I'm very surprised at how much time I've spent in this game and the enjoyment I've had during that time. I bought this game less than four days ago and I haven't been able to put it down yet (almost 20 hours logged). The overall concept is simple, but the art, music, gameplay, continuity and replayability, all add up to much more than the amount I paid for this game (less than $4) during the current sale. Runestone Keeper is also difficult, which is for me a good thing. The difficulty is based in large part on RNG, but at the same time you have a good amount of ability to improve your chances to make it through the dungeon by choosing to upgrade your chosen character as you make it to lower levels of the dungeon. Each playthrough brings new information, new equipment, enemies, gods to worship, skills to unlock, and along with that new strategies and combos that work best. You will die alot even on normal mode (the lowest difficulty setting). In the 20 hours I've played I've only unlocked one additional character to play as. Through the playthroughs, you constantly have to weigh short term vs long term goals: should you spend money now on upgrading your current character's gear, or should you hold on to your gold in the hopes of unlocking lower prices, greater experience on each kill, or other benefits in the temple above the dungeon? Getting through the levels of the dungeon will get easier over time due to your newly unlocked characters, your temple donations, and your personal experience with how to handle the various enemies (you can make them fight each other, or turn them into massive piles of gold if handled in the right way).
I'm surprised at how much I like (and am addicted to) this game. When FTL first came out I looked into it but was turned off by the screenshots... at the time it seemed to me that constantly looking at your spaceship from one viewpoint would get boring quickly. But the game kept gaining popularity and attention so I kept it on the radar. Eventually I decided to look more into the gameplay aspects and found out that it had some interesting elements: many ship upgrades/unlocks, random events, limited time in each zone, and a repeatable end goal (destroying the enemy flagship). I picked it up when it went on sale and ever since I have been hooked.
Most (if not all) of the non-positive reviews for this game are related to DRM. While this is a valid topic by which to review a game, whether or not DRM is included is only one aspect of a game. Taking that into account, this game is a very good game that is enjoyable to play. I don't usually stick to games for a very long time, but this game made me beat my average. On top of that, I'm sure I will come back to this game as the updates and improvements continue.
