The Castle Doctrine is a unique experience that places you in a scenario where you have no choice but to survive. You must stop at nothing to protect your family and the things that are precious to you. You start with only two thousand dollars, a wife and a few kids. The main objective is to build a home security system to protect your family and any money you have in your possession. Sounds easy, right? You might want to think twice; there’s nothing easy about staying alive in The Castle Doctrine.
While you are building your own home defense system, other players are doing the exact same thing. Everything costs money — building walls, planting traps, or even arming yourself with burglary tools to rob other players’ houses. The Castle Doctrine’s gameplay is based on strategy; it has you second-guessing yourself every step of the away, even if you’re robbing a player’s house or defending your own from invaders. You have to constantly plan new strategies to keep your family and yourself safe.
It’s easy to become a target to other players the moment your vault fills up with cash; there is no way around it. But there is a flip side to robbing houses and having a lot of money — you can build elaborate defense systems to protect your family.
There is one ‘catch’ to building and then installing a state-of-the-art defense system in your home: you will have to test the system yourself to see if players can reach your vault without using any burglary tools. This can be rather tricky since your family will be unaware of your ‘test’ and can kill you.
The only thing you have to worry about when designing your home defense is making an escape route for your family. This means that no matter how elaborate the design is, you cannot trap your family into a corner of the house where they cannot escape.
There are all kinds of traps that you can install inside your home. These traps range from pressure plates and steel doors to other panic devices. You can also place attack dogs throughout your home and even brandish your wife with a loaded shotgun. All this is fine and good, but if you try robbing your own house to see if you can penetrate the vault, you may end up dead from your wife putting a slug in your head.
Designing a full proof security system is almost impossible. Due to your limited cash flow at the start of the game, it is very tricky to overcome the early stages of designing a solid-proof defense. Once you have successfully completed a few robberies, you can beef up your security and turn your home into a fortress.
Earning cash is just as difficult as building a good defense. The Castle Doctrine has a steep learning curve and it’s important to understand the basics before trying to take on other players. However, there are no tutorials; you are left to learn on your own as you try to survive. Like real life, there is no instruction manual; you have to figure things out as you go along.
The Castle Doctrine plays similar to a roguelike game as you only have one life and one family. If you happen to die by your own hand or by a botched robbery, that’s it; you’re dead. The same thing goes for your family: robberies that go bad will result in the robber murdering your family out of spite because they failed to penetrate your vault. Some robbers don’t like to leave witnesses and they will murder your family. The game world is filled with all types of morality, and you never get the same robber twice.
Once your family has been murdered, you will no longer have anything to live for (you can commit suicide and end your misery). Once your vault has been breached and your family is deceased, you have nothing left to protect and there is no reason to continue on. This is the brutal reality of The Castle Doctrine; surviving is not only hell, but losing everything is worse.
The combat system is turn-based and functions like any game that uses this mechanic. Everything in the environment moves at the same pace and each step you take counts as a turn. This makes the game somewhat easier, as you can plan your next course of action when you’re being robbed. The fun really starts once you have built a strong home security system. Using security cameras, you can watch other players as they breach your home.
Moreover, it’s exhilarating to watch other players fiddle with your elaborate security system to gain entrance to your home.The more players that fail to enter your home, the higher you are ranked on the online Leaderboard. Climbing the online Leaderboard not only takes time, but a lot of dedication. However, being in the top 10 will guarantee that your home will be on everyone’s robbery list.
The Castle Doctrine is definitely an acquired taste that is unlike anything ever released. Despite the use of pixel art (which looks good despite its 8-bit appearance), The Castle Doctrine is more about gameplay than graphical prowess. This just proves that graphics are not everything and you never should judge a book by its cover.
The Castle Doctrine breaks all the rules and delivers a game unlike anything ever experienced. It also places you in a predicament that no one ever wants to face: protecting your family at all costs; robbing to survive; and killing other survivors to provide for your family. It’s an experience that all PC gamers should participate in.
James ‘Daripp3r’ Pittaro
Platform: PC (Available on Steam / Also Available for Mac)
PC System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: XP or later
Processor: 900 MHz
Memory: 40 MB RAM
Graphics: Onboard Graphics
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 10 MB available space
Sound Card: Standard Audio
Developer: Jason Rohrer
Publisher: Jason Rohrer
ESRB: N/A
Price: $15.99
The Castle Doctrine Official Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |   |
| The pixel art gives The Castle Doctrine a distinctive retro look. | |
| Sound | |
| While the sound effects are kept to a minimum, the soundtrack possess an eerie quality to it. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Fantastic survival gameplay unlike any other survivor game of its kind. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| The Castle Doctrine is simply captivating. | |
