By Jim Rossignol on August 4th, 2011 at 8:53 am.
EDIT: Alternative trailer.
Kalypso have sent word that their follow-up to dungeon management game Dungeons is closing in. Dungeons – The Dark Lord will land on 23rd September, bringing with it a new single-player campaign set in an “ice-crystal” cavern, and multiplayer. Kalypso report: “Three multiplayer modes for up to four players: Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Survival,” which represents a big change for the game.
Needless to say, there’s a trailer chained up in the dungeon below.
04/08/2011 at 09:02 Srekel says:
So how was Dungeons?
04/08/2011 at 09:04 Jim Rossignol says:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/02/impressions-dungeons/
That was the closest we got to judgement.
04/08/2011 at 12:38 Archonsod says:
The patches have probably cut down a bit on the hard work aspect, but otherwise it’s still relevant. They’ve also made hero behaviour a little more intuitive, so it’s no longer a case of trying to guess why the guy who wants to steal some equipment keeps wandering past your wonderfully well stocked armoury. It will also mitigate the dungeon design problem somewhat, since heroes are now happy to hang around outside of rooms they want until they fulfil that desire – if of course the dungeon is suitably decorated enough to entertain them while they wait.
04/08/2011 at 09:04 Orvidos says:
As petulant as it is, I don’t know why they can’t just make DK3. Ah well.
Maybe the inclusion of multiplayer will make Dungeons not terrible. (See: Highly unlikely.)
04/08/2011 at 10:17 verminspeaker says:
There’s actually a multinational team of people working on an unofficial sequel for Dungeon Keeper. Some hope remains!
http://warfortheoverworld.com/
EDIT: I should also add that it will be *free*, so at least people won’t have to risk spending money on a game that turns out to be shitty.
04/08/2011 at 10:48 Inigo says:
Well, they are.
Except it’s an MMO.
And it’s Chinese.
04/08/2011 at 09:17 John Connor says:
I like how they made a Dungeon Keeper clone, ignored all the best parts of Dungeon Keeper, and wondered why nobody liked it.
This game doesn’t need another shitty Campaign. What this game needs is a “make the game like Dungeon Keeper and less like a shitty tower defence game” DLC.
Standalone DLC.
By a better developer.
04/08/2011 at 09:25 The Sentinel says:
I know, right? They couldn’t have made it look any more like DK if they’d tried, which makes the gameplay difference even more jarring.
04/08/2011 at 09:28 DukeOFprunes says:
I tried so hard to like Dungeons. I thought the awkward design would be something I’d become used to, and that maybe I just didn’t warm up to it because I had DK-bias.
16 hours in and my patience with it was ground away by the puerile humour, grating voice acting, and infuriating bugs. They took something that almost couldn’t fail and baked a dozen failcakes, served on a failplatter at a failparty.
04/08/2011 at 09:55 John Connor says:
All they had to do was copy a game that already exists, add new controls and a twist or two of their own, and they would be paraded as the best developers since sliced bread and rolling in money to buy as much cocaine as they could ever want.
Instead, it seems, they jumped the gun on the cocaine and got DK mixed up with Theme Hospital.
04/08/2011 at 10:02 bVork says:
Wait, this game is like the best Bullfrog game ever? Do explain!
04/08/2011 at 10:04 John Connor says:
They cancelled each other out and the result is a net negative.
04/08/2011 at 10:37 Carighan Maconar says:
Same.
They had to do nothing but add new graphics, as far as I’m concerned. The gameplay, the interface, the whit, it all still holds up to modern standards.
But every change they made was… so… I couldn’t stand it.
04/08/2011 at 09:41 Tei says:
*audible sight* make us a better game next time, please.
04/08/2011 at 10:35 jti says:
Video removed by user!
04/08/2011 at 10:37 Jim Rossignol says:
Fixed.
04/08/2011 at 10:40 Tom De Roeck says:
Someone liked the harry potter credits a lot. Then pasted some Dungeons stuff onto it.
Horrible, horrible trailer.
04/08/2011 at 10:54 Zarunil says:
Dungeons was utter crap, to be completely honest. I was expecting a game like DK, and got served excrements. How could they not see that hyping it up to be a DK look-a-like, and failing massively to deliver anything like DK, would infuriate and disappoint consumers?
Unless, of course, their goal was to sell on the hype, but then the follow-up wouldn’t make sense, considering the bad reviews Dungeons got.
I just don’t know what they were/are thinking.
04/08/2011 at 12:29 Archonsod says:
Erm they didn’t. They did in fact make a big “This is not Dungeon Keeper, not intended to be Dungeon Keeper and will not in fact resemble Dungeon Keeper in any way” announcement twice during development (including one three days prior to release). Which was conveniently ignored by just about half the people who bought it by the look of things.
04/08/2011 at 16:23 drakkheim says:
Well they can say “This is not DK!” all they want but the problem is this.
DK: you’re an overlord running a dungeon
DUNGEONS: you’re an overlord running a dungeon
DK: you have little minions who can chip away at the rock to make rooms and get resources
DUNGEONS: you have little minions who can chip away at the rock to make rooms and get resources
DK: Your dungeon is invaded by heroes
DUNGEONS: Your dungeon is invaded by heroes
DK: You have a big shiny thing that you cant let the heroes break or you loose the game
DUNGEONS: You have a big shiny thing that you cant let the heroes break or you loose the game
DK: You can imprison and torture heroes
DUNGEONS: You can imprison and torture heroes
and it goes on and on.. and then at the end someone decided to make it a dungeon decorating tower defense game instead of a dungeon management game.
so close…. yet so so so so far.
however.. if you go in expecting an ornate tower defense game..it’s pretty neat, I’ve actually enjoyed it a good bit.
04/08/2011 at 11:02 Nim says:
To this day the Dungeons forums are just filled with people complaining that it’s nothing like Dungeon Keeper and it appears so here too. Move on already.
04/08/2011 at 14:59 The Sentinel says:
Dungeon Keeper is a classic, in the same way A Christmas Carol is a classic, Star Wars is a classic, The Mona Lisa is a classic….it was a work of art, fondly remembered by millions. It might not be fair to accuse the devs of hoping to snag some of that reflected glory for their own game but there’s no denying we all gasped when we saw the first screenshots looking so very familiar. Can you honestly blame us for our excitement?
Anyone who played that awful demo and still thought it would turn out okay deserves everything they got, however. That crushed my hopes quite neatly.
04/08/2011 at 11:31 Melmoth says:
Does this trailer suck too or what? The ice looks so terribly bad and the ratings logo has more onscreen time than actual game footage.
DfaiLC
04/08/2011 at 13:50 Tams80 says:
I can categorically tell you that was not a Yeti.
Off topic: when will we get another game where we can ride a Yeti? Japan World Cup sated my appetite somewhat, but nowhere near enough.
05/08/2011 at 23:00 Tuan says:
Dungeons was absolutely terrible and broke my heart. I wasn’t looking for DK so I didn’t have a predisposition for what this should be, although it looked along the lines of Evil Genuis which was fine by me.
But the game just didn’t make any sense at all. I honestly can barely remember what was actually wrong with it, because it was everything.