Shoppe Keep Review
Shoppe Keep is a title that has recently come out of early access and is now available through Steam. Now typically I would prefer to experience photorealistic games, whether that be a first person shooter or a third person shooter. However, the cartoon look of this game has taken my eye, the textures looks like they have been taken right out of a graphic novel of sorts. With intentional jagged lines, nothing is ever straight. The lines will include objects such as swords, furniture, shields and even people.
The object of Shoppe Keep is to build a general store from the ground up housing goods ranging from weapons, potions, shoes, shields and more. Customers will regularly walk into your store hate your prices, make a mess and walk out whilst constantly cursing your name. This makes the game incredibly frustrating as several times whilst playing this title, the stock that has been thrown around will go through a wall that is yet to be unlocked or it will just go right under the playable area. Once you start to make a name for yourself you will get increasingly more customers into your store, and the issues of lost stock happens even more.
With all of this titles frustrations it still brings a lot of joy to the table with the combat system. While the combat system is not up to or anywhere near a title such as Skyrim it brings a sense of fulfilment to stab the many thieves that plagues the store. Your character is significantly faster than the NPCs’ allowing you to easily catch up with the robber(s), but what if you don’t want to chase after them? Never fear because you are also a mage, equipped with a shock ability that quickly disintegrates your foe in one fatal hit.
Shoppe Keep does have an in-built RPG aspect in the sense that you earn XP that can go towards unlocking perks, perks range from charging an entry fee to having your own guard. One of the biggest problem that I have noticed however is that if you start to make a name for yourself and your store the theft became more and more frequent, I know that this is part of what makes this title rather difficult however two of the perks are specifically designed to prevent these acts of crime from happening, however I am yet to see any kind of decrease in the frequency of these events.
As you progress throughout the game and unlock more rooms I felt like re-designing my whole shop, with the really easy to use system I found it a breeze to be able to re-arrange all of my stock. Though the layout of your store does not influence how the public view your store I planned it out the way I would imagine a store being laid out, you know with the centre of the room filled and the walls covered, leaving customers no room to breathe, let alone move?
I found myself spending hours in this title telling myself one more day then I can buy this item, after that I will go to bed, then repeating this step multiple times as I found it too hard to walk away.
Shoppe Keep is now valued at $9.99 USD with a 1.429 GB download on steam and I found that it was a worthy purchase if you like retail games, if not it's good for a laugh disintegrating people.
Positives:
- Very user friendly building system.
- Commerce management different to other titles.
- Ability to kill thieves.
- Lack of a good soundtrack makes the game feel like a bit of a grind.
- Perks that are designed to assist you maintain order do not take effect when unlocked.
- There are very few NPC base models making thieves hard to spot in large crowds.
Platforms: Steam (PC)
Genre: Adventure/RPG
Initial Release: 21-May-2016
Developer: Arvydas Žemaitis
Publisher: Excalibur Games and Merge Games
Iroro
Aussie Gamers Express