Impire

A muddled collection of good ideas, Impire has charm enough but its flaws are likely to frustrate most players.

Pick this one up from Steam if you’re truly desperate for another attempt at playing the role of an evil dungeon overlord. If you’re waiting for a great game in that genre, however, pass this one by.

In an attempt to insert into Impire too many ideas and different features inspired by other games in the genre, Cyanide Montreal has created a product characterized by an extremely limiting gameplay, ironically making the game even more repetitive than it would have been with a simpler formula.

The interface is a cumbersome mess, as if Cyanide Montreal, the game’s developer, had never played a real-time strategy game before. The offensive and defensive components of the missions don’t complement each other; they just get in each other’s way and disrupt each other. It takes a half hour or more to build up your dungeon so you can go on the offensive, but this part of the game is nearly identical for each mission, which is tedious.

Impire does have an interesting approach to resources, with its above world raids (it’s a 2D map) and points system of dungeon upgrades based on performance but, ultimately, Impire is flawed, conceptually and technically.

Impire would be below average strategy game in the spirit on Dungeon Keeper, but thanks to really awful, long-winded and unfunny attempts of humour, it becomes something much, much worse. [Apr 2013]

I don't see much sense in buying Impire. The game is mediocre and has no redeeming qualities in its multiplayer mode (the only thing you do is bring more and more monsters to the battle). Why such a "high" grade then? Impire can be quite fun in small doses. The single player campaign is pleasant and the game looks nice (with the exception of cut-scenes), but that's pretty much it. If you need a good Dungeon Keeper-like game, you should go and play Dungeon Keeper 2.

A game similar to Dungeon Keeper but worse in every aspect. [CD-Action 05/2013, p.76]

Impire is an RTS dressed up in the clothes of an dungeon builder. Even though the initial presentation is appealing, the lack of interesting mechanics sets it up for rather monotone and dull game-play in the long run.

I wish I had nicer things to say about Impire, but my disappointment with its failure to turn any of its concepts into interesting interactive gameplay is total. As cool as the concept is, gamers interested in building an underground lair and tormenting would-be heroes are still stuck waiting for a worthy successor to 1997's Dungeon Keeper.

Building a dungeon and fighting for world domination as a bad guy: familiar territory that doesn’t bore quickly. But Impire lacks focus, feels messy and requires lots of patience. Because of this, playing it often feels like a chore. Impire has a bunch of good ideas, of which none are well developed.

It does nothing particularly well – in fact, a number of mechanics are an active detriment to the experience, like food – but it also doesn’t do anything particularly poorly. The best way to describe it is tepid.