Against the Storm: Keepers of the Stone review – Brekekekéx-koáx-koáx

Keepers of the Stone is a precisely tuned, if somewhat slim addition

Eremite Games / Hooded Horse

If you ever needed an excuse to renew your addiction to Against the Storm, the best city-builder of 2023, then Keepers of the Stone – its first DLC – is at your service with its content additions. 

Eremite Games is not breaking new ground with this offering, but delivers a delicately crafted content injection that will bring fresh elements to your runs without disturbing the balance that’s been achieved over the last year of patching. What does that mean? Well, Keepers of the Stone doesn’t introduce any new, deep-reaching mechanics to Against the Storm – it’s almost purely a content pack. And, honestly? That’s fine.

Against the Storm is such a precisely tuned fun machine, that I’m not sure what other mechanical layers it could add to the experience without it feeling superfluous. Content, however, is always welcome in any roguelike. New resources and goods? Tasty! Additional buildings and perks? Oh, yes! Another settler species? Brekekekéx-koáx-koáx! That’s frog language for “Look at how buff we are, oh yeah!”

I didn’t have chad frogs on my bingo card for new species, but the buff amphibians totally fit the setting and bring their own architectural flair to your settlements – those frogs are not simply athletic, but also have a taste for the finer things in life, such as marble columns and pools. Lots of pools. Then again, if we were amphibians we’d probably have some more bathing opportunities in our houses as well.

A new species doesn’t only bring cosmetic changes, of course. The Frogs come with their own set of needs and skills, which allow you to specialize your settlements in different directions than before. Among the small mechanical changes contained within this DLC is the ability to upgrade the Frogs’ homes, granting them additional bonuses, and the fact the amphibians won’t even bother with living in your shabby wood shelters. No, the refined Frog requires its swimming pool, which adds a little bit of extra challenge to having them in your town. In return, they are kick-ass stonemasons and rainwater engineers, who are able to progress a town to the next level.

Welcome to the Coastal Grove, a new biome type. / Eremite Games / Hooded Horse

While Against the Storm doesn’t do population tier upgrades in a classic city-builder sense, the Frogs feel a little bit like that, because both their needs and their skills naturally make you advance and upgrade your town instead of simply expanding it.

The new coastal biome, which has a crescent-like shape and lots of water around it, is another factor that makes you rethink your overall strategies. It allows you to mount naval expeditions, which enable you to search for treasure in the form of new blueprints.

Thematic additions like fishing further buff out the game’s base content – though you don’t need a DLC key to access all that, as it’s generously included with the free update coming with the expansion.

And that brings us to the core of the matter at hand: Costing $13.49 USD, Keepers of the Stone appears to be a little expensive in a hard price-to-content analysis. Granted, this is difficult to do for a roguelike in any case – even a little bit of new content may add hours of refreshed playtime, and one certainly can’t complain about the variety Keepers of the Stone adds to the base game.

The Strider Port is where you organize lake-borne expeditions. / Eremite Games / Hooded Horse

It’s just not that much stuff on paper. “But wait,” you say. “Isn’t the high price justified by the free content updates we’ve been given? Shouldn’t we support the developers by buying the DLC?”

On a personal level, I completely sympathize with that view – Eremite Games has knocked it out of the park with post-launch support so far and hasn’t ever asked for a single dollar in return. The free content delivered alongside the DLC’s release is just the tip of the iceberg in that regard. Of course, not everyone will have that knowledge, so it’s completely understandable that some people may get upset seeing the DLC’s price without that context.

Ultimately, everyone must make a purchasing decision for themselves. If you love Against the Storm and simply want to add some more spice to your runs, because you already know every cornerstone and event like the back of your hand, then Keepers of the Stone is a no-brainer for you – it brings a variety of new content, a slight increase in challenge, and minimal mechanical add-ons that will feel impactful to someone who plays the game a lot. If you’re new to the game anyway, then you’ll be completely fine without the added investment into the DLC for a long, long while.

Score: 8/10

Platform tested: PC (Steam)