izigame.me

Not enough content for a paid DLC. Base game was great but suffered over the years from lackluster updates leading to a bland playstyle for a promising roguelite. At higher prestige, the path to doing well was as cookie cutter as it gets to succeed. Not due to difficulty, just circumstance of design. It doesn't make the game harder or more engaging to be forced to take amber or training gear. I thought this DLC would address that and have much more content considering the base game barely got any updates aside from some balance and QOL changes and all the different seals that play EXACTLY the same every time. Instead we get 1 supertuned race, balance changes, and 2 soul-less maps? I mean as an avid fan of the game it's just sad.
For a game boasting its repeatability as a roguelite it played incredibly one dimensional already and with the release of this DLC the balance of many recipes and buildings have changed to a degree that only reinforces the one dimension playstyle. These changes make me think none of the developers play the game. Some games released a decade ago still have monthly patches with more content than this PAID DLC. Do not buy DLC, wait for a sale on the base game as it's still good to try but do not expect anything new, I've waited years and despite all the changes since the game released (foxes, fishing, frogs, seals, blightpost, haulers, house, hearth changes, etc) the gameplay will still be driven the same exact way for each map. Not much of a roguelike.
The game drastically needs to revamp the recipes to balance and accommodate more new recipes as well as new races. Foxes racial needs to be switched with frogs for ruins as well as rethinking the work affinity bonus. Frog houses are over tuned and poorly implemented, a new player will probably never even get to upgrade frog houses. Fishing is a non-factor, its functions are more complicated, attention grabbing and more expensive than a camp, but is a camp tech mechanic...with poorly optimized rewards both in balance of mechanical value and concept. Fish are generic food replaceable by meat, scales = copper, and you'll pretty much only use algae on grove. Don't forget you can burn it in your hearth as fuel when you make an obscene amount of packs of crops AND have to use them all as fishing bait before you're allowed to burn it, essentially meaning you'll never have to as you'll win years before you ever need to. With all that said about fishing, even that feels lazy. Why wasn't coastal fishing designed? It could've been a good mechanic if fishing on the coast was a possibility, one that would make coastal grove actually unique given its large and easily accessible coastline. That way you could fish on the coast or have access to it on more inland maps via the ponds. Instead we're given just ponds, scattered across every map as both eyesores and headaches confusing you as you mistake them for geysers.
Seals are bland, boring, and frustrating. For an endgame mechanic of a roguelike, you run it the exact same way every time. You even get beavers every time because they designed the seals to get hostility per tree cut. The 2 new maps are fine but they add little meat to the stew and can definitely be fleshed out as they feel soul-less and lazy. In practice you'll always do the same thing on grove and always use the same buff/negative factor on ashlands. Again, it's just not roguelike. Hell I've won on p20 on grove without ever sending out an expedition and you can win on Ash without even clicking on that "combobulator". The two maps feel lazy, as if they just shuffled some resources for the map type, gave it a different paint of coat with some trees and textures and put a building on it that gives it the unique "mechanic". Grove gets the water-strider dock and ash gets the "combobulator". If anything grove feels the laziest because most of it is un-interactable water. Adding salt as a resource afterwards was quite literally like adding salt into our wounds.
Anyway overall score.
Against the Storm Base Game Overall score: 7.4/10
Art: 9 / 10
Gameplay Loop: 6 / 10
Replay-ability: 5 / 10
Concept: 10 / 10
Music: 7 / 10
DLC Keepers of the Stone Overall Score: 3.8 / 10
Art: 7 / 10
Gameplay Loop: 2 / 10
Replayability: 3 / 10
Concept: 4 / 10
Music: 3 / 10
This is after they tried to amend their lackluster DLC with the quick addition of the second map.

What I liked

- Frog people: They are pretty interesting. With them only accepting their own housing and no communal buildings it is different to keep them happy. This does mean they have an extra “need” which you can take advantage of. The ability to let newcomers arrive faster when they are firekeepers is also an interesting choice. Especially good early in the game or if you lost some villagers. Them being the stone masons and good with rain water gives them their own domain in something that is relevant in every game.
- Coastal Grove - Soundtrack: The new soundtracks are great, it's noticeably different and sets a good mood. I especially like one of the storm soundtracks. It slaps.
- Coastal Grove - Strider Port: The strider port is interesting. It gives you a choice to make to increase chances for better rewards and an extra resource sink. You want to keep it going but also want to increase your chances. Getting control over something that was previously on a timer ,new blueprints, gives an interesting angle to it. It did seem that always going for the minimal was the way to go for me. The blueprints are what you are really after most of the time. So increasing your chances for some nice extras often doesn't seem worth it if you can use those resources for the next batch. It also just looks unique with the big strider with drums on its back.

What I didn’t like

- Coastal Grove Tree outline: Where a tree starts and ends is a little hard to see. Especially when it's highlighted with the wood cutting tool. I had this issue with some of the other maps as well but I think the Coastal Grove has it the worst.
- Strider Port UI: The Strider Port UI looks a bit out of place. Maybe I just have to get used to it but especially the probability bar with its colours clashes with the rest of the game.

Why others should try it

I already got a ton of time with the frogs and I liked it. Not so much with the new map but that might just be the random generated map working against it. Although it was very fitting to finish my first prestige 20 game on the Coastal Grove. It’s not a necessary DLC to buy but if you get hooked like me it will keep things interesting for longer. The longer you intend to play the game the more value you will get for your money. I saw some notes that they are going to add another map to the DLC. I might update my review by then.

Honestly, 15USD for a new species to unlock and a new biome...whether or not it's worth it only you can really decide, but for a game that costs 30USD it really isn't much to ask.
I like the new biome. That's not much to say, but I truly would rather keep the game solid with gameplay that lasts over gimmicks that look neat at first but ruin the gameplay loop, so as far as I'm concerned I want the devs to stick with the gameplay route over cheap spectacle.
As for the new species, sure you have to unlock them...so? My dream team is still, to this day, the base three of human, beaver and lizard, but part of the challenge is to work with what the game gives you to try and succeed. Sometimes you get unlucky, but you still learn and who knows? Maybe you'll discover a gameplay route you didn't expect?
For real, the amount of invention I see coming up with excuses to complain about this game is unreal, sometimes. What would some prefer? Paid cosmetic packs? Okay, I wouldn't mind that. Some optional decorations and skins might be cool...
A city only mode with no, or at least limited, hostility and impatience, so you can fiddle around with making a city? Okay, that could be cool, maybe you could even still advance and farm for upgrade materials...
If people spent half the time coming up with ideas as they do inventing reasons to downvote this game, man...
This though? Keepers of the Stone is a fine addition to the base game and I'm enjoying the content. Despite the strange and confusing complaints Against the Storm draws, it is completely optional to your experience. If 15 dollary-doos is worth that, by all mean, add it to your library.