Despotism 3k

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Mostly Positive · 80%Mostly Positive · 80%2018

−89%~~$7.99~~$0.87

US Steam price, checked 3 h ago

The verdict

A short, funny pixel-art resource-management clicker about enslaving humans, with strong humor and style. It's brutally RNG-driven and repetitive, so skip it if you want depth, fairness or meta-progression.

Great for

Fans of dark humor and quick, frantic time-management runs who enjoy memorizing event outcomes

Main risk

Random events can wreck a run, so winning feels like memorization and luck, not skill

What players love

Dark humor and pop-culture references

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“Pretty fun with a lot of random events with references to pop culture.”
Steam review · 11.6 h played ↗

“A great game simply because of the references in the events”
Steam review · translated · 6 h played ↗

“especially interesting are the humorous quests that come up during the game”
Steam review · translated · 10.3 h played ↗

Great pixel art and music

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews

“The 8bit graphics do not take away from how fun the game is at all.”
Steam review · 19.6 h played ↗

“I'll pay special attention to the music in this review - it's simply gorgeous in this game.”
Steam review · translated · 30 h played ↗

“Great soundtrack, it really rocks”
Steam review · translated · 8.4 h played ↗

Addictive one-more-run loop

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“The game is a torture because you can't stop trying just one more time.”
Steam review · 2.8 h played ↗

“the game is very addictive. I sat down to play and got hooked for a couple of hours”
Steam review · translated · 12.4 h played ↗

Easy to learn, challenging, good quick sessions

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“A surprisingly engaging little game, very "easy to learn but hard to master".”
Steam review · 3.6 h played ↗

“you can play for an hour or two when you are bored and just want to chill”
Steam review · 1.9 h played ↗

Good value, especially on sale

Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews

“I would recommend AND ITS CHEAP. Very value game.”
Steam review · 11.6 h played ↗

“More than worth its money, in my opinion.”
Steam review · translated · 4.5 h played ↗

Replayability via events and modifiers

Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews

“The roguelike elements are fun, and extend the replayability far more than I was expecting.”
Steam review · 3.6 h played ↗

“roguelike element in the form of random events and unlockable modifiers”
Steam review · translated · 43.8 h played ↗

What players complain about

RNG events can instantly ruin a run

Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews

“Way too much RNG. If you get even one permanent bad event it fucks up the whole run.”
Steam review · 3.4 h played ↗

“The game is just pure chance, little to none strategy is required, just luck”
Steam review · 18.4 h played ↗

“just catch one or two negative events and you can restart, because winning becomes impossible”
Steam review · translated · 3.7 h played ↗

Unbalanced, punishing difficulty and death spirals

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“It's literally impossible to get enough energy.”
Steam review · 2.4 h played ↗

“you had 29 out of the 30 electricity needed for the next round, you’ll get fed up.”
Steam review · 2.3 h played ↗

Repetitive, shallow and little content

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“What you see in the screenshots is the entire game. There is no depth”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗

“It's a single screen, grand total of 7 buttons, with an RNG event ever 5 minutes.”
Steam review · 1.6 h played ↗

Must memorize correct event answers

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews

“Basically imagine taking a 100 question multiple choice test, where each time you get a question wrong you have to start over again, but the questions never change.”
Steam review · 1 h played ↗

“A stuffy clicker that's impossible to beat without memorizing the right options in all events.”
Steam review · translated · 7.5 h played ↗

Only one winning strategy

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“it's a kind of timed puzzle that only has one way of solving”
Steam review · 5.2 h played ↗

“Either you play by a script where every upgrade and placement is timed to the second, or you lose.”
Steam review · translated · 7.6 h played ↗

No meta-progression despite roguelite label

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews

“the only roguelike mechanic it has is restarting from the beginning every time you fail”
Steam review · 0.6 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows Vista or later

Processor2GHz+, SSE2 support

Memory512 MB RAM

GraphicsIntel HD Graphics 3000

Storage300 MB available space

Recommended

OSWindows 7 or later

Processor2.0 GHz i5

Memory1024 MB RAM

GraphicsDedicated graphics card with 512MB of RAM, at least 1280x720

Storage300 MB available space

OSWindows Vista or later

Processor2GHz+, SSE2 support

Memory512 MB RAM

GraphicsIntel HD Graphics 3000

Storage300 MB available space

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