The King is Watching

Overall, I had an absolute blast with The King is Watching. The main gameplay loop is extremely well thought-out and incredibly engaging, and I can't wait to continue playing the game and seeing what all the Kings and advisors bring to the table. Speaking of, I feel my gaze needs to fall on to Steam again now. The King needs to watch his subjects, after all.

The King is Watching integrates city building, strategy, and resource management into a seamless and incredibly satisfying gameplay loop. A few tweaks would be nice, but it's still an original experience that exudes passion from every elegant pixel. It's like when the boss is away at work and you take it outrageously easy, with one difference: here you're the boss; you're the King.

The King is Watching is one of the most addictive roguelite strategies of this year. It has excellent visuals, humor and variability in settlement development. So far the game has problems with randomness and balance, but this only makes the playthrough more interesting.

With its charming hand-drawn pixel art style, addictive kingdom-building mechanics, and quirky "only works when you watch it" twist, The King is Watching delivers a fun and original mix of strategy and roguelite elements, though its reliance on luck, occasional chaos, and lack of a proper story mode can lead to frustration.

Yes, some edges might be rough. Some mechanics feel like they’re still being sharpened. But in a genre flooded with sameness, this one is different. It doesn’t just want to be another deckbuilding roguelike… it wants to be the one you remember. I didn’t expect much, but then The King is Watching had me unable to take my eyes off.

The King is Watching is a satisfying, if slightly homogeneous, tetris-like roguelite base builder. While it struggles a bit with variety and uneven meta-progression, its gaze mechanic is a simple and clean hook that, alongside a creative setting and range of kings, makes for an almost comforting building manager run after run. The only problem is, that may not be enough to steal player’s gaze away from the wealth of other roguelikes it’s competing with this year.

The King is Watching turns the act of looking into a compelling mechanic, where your kingdom only thrives under the monarch’s literal gaze. It’s a smart blend of strategy and roguelike design that rewards careful planning. But those who are averse to grinding for upgrades might find the weight of this crown to be burdensome.

The King is Watching features a unique line-of-sight system that heavily influences gameplay and requires a lot of micromanagement. Players must manage resources, train soldiers, and decide on the difficulty of enemy waves and event outcomes. While replayability comes from unlocking new kings, abilities, and advisors, the game suffers from a lack of variety because of the limited maps and events. The biggest issue is the absence of a save & quit feature, though this is expected to be added in a future update.