Game Reviews

Wicked Lair

Star onStar onStar onStar offStar off
|
| Wicked Lair
Get
Wicked Lair
|
| Wicked Lair

It's a hard life, being responsible for a dungeon. There you are, minding your own business, when an endless supply of hero-types burst in, hoping to slay you and your hard-working minions. How very rude.

Luckily, for those interested in exploring life as a monstrous middle-manager, you can get your own back in Wicked Lair, a 2D tower defence / dungeon builder hybrid, all wrapped up in a charming pixel art style.

Whether you play the Town Attack or Survival mode, gameplay pans out much the same. At the top of the screen is a small base, home to a literally endless supply of warriors and wizards of varying strength and ability, all baying for your blood.

Public enemy

Below this you'll find your dungeon. Starting with as many floors as your initial supply of gold can afford, each hosts three slots used to place a monster or trap, all in the name of keeping those pesky invaders away from your lair.

When populating your floors, you'll find that base-level minions are happy to work for free, whereas stronger monsters will require a fee for their services. Much like working in the games industry, in fact.

Your forces will endlessly respawn should they fall in battle though, after a wait timer has done its thing, making the investment worthwhile.

Further gold is earned from each fallen foe. You'll also get the occasional ‘Chaos Orb', which are used to pay for increasingly powerful (albeit temporary) power-ups.

As each session continues, the forces of good grow progressively stronger, gaining buffs and skills. These include a charging ability that briefly bypasses your monsters and traps, and the ability to heal one another.

No rest for the wicked

In turn, you can upgrade each of your units, making your grizzly bears far more grizzly, your demons decidedly more demonic, and each succubus significantly more… sucky. Eugh.

In Town Attack, destroying the town ensures victory, whereas Survival is the game's endless mode. Each can be played across four difficulty levels, and that's the extent of what's on offer.

There's no story, no campaign mode, and not even a tutorial. The game isn't complicated by any means, but those new to the genre (like me) will need to poke around a bit to find their feet.

Wicked Lair is a knowingly simple game, blending the theme and tone of Dungeon Keeper with the style of Tiny Tower, offering a solid and well-executed experience that is significantly more limited than its inspirations.

Limited additions

For me, I'd class it as more of a time-waster than a game as such - there's not really any skill involved in the gameplay, and only a small degree of tactics. The action largely takes care of itself once your defences are placed and at their maximum level.

Likewise, there's no progression to be found, rendering the game a nice, straight-forward score attack challenge.

Despite its limitations, Wicked Lair offers a fun diversion. It isn't particularly involving - get enough unstoppable units and the automated nature of the game can become more like an interactive screensaver.

But the presentation and charm of the game keeps its small nature palatable, and since it doesn't cost a penny, you might as well check it out.

Wicked Lair

As charming as it is limited, Wicked Lair is a nice distraction but little more. Well worth the price of admission, hopefully future updates can boost the game's longevity
Score
Giles Armstrong
Giles Armstrong
Having worked in the games industry since 2007, Giles knows a thing or two about how good video games are made, why bad games happen, and that great games matter. A Game & Narrative Designer by day, story-based games are quite literally his bread and butter.