big explosions and satisfying VFX and sounds to make each spell feel impactful. Unfortunately, they suffer from another problem the weapons do: they don’t kill fast enough.

Nearly every single enemy in the game is their own person, with a name and a very high health bar. Thinking about it now, this is sort of clever, or at least the part about giving everyone a name. It makes you feel like you are the evil minions attacking the goody two-shoes adventurers. Unfortunately, it also means they are all incredibly difficult to kill, with massive health pools and high damage numbers that make you feel like a small fish in a big pond.

What is worse is that these enemies never lose aggro. If you’re like me and stumbled into a bunch of these enemies that are too strong for you to fight, don’t even bother to run. You’ll simply attract more and make the fight even more difficult.

Finally, the game’s pressure plate puzzles, which are all solved by you having a zombie stand one to open a door, feel pretty worthless, and the game would honestly be better off without them.

Monster’s Domain was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Monster’s Domain is available on Steam.