Dungeon Keeper - Review

Author: R8a Date: Mar 12 2006 - 01:17 Score: 30 points

Introduction

In 1996, rumors about Bullfrog developing an RTS were the daily news in the gaming community. Among Quake, and Grand Prix 2, Dungeon Keeper got many gamers waiting countless days for its appearance in the market. Bullfrog has always been one of the finest game developers of all time, and strategy games like theme park and syndicate are good examples of their talent. But the arrival of the long awaited Dungeon Keeper changed a lot of things in the RTS arena, making us, the gamers, happier than ever before.

The intro in Dungeon Keeper is one of the few intros I could say "Wow, hehe"... In fact, I could see it again and again, every time the game starts, is really fun to see the intro. So If you have not played Dungeon Keeper yet, I will not spoil it for you, see it for yourself, you will have a big laugh!. But is not an introductory video the reason why we love games. Dungeon Keeper is simple to control, yet complex to beat, and entertaining as well. Gameplay couldn't be better for an RTS. In fact, it brought many things that the RTS genre games lacked for the time being.You are the master of a maze, and yes, you play the (always better) evil side of the story. The objective of the game is to beat the hero (or heroes!) and other dungeon masters found in each level. To do so, you have to attract as many evil creatures as possible, that come out of your dungeon's heart as you improve the conditions for them to live inside of it. Construction is fun, and an important part of the game. You start each level with the heart of your dungeon (if your enemy destroys this, you are beaten, game over) a few money and little workers to help you out. Instead of building structures, you lay down the floor each room of your dungeon will have, like a granary, bedrooms, torture chambers (yes, there are) and many more. If you are wise designing your dungeon, you will beat levels effortlessly. The economics are fair simple, you have to dig ore to fill your treasure rooms, the more you dig, the richer you are. Combat is fair simple, and there is even a cool option to "got into the spirit" of one of your creatures, meaning you gain control of it, changing to a first person perspective, like an FPS. Difficulty is not a problem, beginners will find it easy to get the idea and learn what it takes to beat the first levels. But as you advance, things get more complicated and enemies more powerful. Here each unit has special powers and different attacks, and it is always better to study your enemy before launching a full scale attack and realizing your opponent is stronger than you. and the most important part of this game, the funny part, units are funny, attacks are funny, even your enemies are fun, so you will have tons of laughs while playing the game (just keep staring at their meals hehehe).

Graphics

Graphics, represented a vast, huge improvement for the 2D/isometric view. Command and Conquer and others were great, but to be fair, this game had the best graphics at the time for an RTS. The action was handled by an old style isometric view, but you get to appreciate the benefits of being a full win9x game, that uses directX. The light effects, the moody atmosphere, everything was better than anything seen before. It used the same pixel units that every RTS used for the time, but even these units were better good looking. And the FPS option although not much useful, was cool.

Sound

Sounds were great. You actually feel you are in a horror maze, and the sound of flesh and bones being thrown all over the place is constant, when there is someone in the torture chamber, you actually hear the screams and the laugh of some, and at meal time... ok you get the idea, the sound is just perfect to keep you playing with the speakers on the max level.

Controls

Controls, fair simple, like any other RTS, the mouse controlling a menu driven interface, and with less options than others. Icons rule here, and everything is highlighted if you roll the mouse over, explaining what is each icon.

Conclusion

For me, one classic of the RTS genre, and I think many of you will share my opinion. Deserves a 9, the only thing that I did not like was that sometimes, it was kind of repetitive between levels and objectives. Download it, you will appreciate it.

	Title / Type	Submitter	Date
	Review	R8a	Mar 12 2006

Go to the game page
Submit a review

You need to be logged in to post comments