Wall World Review (Man-Man Killer)
The layman's dome keeper
I see some negative reviews comparing this to dome keeper, and yes it is obvious that inspiration was taken from that game; however, there are some massive differences. What I mean by the layman's dome keeper is that I feel that this game is much more casual. In dome keeper you always feel like you are racing against the clock. You have to make every moment in the mine count just to barely afford the next upgrade for your dome, just to scrape by the next wave, and you always feel regret over your upgrades wondering if you should have upgraded your mining equipment or your weapons, etc. Wall world, none of that.
Mining
Mines are not a giant sandbox for you to hopelessly dig through, there are barrier blocks you cannot pass, and when you clear a mine it comes out looking very cavernous. That is to say, you have a clear path to follow when digging. That compounded with the points you collect for digging and block means, more often than not, you will completely clear every block in a mine before going to the next mine. In dome keeper you will have to think more about where to mine to conserve the most amount of time, strip mining to efficiently search for ores, which makes sense considering you only have one mine as opposed to the MINES available to you on wall world's vertical surface. My point is, there is no mining fuss like the predecessor. It is much more lenient with you, and it lets you swiftly harvest the wall's natural resources before moving on to greener mines.
Another big thing with mining. Resources! Dome keeper only has three ores I believe, each with a clear purpose. Wall world has an absolute catalog of ores, which makes sense because there is a whole world to search for ores. In my opinion, I do think mining is too easy, and I think there should be a big mine in each 'biome' as opposed to many mines that are available for the player to lay waste to.
Combat
Combat is pretty much the same.
Political Allegiances
I felt that this game had a very obvious agenda that just kidding we are going to talk about the combat. In Dome Keeper, you always come out of each battle worse off. There is no way to avoid damage, and each damage point means you are irreversibly closer to death. You need to restore health points with cobalt, the rarest resource in the world your dome lies upon, and as you continue mining the cobalt just gets sparser and sparser, making it very clear that you will die to attrition if you cannot lock tf in and clear the relics. Wall World: Each mine has a different color that makes it apparent what resources will be available in the mine. In the early game, if you are low you can look for an emerald mine and mine a couple dozen and be good on healing for the rest of the run.
In the late game with wall world, your character comes out of each run with upgrades that make you way better than when you started. Dome keeper has a similar thing where when you win you get more domes or equipment to swap out for your existing ones; however, on the wall you get to directly upgrade your existing equipment. Dome keeper lets you continue running with a novel feel each time due to the myriad of domes and equipments while wall world gives you upgrades to allow you to survive longer to reach further along the wall than you were previously capable of. This makes sense in the sense that there is essentially a new dimension in wall world that dome keeper is missing, the ability to physically change your scenario by picking up the dome and setting it somewhere else, and likely somewhere less hospitable. BUT, I think wall world takes it too far.
Wall world will give the late game player massive advantages, such as the ability to stomp on wall walking melee enemies, making them no longer a threat, or having a shield that regenerates every round at no cost at all, removing the health conservation you felt in dome keeper, if it had migrated over to this game at all. That is my qualms with this. At some points it upsets me, but again it does allow this game to be much more laid back of an experience.
Gameplay Loop
Dome keeper lets the player use their available resources and their brainpower to effectively harvest ores in the mine and fend off natives from breaching the dome, but after the game you get more items and you are simply left to do the same thing again. Wall world expects you to die and keep replaying in order to win, and it expects you to die a lot. Every round you get points for mining which you spend on upgrades after you die; meaning, slowly you will get more capable at achieving your goals. This made me realize that Dome Keeper is missing a campaign sort of deal that you can sort of see in Wall World.
Polish
First thing I noticed playing this game was the movement. The player moves very sturdily; there is no smooth movement like most games. Maybe it's better, but it also doesn't really make sense. In my opinion the player would jump around the mines and have a jet back to boost himself, but in game it feels like the engineer isaac clarke guy moves like something out of scratch idk. Dome keeper has the player slide around, makes sense considering you are using jets. You don't stop the second you stop pressing down a movement key. A little thing that you get used to a couple hours in, but I'm trying to dig deep and I remember that bothering me.
The music in this game is great. It is very peaceful. There is one track that is really pleasing.
The artwork in this game is good, don't get me wrong; however, dome keeper has artwork that is just beautiful. It looks amazing, and I think that is the main thing people point out between these two games. This game has amazing details like the rain falling onto your dome vertically, I think that is really cool, but dome keeper did really nail the hostile planet setting quite well.
Final Thoughts
I think both games are good. They are both fun. Dome keeper is a beautiful game. Wall world is easier to continue playing and dying in order to achieve my goals. In Dome Keeper if I die then i failed my goal, and am no closer to achieving it. I like it when the opposite happens, and this game does that. This game also lets you die and lets you play without really having to stress largely over time and dying. Dome keeper can be stressful, which can make it worse, but can also make it better. I think everbody should get both.