Recent reviews by Wujo

For how treacherous the path of creating a solo-dev MMORPG is, this is a shining example of success. Especially for vanilla WoW in 2D!


While the initial cost might seem like a barrier to entry for some, I am glad - and we all should be! - that the game has an entry price. It is a "buy once and keep forever" deal! There is no need to worry about cosmetics that break immersion or the predatory P2W tactics found in nearly every other indie MMORPG.

Many modern MMOs suffer from a mindset where you must "grind to max level ASAP" to finally start playing the "real" game. Trolddom embraces the leveling, it IS the main content. And it shines by questing system, going for the spirit of early WoW (as explained what it is in this great interview) and rewarding exploration, boosting your progress. Bringing back the feeling that the journey > destination, that I deeply value in the classic fantasy titles (like Hobbit, fantasy movies from 60s/80s or fantasy tv shows from early 2000s).

There is no tutorial nor minimap (but there is a map-map, showing you your location). Game relies on your game literacy and curiosity -- the game is an homage to the classics, after all. While we should hold game designers accountable for how it introduces players to it's systems and mechanics, Trolddom does not rely on the player built wiki (it exists and is being documented rn), the community in-game is always eager to help. What I also noticed is the quests are interlinked nicely, even those that are not quest chained together, often lead you to other quest givers and encourage exploration (there are no quest markers, where your target is, except when you return in the quest). Very neat. Sure, there is that MMO classic "kill 6 deer" type of tasks, but from time to time you will stumble upon a gnome trying to scam you, or tracking down a farmer's runaway pig (she settled down with a new family).

Gameplay is heavily inspired by World of Warcraft, meaning old and tested tab targeting and standing in place when channeling the spell. You pick one of three starter classes (five total) and manage cooldowns and rotations. As you level, this rotation gains complexity, allowing for diverse builds via talent trees, like a fist-fighting Priest, a Mage fighting in meele, or a Rogue-ish Fighter (Stealth is not existent per se, but you can, kind of, do the Skyrim vanishing middle combat).

You will need help sometimes. World bosses and Dungeons require grouping, and this is where the social aspect steps up. While the player charts[steamdb.info] might not show massive numbers, the population is dedicated. It is not hard to find a party with the in-game chat. I highly recommend joining the Discord[discord.gg] to coordinate with others.

Crafting, again, similar to World of Warcraft, you choose two out of 6 main professions (you know, either making equipment or potions or gathering resources) and 3 additional (cooking, bandage crafting and FISHING! Fishing mini games = quality RPG). But fortunately game does not fall into same but reskinned professions (like what people imagine they would put in the game for their first ever game, being MMORPG). They all have their small but distinct nuance but at the end of the day it's math scratching your brain, hah. There are also guilds, there are no raids to my knowledge, as of know.

The graphics are serviceable pixel art that fits the moody mood. I wish there were more special/particle effects or more animations of spells or similar effects. Fortunately the dev allows you to PR quality changes on GitHub, so who knows :)

There is a free Demo, more hidden than usually on Steam.
https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3643368626
It gives you access to a lot of content, whole starting area that you can spend at least 8 hours in, all 3 starting classes and first dungeon. Your progress also carries on, if you decide to upgrade to full version!

I would always choose human writing, even for non-interactive dialogue NPCs as it's the case here (and think the dev could have crowdsourced this to the community). But I can forgive it here given the solo-dev scope and the lack of AI slop in any other aspect of the game.

Close enough, welcome back Motherload.

I've seen this story before: BattleBit, Tiny Rails, and, ironically, FatalZone (this one is survivors clone as well, got randomly released as 1.0 and threw away all the good will with crappy (lack of) updates) a small game goes viral, catches lightning in a bottle, then moves on (usually to a more “profitable” mobile version). Can’t blame devs for chasing success, but you can still feel disappointed when the original gets left behind.

20 Minutes Till Dawn is one of those cases. It’s stylish, it’s fun, the pixel-art gun-girls blasting Lovecraftian horrors still hit that dopamine spot — but it’s also unfinished, buggy, and clearly abandoned. You can almost see the potential it once had (there is literal roadmap or dev plans in the main menu xd).

If you want a polished Bullet Heaven(?), grab the OG Vampire Survivors.
If you’ve beaten that, try Halls of Torment.
And if you’re after something niche and full of promise, like 20MTD once was, check out Ancient Guardians: The Dragon.

I really felt that when I reached John with no surname and John@gmail.com email.

TL;DR: The mobile version was more profitable, so the devs basically ditched the Steam one the moment it launched. Bugs? Never fixed. Promises? Never fulfilled.
I only played long enough to collect all the Steam Trading Cards (left the PC running over night) xd

I guess that’s on me -- I was expecting these mobile game ports (you know, the '''games''' from the ads that look nothing like that, once you download them) to at least get some love when landing on Steam. Instead, nothing changed. The free-to-play grind is still here, “premium” currency is a nightmare to earn, even though microtransaction were removed, and you pay for the game.

The whole gameplay loop revolves around picking the strongest “ally”--you would assume are other players’ characters--But no, there is no social aspect to the port. Said "ally feature" always completely out-level your team, so you rely on them to do all the damage.

And then there’s the main mechanic -- the match-3 itself. It’s somehow both dull and weird. You don’t slide rows, swap tiles, or link them in any way. You just drag one and drop it wherever you want. Sure, it can “knock” other tiles around, but that doesn’t add strategy -- in fact it removes it, because it's always more efficient to match faster, rather than smarter. Newer match-3 titles with roguelite or ARPG elements rely on either sliding or linking for the fighting simulation to work. Not only is it more fun but also allows you to play with the formula -- just check out the Dungeon Wizards.

Also, what annoys me is the use of “cards”. They’re called that, but it’s not a deck-building game, nor do you do anything with them besides some light gacha resemblance -- without, luckily, the gambling itself.

They were, again, ported without any care for the medium the game is landing on. Art is muddy, pixelated and not because it's an artistic choice, but because it was lazily scaled. Font is mismatched, the boxes for text are too small, sometimes the text is even cut mid-sentence.

No, ♥♥♥♥ you for investing the time in this game!

~Shareholders that forced devs to abandon it. Probably.

I feel like I am disrespecting myself with even giving this review this much attention...

I am not recommending the game, even on a 90% sale for 0,49 euro[steamdb.info].

So if you want a hero-based match-3, check out an actually good one: Crown of Pain.
(If you will, I also have a review of it :3)

If WoW's housing is not like that, I don't want it.

It's like tiktoficated Elden Ring but without enshitification element.

Also, I love my malewife bird Guardian.

This deserved as much Mouthwashing success as Mouthwashing itself...

The game title is misleading. Wife told me she is going to rail me, if I buy two copies for us.