Storming the Keep (Solomon's Keep Review)

Solomon Dark is a misunderstood man.  After being picked on for most of his dreary life, this poor young boy decided to get back at everyone by immediately becoming some demonic necromancy dude once he became strong enough to do so.  He now sits on his throne, annihilating anyone who dares to storm his castle.

So now that you have a bit of background on Raptisoft's Solomon's Keep, you might be wondering what makes it different from every other dungeon hack in the App Store.  The answer is pretty simple: not much.  As an up and coming wizard, your job will be to storm the keep and take out Solomon.  Gameplay revolves around you clearing out floor after floor of monster infested rooms.  As you go along you'll collect experience points which you can use to level up and gain stronger skills in your skill tree which can then take up to three separate paths depending on your initial play choice.  Level design is muted and decently boring at best, with little to no change appearing at all throughout your journeys.  To clear things up: While the level designs will have different shapes, the actual environments will never, ever change.  Graphically, Solomon's Keep is a dark, dreary game.  The frame rate is consistent, which is a bonus, but when you're looking at anywhere from 2-5 hours of gameplay to get through a run of the keep, having a dark, dreary environment that keeps the same design can get boring.  Fast.

Solomon's Keep retails for 99 cents in the App Store.  As a bonus, there is a light version available that will let you try it before you buy it.  Because of the way that this app presents itself, it is definitely recommended that you take them up on that offer before you go and shell out a buck for the full app.  Personally, with the glut of dungeon hacks available in the App Store, you could definitely do better for your buck.  Solomon's Keep is decent, but nothing spectacular enough to really warrant the purchase.