Wall World mini-review

Let’s get this out of the way: Wall World is a near-plagiaristic copy of Dome Keeper. Just like Bippinbits’ title, you drill your way into a planet, unearthing essential resources. As you quarry, you’ll discover telltale signs of adjacent mineral deposits. After excavating the materials within, you’ll vacuum up as much as you can carry, shuttling these supplies back to your mothership. Expectedly, these allow you to purchase perks that bolster your offensive and defensive capabilities.

As in Dome Keeper, there’s no danger associated with digging since there aren’t any enemies or hazards underground. But there’s rarely a sense of serenity in Wall World, as waves of creatures arrive outside habitually, determined to wreck your base. Their sieges occur with clock-like precision, with increasingly numerous, varied, and resilient waves of foes, making life exceedingly hectic. But that’s what we signed up for, right?

Given that the level of adversity steadily escalates, time is your essential enemy. Many of the power-ups you acquire offset this ever-advancing menace. Increasing the power, firing rate, or movement speed of your defensive turret helps you clear away the increasing numbers of foes a bit faster. Since their collective firepower gradually ebbs away at your shielding, there’s satisfaction in swiftly wiping out an entire wave so you can get back to mining.

Initially, your colonial miner hoovers around sluggishly and his laser beam cuts through the terrain like a dull knife against a cheap steak. But by investing collected resources, you can fly faster while your excavation tool can be augmented to cleave through the ground. And since this is a roguelike, choices often outnumber available holding cash, leading to experimentation across subsequent runs. Sometimes you’ll focus on improving your turret or spacesuit. Other times, you’ll focus on reinforcing the armor-plating of your spider-like headquarters or investing in an auto-turret that can assist with defensive duties. Luckily, you won’t have to buy everything and you’ll discover technologies that allow you to make bombs or hurl gigantic spears.

While much of Wall World captures the blend of resource collection and base defense of Dome Keeper, there are several obvious differences. Instead of holding down the fort in a single spot on the ground, your giant android-spider base lumpers up and down a vertical wall. Largely, this eliminates the frustration of having to continually navigate through an increasingly labyrinthine quarry. Clear out one mine and move toward the next, looking for new resources outside adjacent to your new position.

But here’s the most important variation: Wall World improves the meta-game. Every square of soil your mine through provides a bit of currency. That money can be spent on permanent upgrades, like a replenishing homing rocket or a bigger vacuum. Some perks automatically clear out a horizontal strip when your base first docks, automatically acquiring any unearthed resources. There’s a smart sense of balancing, as you cut through all your survival-driven tasks in a fraction of the time.

Yes, I feel a bit had about recommending Wall World. It’s an unmistakably blatant copycat that draws heavily from Dome Keeper. For better or worse, this iterative evolution has long been a part of gaming, reaching back to when Galaxian contributed one notable feature to Space Invaders. If your conscience allows, Wall World’s emphasis on meta-game progression makes for a slightly better experience.  That unless, unless you’re playing on Steam Deck, where some of the game’s tiny adversaries might cause eye strain.

Wall World was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.