Goblin Keeper (Review)

Goblin Keeper is a free to play, browser based strategy MMO that puts players in the role of a disgruntled overlord in charge of their very own dungeon. As an evil overlord, your goal isn’t very different from the others – to take over the world and rule it as you see fit.


Starting off with nothing more than a simple, empty dungeon at the base of a mountain within the world – overlords will begin by setting up their first dungeon, a small step towards setting up a mighty empire. As an Overlord, it is a players job to build and cater for a large army that will one day march upon the surface world and claim the land.





To facilitate for a mighty army, an Overlord must establish rooms within a dungeon to meet the needs of the minions that serve them. Each dungeon can be designed freely by the player to create unique designs, putting in rooms such as sleeping quarters, a tavern, mines for goblin workers, libraries for research and more.


A dungeon acts as not only a source of income, but provides all the services that an overlord and his army requires. Predominantly a dungeon management game, players will be required to make all sorts of decisions on what rooms are most important as space is quite limited.

This is where the first fact of Overlord life is learned, in order to dominate the world a player will require more than one dungeon to house their evil empire. As a dungeon grows, so does the need to expand to new locations – dungeons are located in mountains featuring many other dungeons, some occupied by other overlords and some ready to be claimed.


The initial tutorial does a fantastic job of teaching players everything they need to know about the game, and once the first dungeon is set up – the journey to take over the world begins. As dungeons are located within mountains, a players first goal will be to take over that mountain. Doing so gives the Overlord great control over the mountain itself.

From upgrading fortifications to controlling the taxes, dominating your mountain is the first step to ruling the world. As players expand to more dungeons, they gain access to a bigger army, more resources and advantages. Expanding dungeons and then setting up an efficient network for trading between them is a huge part of moving forward in Goblin Keeper.


As players expand their empire, build an army and start a flow of resources they will be able to begin marching their forces upon other Overlords and the Elves on the surface world. Raiding towns or other dungeons can lead to stealing valuable resources or expanding your influence and power over the weak. Though doing so doesn’t come without its risks.

Part of building your own empire is deciding how you will rule it, do you want to claim the world through brute force or through negotiations and alliances? Goblin Keeper allows players to play out their own strategic advances, choosing who is their trusted friends and who is their foe. Friends can be invited to work in a dungeon, boosting its efficiency.


Many other decisions must be made also, from choosing what type of troops will fill your ranks to deciding on what path of research to follow. Goblin Keeper isn’t your average browser MMO, it grows in complexity as players progress and quickly opens up a multitude of paths that can be followed – each with relating quests that ensure you’re regularly being rewarded for your efforts as you go along your path of hate and destruction.

Warlocks within your ranks can gather research points, allowing Overlords to unlock upgrades and boosts to the efficiency or capabilities of their dungeon. Researching new things often leads to new items to craft, generally offering certain benefits to the room it belongs to. For example, placing a bed will summon a monster, cellars can add to storage.


Overlords are given a lot of freedom and choice in not only how they place the rooms of their dungeons, but also the items and furniture that can be placed within them to provide certain benefits. Players must work with the space they have in each dungeon to get the most out of it, often resulting in completely different and varied designs.

Everyone has their own goals and ambitions when it comes to world domination, and Goblin Keeper does a great job at providing a ton of choices for Overlords. This makes it not only a more fulfilling strategy experience, but also provides a complexity that separates it from all other online strategy games. This is a game in which hours can be lost as a players empire grows more complex and delicate – requiring a strategic mastermind to achieve the ultimate goal of ruling the world.

Source: mmogames

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