By Jim Rossignol on September 30th, 2011 at 8:12 am.
Dungeon-managing game Dungeons (which is definitely not a remake of Dungeon Keeper) has just received an new instalment. It’s called The Dark Lord, and there’s a demo of it here. Publisher Kalypso explain that for some reason the character is called Calypso: “Hone your evil skills as you play Calypso, the Dungeons Lord’s despicable ex-girlfriend, in three extensive tutorial levels before jumping into a single-player map from the game’s ‘Soul Survival’ mode. In Soul Survival, you play as the Dungeon Lord himself, as you race against the clock to steal soul energy from the hapless heroes who enter your cleverly crafted dungeons.”
We’ll try to take a look at the full game soon.
30/09/2011 at 08:37 thekeats1999 says:
MIght give the demo a try. Fancied trying the previous game but had heard you needed to keep your prisoners happy before killing them, always seemed odd to me.
But nice having an actual demo.
30/09/2011 at 09:03 Inigo says:
I would have enjoyed the original demo more if it weren’t for the constant screaming loop of IT’S NOT DUNGEON KEEPER ringing in my head.
30/09/2011 at 09:06 Nim says:
The steam forums are still full of those twats that can’t stop shouting that and they are really annoying. But you’re better than that, aren’t you?
(/me notices caps)
Nevermind…
30/09/2011 at 09:12 Inigo says:
When one of the questions on the beta test application is “Have you played Dungeon Keeper”, it tends to give people certain impressions.
30/09/2011 at 09:07 Williz says:
Please do a review… I want to know if the games decent before I plunge.
30/09/2011 at 11:52 Teddy Leach says:
There’s a demo. Those are free.
30/09/2011 at 09:19 DukeOFprunes says:
I sunk 16 hours into the first one. It was constant herculean effort to try and like it and that ended in failure. The humour is puerile, voice acting grates on the nerves, but it’s the gameplay design and pacing that sets it back the most. That’s not even bringing the general overall bugginess into the mix.
30/09/2011 at 10:39 JiminyJickers says:
I think you are right. I just installed the demo, played it a bit and just couldn’t get into it. Already uninstalled, haha.
30/09/2011 at 11:23 JKjoker says:
i agree, i tried to love Dungeons and i just got bored, difficult to say what it was, i liked the “shinny things attract heroes” and the “heroes provide currency” mechanics, i also appreciated the attempt to give maps little twists to make them interesting (failing in the couple of levels i played tho) but i felt DK did almost everything else better
30/09/2011 at 18:52 chabuhi says:
Agreed. It is unequivocally a remake of Dungeon Keeper – anyone claiming otherwise has never played Dungeon Keeper. Is it a shot-for-shot remake? No, of course not, but it’s much more than “inspired by” or a “tribute to” the original.
And as my neighbors above have said, it is BORING. It was so boring that I had to buy a copy of DK2 off of GoG just to make sure that it wasn’t ME who had changed. I subsequently poured a couple dozen hours into DK2 without giving Dungeons another glance.
30/09/2011 at 09:51 Zepp says:
This game is a blasphemy and her creators shall be punished severely. Sucking blood from dead, rotting DK body. Leeches, filthy maggots!
30/09/2011 at 11:29 meatshit says:
If it had just ripped off Dungeon Keeper, I would have been happy with it. Instead they copied the style and theme, but married it to a completely different, and quite frankly terrible, game.
30/09/2011 at 09:53 Shuck says:
So when you say “is definitely not a remake of Dungeon Keeper” do you mean it is in fact a(n unofficial) remake of Dungeon Keeper, or that it fails terribly at attempting to be a remake of Dungeon Keeper?
30/09/2011 at 10:07 DukeOFprunes says:
The game absolutely makes reference to DK, and then attempts to do things in its own way, which is admirable.
It then throws a number of (in fairness) good ideas at you that are all so badly implemented that the overall experience molts inside your mouth and leaves a very bitter aftertaste, not unlike bile demon piss.
30/09/2011 at 10:28 c-Row says:
I don’t think I want to know how you are able to comment on the taste of demon urine.
30/09/2011 at 10:52 El_Emmental says:
So what you’re saying DukeOFprunes, is that “Dungeons: The Dark Lord” is basically “Dungeon Keeper concept, made by someone else”, so you’re in charge of a dungeon, heroes come in, then everything else is slightly or strongly different from Dungeon Keeper, right ?
(and people are reporting poor implementations)
if that’s the case, it doesn’t sound like something I would buy, at least not at full prices :C
thanks for these feedbacks btw
30/09/2011 at 11:56 DukeOFprunes says:
El_Emmental: Ehmm, yeah, that is it really.
In DK you built a large number of rooms that attracted monsters who lived in your dungeon. Your job was to keep them happy, feed them, train them, and send them into battle to crush do-gooders. It’s simple and accessible.
In Dungeons you build two rooms (armory, library) that get looted by heroes, thus increasing their Happiness bar. You can place monster spawners, not to kill or defend from heroes, but to further increase their Happiness bar.
When their Happiness bars are maxed you lock them up until you own all their happy points, which you need to buy non-functional pretty decorations. It ends up feeling like you’re playing The Sims: Dungeon Of Happy Heroes.
30/09/2011 at 11:48 LionsPhil says:
Oddly enough, I’ve been playing a bunch of Dungeon Keeper 2 recently.
This won’t have Richard Ridings, and thus cannot be anywhere near as good.
30/09/2011 at 13:28 DeanLearner says:
yeah, no peppa pigs dad either!
30/09/2011 at 14:33 Tuan says:
How can they justify spitting out a full sequel only 9 months after the first, when it’s basically the same game? This sequel is a patch (trying to fix a shitty original game) and an expansion with new levels.
I recommend no one to purchase this game, even if they did managed to “fix” the game and make it actually fun, they do not deserve a full purchase price on what is really a patch/expansion.
It already annoyed me how insanely bad this game was when it came out and I knew what to expect- it was basically Evil Genius in Dungeon form, but they somehow managed to make it no fun. Thus this quick turnaround sequel is even more annoying.
30/09/2011 at 17:44 MythArcana says:
The tragedy with Dungeons is that it *could* have been a great DM remake, but instead resorted to insanity-gripping mini squadrons of heroes who did all but ignore you while trying to fend off waves of overpowered baddies. It’s basically a tower defense type of game that looks amazingly like DM, but the similarities stop there.
30/09/2011 at 21:26 namad says:
once you realize that this game is basically just a double A tower defense game… well if you love tower defense games you might actually love this, if you like dungeon keeper just play dungeon keeper instead though… everyone needs to stop talking tragedy this game isn’t even in the same GENRE!~ it’s just been marketed a bit… it’s a really great DUNGEON themed tower defense game with depth and options for all those hardcore tower defense fans out there…