The King is Watching Review – A Gaze-Based Kingdom Builder Gone Mad!

As the legendary Michael Jackson once said, "I always feel like somebody’s watching me." Or perhaps you’ve heard that Police song? You know the one. But in The King is Watching, coming to us from developer Hypnohead and publisher tinyBuild—a roguelite kingdom builder—watching people isn’t creepy at all. In fact, it’s a requirement for getting anything done. Who would have thought? A game that rewards you for staring—how rude! But does The King is Watching reign supreme, or is this monarchy headed towards collapse? Let’s find out in our full review!

In The King is Watching, you are tasked with running a kingdom, naturally, and defending it from relentless waves of intruders. Most of the gameplay unfolds on a grid located on the left side of the screen, divided into squared plots of land. These plots are where you are able to place various resources, buildings, fields, and more, in order to expand, further enhancing your chances of survival. Your main goal is to survive enough waves to take down an end area boss and ensure that the kingdom endures. 

As far as narrative is concerned, The King is Watching mostly forgoes deep lore—or, for that matter, ANY lore at all. This is a gameplay-focused experience where all you really need to know is that you are a ruler, and you must protect your kingdom. This didn’t bother me so much, though players that seek political drama, strong characterization, and world-building may be disappointed at the game’s lack of care in communicating a story. Let’s be honest, that’s not what you’re playing a game like this for anyway.

I suspect MOST people won’t be too upset about a lack of narrative, as The King is Watching quickly becomes a rather addicting gameplay experience. While it may appear a bit intimidating on the surface, learning the core mechanics is a rather simple task, helped by a built-in tutorial which will show you the ropes. What truly sets The King is Watching apart from other kingdom builders is its well-advertised gaze mechanic. In order for actions to be carried out—such as harvesting resources or pumping water—it is required to place the royal golden grid around those specific areas, which represents the king’s vision. Each square that isn’t encompassed by the king’s gaze will remain inactive; thus, you won’t be producing anything in those areas. 

Players are able to freely rotate and move the king’s gaze Tetris-style, and eventually even expand upon it to increase the overall radius. This system adds a unique element of strategy that will have you constantly thinking about the placement of your buildings and resources. Would it be wise to have an army of skeletons being created in order to defend from attackers, while at the same time gathering resources like clay so that I can improve on something else? Should my water source be in the upper quadrant of my grid? Do I need more archers, perhaps, or should I focus on generating magic spells to use against the largest of foes? These are just some of the things you’ll need to juggle, all while enemies trudge forward, ending your kingdom by taking down its gate.

There’s more to juggle outside of your grid too, such as the aforementioned magical spells which can be cast on both your allies and enemies, gold management to keep building, and the occasional trip to the trader where you can purchase resources, relics, and upgrades. Trips to the fortune teller will grant you a glimpse at the bosses in your future and allow you to choose your destiny by choosing the order and rate of enemies that will approach, as well as the potential rewards you’ll be able to earn. 

After your run is complete (for better or worse), there are tons of upgrades and unlockables to review and purchase from the hub world as well, from new Kings (each with their own set of strengths and abilities which can be deployed during your run) to royal advisors, which can provide unique enhancements of their own. Completing challenges through gameplay, like finishing a run without leveling up the maximum number of troops, will also net you rewards which include both currency and unlockables from the gallery. All of this is to say, players will be busy for a long time to come, as gameplay is potentially endless depending on how much you enjoy the core loop.

Yet, for all of its systems, nothing in The King is Watching feels all that complex. It is, however, a challenging game, and each run can feel like it takes a long time. Thankfully, the developer has included a feature where you can speed up gameplay, which led to me ultimately preferring to play at the max allowed speed. Even still, I spent hours playing and feel like I haven’t even come close to unlocking everything.

On the visual front, The King is Watching is a rather simple-looking game, with pleasant pixel art that serves its purpose. Each menu is well-designed, it’s easy to tell resources and whatnot apart, and overall, it doesn’t look offensively bad by any means. That said, you will be staring at a lot of the same things over and over again, which, on a personal level, doesn’t make for the most dynamic review editing process. But still, the art is nice, and it’s good that as you advance, new areas will unlock, adding at least a touch of variety to the backdrops. Enemies and bosses are mostly what you would expect, but overall, I liked the visuals enough. Sound design, on the other hand, is extremely impressive. The King is Watching, for its lack of narrative, features a grandiose set of rousing compositions that set the mood perfectly and had my foot feverishly tapping. Tracks are booming and bombastic, beautifully orchestrated and wondrous throughout. Tracks are dynamic too, shifting in tone and aggression depending on what is occurring on screen. There’s no voice acting to speak of, but as was mentioned, there’s really not much of a story at all.

In my time playing The King is Watching, I didn’t encounter any performance issues whatsoever. The game ran smoothly without any crashes, even on Steam Deck, where the game seemed to run at a relatively consistent 60fps. The Deck’s trackpad takes a bit of getting used to when compared to a traditional mouse and keyboard setup, but still allows for a perfectly playable portable experience. I ended up preferring the touchscreen method when playing on Steam Deck, but overall, this bodes well for the eventual Switch version of the game—at least in terms of playability in handheld mode.

The King is Watching is a highly entertaining and addicting kingdom builder that comes packed with content. Its unique gaze mechanic adds an element of fun to the gameplay that I wasn’t expecting, and I already look forward to more runs in the future so that I can unlock every last map and king that the game offers. While its story is more or less non-existent, and the visual presentation isn’t anything to write home about, gameplay is king, as they say—yes, pun fully intended. With its rousing soundtrack, deep but simple-to-understand mechanics, and slew of unlockable content that won’t cost you an additional fee, fans of the genre will be delighted in adding this release to their gaming kingdoms.

GREAT - SILVER