We’re hitting peak saturation for first person dungeon crawlers, but Queen’s Domain stands apart from the crowd
There comes a point in every cool new and/or retro revival indie genre where there are just way too many to play all of them, even if you love the style: Metroidvanias, boomer shooters, and Vampire Survivors-alikes (bullet heavens?) all spring to mind for me.
As a big fan of the genre, I can confidently say that first-person dungeon crawlers harkening back to King’s Field (or recent trendsetter, Lunacid) have reached that point. But the upcoming Queen’s Domain deserves to be raised up from the crowd.
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We recently featured Queen’s Domain in the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase, and its aesthetics really caught my eye. Everything’s all crunchy and dithered, but the art and assets are clearly gorgeous and well-crafted underneath—we’re very deliberately lo-fi here, not just ‘cuz.
In addition to the genre-standard medieval/renaissance gear and guys, Queen’s Domain zags a bit by setting the game on a tropical island, with ancient, mossy stone ruins that call to mind Mayan cities or, in videogame speak, the Ruins of Rauh from Elden Ring. Maybe that one zone in Sonic 2.
The music is also killer, a euphoric, PS2-inflected sound cut with primal percussion and funkier instruments I can’t quite place. There’s the throwback indie stuff that feels like it’s going “Hey, remember the Sony PlayStation One?” and the stuff that feels like it’s tapping into a closed-off room in your brain, facing you with something largely alien yet strangely familiar. Queen’s Domain is blessedly in the latter category.
But we knew about the looks, vibes, and beats from the trailer, while the reveal came alongside a demo on Steam. Unfortunately, that demo cuts off right as things are really getting good, but it shows a lot of promise. The exploration and atmosphere are exceptional, as expected, but the combat pleasantly surprised me once I came to grips with it.
The fighting here initially felt bad the same way so many first-person RPGs do: Walk up, bop a guy, backpedal before he can bop you. Depending on the year you were born, you might call this the Underworld, King’s Field, Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim Shuffle.
But Queen’s Domain has two mechanical flourishes that really make it come alive, and I didn’t take full advantage until I did a second run through the demo.
The first is a unique system of throwing weapons bound to cooldowns instead of an ammo count—if the full game has magic spells, they’ll likely function similarly. You’re always dual wielding a melee and ranged weapon, Skyrim-style, and the throwing knives in the demo are extremely satisfying to use, with a wholesome thwack on contact with an enemy, and a super-quick animation that lends them to combos with the other killer move in Queen’s Domain.
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You have a melee dash attack that scoots you in the direction you’re facing—it’s tied to your mouse/right stick aim, not WASD or left stick movement. It pretty much fully invalidates the regular, charge up melee attack: It comes out quicker, while also offering movement utility.
That’s fine by me though, it’s fun, and it sets Queen’s Domain apart from other King’s Field-alikes—I didn’t nail it down all the way in the demo, but there were a few times I managed to dash past an enemy while hitting them, forcing them to make an excruciatingly slow about face while I finished them off. I didn’t realize it on first blush, but this is a game with a skill ceiling to its combat, and that has me excited. The Queen’s Domain trailer also shows an upgraded version being used as a traversal tool, and it really spiced up the demo’s lone boss.
The very Dark Soulsy big skeleton guy has some suitably Dark Soulsy slow wind-up attacks, and one of them actually lunges forward enough that you can’t really backpedal to avoid it. That’s where the dash comes in: I spent the whole fight dash-attacking into him, spamming throwing knives whenever they were up, and when I saw him do a wind up, dash-attacking away.
It doesn’t have i-frames, so it’s all timing and spacing, and it felt genuinely fresh to have to aim my dodges in first person—it’s an added bit of friction and movement mastery.
But Mr. John Dark Souls Skellington is the end of the demo, so that’s all she wrote for the time being. It took me a second to see what The Game Bakers were doing with the combat in Queen’s Domain, but now that I understand, I am fully onboard, while I can also heartily recommend checking it out for the vibes and atmosphere alone—this is a game I’ll be watching intently as it approaches release. Queen’s Domain doesn’t have a release window yet, but you can wishlist it and try the demo for yourself on Steam.
