Platapus
06-09-12, 10:53 AM
Many of us have fond memories of the Dungeon Keeper games. For those not familiar, they were sort of an anti-D&D game where instead of playing a hero invading a dungeon you played the dungeon owner or.. uh.. keeper as it were. :D
These were fun games, the characters were interesting and the game had enough satirical content to keep you interested. DK1 and 2 did lack a little in the re-playability, but they were money well spent for enjoyment. :yeah:
Since the chances of Dungeon Keeper 3 are slim to none, I was excited to find the game Dungeons by the German company Kaylpso.
It is as close to a copy of Dungeon Keeper as you can get without a copyright violation.
Unfortunately, it is not close enough. :down:
They basically took all the stuff that was fun in DK (characters, interaction, and game mechanics) and added a bunch of stuff that is simply no fun (scripted goals, lack of interaction, lack of specific control).
Dungeons does add something very interesting to the game though. In DK, your object was to basically kill the "invading" heroes, in new, novel, and satirical ways.
In Dungeons, the objective is to attract heroes, lead them on with treasure, monster fights, and adventure until they become satisfied... then you kill them. This added a wonderful sadistic aspect of the game where you are playing with the heroes like a cat plays with a mouse.
What a great sadistic idea for a game!! :D
But, the development via the game mechanics of this great idea falls through. Because you have almost no control over the mobs in your dungeon, you really can't control the luring and baiting much. Many decisions concerning where you place your monsters are irreversible. Big mistake! :down:
You, as the player, control who gets in your dungeon by opening up hero doors (I guess heroes can't open doors themselves). Once a door is open, heroes will spawn every few minutes. The problem is that you can never close the door. The reason this is a problem is that there are multiple hero doors, but you don't want to open too many of them, but would like to open and close some depending on how your dungeon evolves.
The reason this is a problem is that in the start of the game only the player character has any chance of defeating the heroes. Your monsters have no chance of killing even a single hero. This is good as giving the heroes easy monsters to kill is all part of the cat and mouse aspect of the game.
This means that your player character will be running through your dungeon playing whack-a-hero (which is fun.. for about 15 minutes). The combat mechanics are very basic (Attack character). There are limited options in combat and, frankly, none of the options seems to make a bit of difference, at least in the start of the game.
But if you have two hero doors open at opposite sides of your dungeon (where they happen to be programed to be located), you will spend all your time running back and forth. Not high on the fun-o-meter.
This leaves you very little time to manage your dungeon evolution. Fortunately, in Dungeons you have far far less control over building your dungeon than in the Dungeon Keeper games.
But the worst aspect of the game is that it is incredibly boring. I gave the game a good 90 minutes and I have to confess I was bored after the first 30.
Dungeons simply does not capture the magic of the Dungeon Keeper game, and even if evaluated independently, Dungeons is a game of rapid repetition... where you are doing the same thing as fast as you can with little chance to plan anything.
The game could have been so much better with just some changes in the programming and game play. Perhaps Dungeons 2 might fix it.
So, if you, like me, are still having dreams of Dungeon Keeper 3, keep on dreaming. You will be so disappointed by Dungeons. In this case, close is not good enough.
I was able to buy this at the discounted price of $39.00 and I did not even get 39 minutes of enjoyment. :shifty:
Even if you have never been spoiled by playing Dungeon Keeper, avoid this game. It was a big swing and a miss. :down:
These were fun games, the characters were interesting and the game had enough satirical content to keep you interested. DK1 and 2 did lack a little in the re-playability, but they were money well spent for enjoyment. :yeah:
Since the chances of Dungeon Keeper 3 are slim to none, I was excited to find the game Dungeons by the German company Kaylpso.
It is as close to a copy of Dungeon Keeper as you can get without a copyright violation.
Unfortunately, it is not close enough. :down:
They basically took all the stuff that was fun in DK (characters, interaction, and game mechanics) and added a bunch of stuff that is simply no fun (scripted goals, lack of interaction, lack of specific control).
Dungeons does add something very interesting to the game though. In DK, your object was to basically kill the "invading" heroes, in new, novel, and satirical ways.
In Dungeons, the objective is to attract heroes, lead them on with treasure, monster fights, and adventure until they become satisfied... then you kill them. This added a wonderful sadistic aspect of the game where you are playing with the heroes like a cat plays with a mouse.
What a great sadistic idea for a game!! :D
But, the development via the game mechanics of this great idea falls through. Because you have almost no control over the mobs in your dungeon, you really can't control the luring and baiting much. Many decisions concerning where you place your monsters are irreversible. Big mistake! :down:
You, as the player, control who gets in your dungeon by opening up hero doors (I guess heroes can't open doors themselves). Once a door is open, heroes will spawn every few minutes. The problem is that you can never close the door. The reason this is a problem is that there are multiple hero doors, but you don't want to open too many of them, but would like to open and close some depending on how your dungeon evolves.
The reason this is a problem is that in the start of the game only the player character has any chance of defeating the heroes. Your monsters have no chance of killing even a single hero. This is good as giving the heroes easy monsters to kill is all part of the cat and mouse aspect of the game.
This means that your player character will be running through your dungeon playing whack-a-hero (which is fun.. for about 15 minutes). The combat mechanics are very basic (Attack character). There are limited options in combat and, frankly, none of the options seems to make a bit of difference, at least in the start of the game.
But if you have two hero doors open at opposite sides of your dungeon (where they happen to be programed to be located), you will spend all your time running back and forth. Not high on the fun-o-meter.
This leaves you very little time to manage your dungeon evolution. Fortunately, in Dungeons you have far far less control over building your dungeon than in the Dungeon Keeper games.
But the worst aspect of the game is that it is incredibly boring. I gave the game a good 90 minutes and I have to confess I was bored after the first 30.
Dungeons simply does not capture the magic of the Dungeon Keeper game, and even if evaluated independently, Dungeons is a game of rapid repetition... where you are doing the same thing as fast as you can with little chance to plan anything.
The game could have been so much better with just some changes in the programming and game play. Perhaps Dungeons 2 might fix it.
So, if you, like me, are still having dreams of Dungeon Keeper 3, keep on dreaming. You will be so disappointed by Dungeons. In this case, close is not good enough.
I was able to buy this at the discounted price of $39.00 and I did not even get 39 minutes of enjoyment. :shifty:
Even if you have never been spoiled by playing Dungeon Keeper, avoid this game. It was a big swing and a miss. :down: