Zippy reviews
ungeons
Pro: Interesting take on RTS resource gathering
Con: Everything else.
WTF: You right hand goblin has a sweet tooth and thing for lemon lime slime monsters!
Wow this is a neat lil game its thoroughly broken/poorly implanted/unpolished even with the patch but as a Dungeon Keeper fan this keeps me interested. This game also takes nods from Over Lord, sadly tho the game is strife with quality issues from script to dialog to performance issues which are mostly fixed in the latest patch..
The engine looks a lot like dungeon keeper 2 or WC3 only with more texture, polys and such but runs almost slower than it at times, sound is ok music is ok just nothing stands out?other than me being reminded of hexen every other time music is played. Loading times can be really bad even one of the text tips on the loading screen says something to the existent of ?These text tips are here to cover up the absurdly long loading times.?
The story is simple you are silent Dark Dungeon Lord who?s girl friend has taken over or destroyed his dungeon, it does not really say as he left without much of a fight so he?s sent to the top or bottom of the Dungeon Lord hierarchy and has to work his way back to being the Dark prince of all Dungeon lords or something.
There is not much else you have an old goblin who is your right hand man,like Over Lord, who takes up for your characters lack of a dialog with his own, like Over Lord. He does all the talking/communication. Speaking of Communication the script is on par with middling Saturday morning cartoons IE it can be funny but it rarely is. Overlord has a much better script and a bit better Dialog? and there?s nothing wrong with dungeon keeper(ok is a lie mechanics could use a tiny bit of work).
Suffice to say the story is not the reason you are playing this thing.
Unlike the previously mentioned titles this works a bit differently. You control both the isometric RTS controls and the Dungeon Lord who gets a 3 way skill tree of offensive spells and abilities, defensive abilities for your monsters and improved abilities for cheaper gimmicks, better and goblins and non offensive/defensive spells. Think War craft 3 with the main champion always selected only it?s a Dungeon keeper clone with a twist. Combat is done by hit/miss rolls in real time.
That twist is you place objects (prestige gimmicks) around the dungeon to gain more prestige to build higher level objects and summon higher level monsters. You place Bones, fireplaces, lamps, ect building rooms item by item. This may sound overwhelming but you only have 2 specific room types that you build the library and the armory and the interesting bit is it?s not for your monsters but the Heroes that come frolicking in from the Hero gates that are places throughout the dungeon.
The RTS system works off of 4 basic mechanics, 1.Soul energy is what you use to buy prestige gimmicks, upgrade all monsters, increase your dungeon heart?s hitpoints and your own level as well as buy more worker goblins to be summoned or buy a dungeon heart guardian so you can wander off to do stuff with some protection for your dungeon heart as when its destroyed its game over.
The interesting part is you reap the soul energy from Heroes you get a tiny bit if your Dungeon Lord kills them directly but what you really want is them to go to your gold piles, armory or library which increase their soul energy it by bit. They also can gain it by fighting or taking damage but that is unreliable to gather lots of soul energy. You want them to gather up soul energy and be struck down so they can be taken to your prison where they are slowly drained of soul energy. Some hero gates can be opened but once they are opened you are SLO until you can afford the close gate spell.
2. Prestige is a limiting mechanic that the higher it grows the more powerful the Dungeon Lord is and the higher level objects and monsters you can summon. You use soul energy to buy them and place them around your dungeons area of influence like any normal RTS build.
3.Gold is used to buy/summon monster pentagrams which expand your dungeons influence, its also used to build gold piles/chests , armory, library and prisons.
4.Monsters can only be summon if you have one other their shelters within the area of your dungeons influence and it also adds to the base number of how many monsters you can buy/summon.
You can also destroy any gimmick/pentagram you own and get half its cost back as well as kill any of your monsters but you get nothing for it.
Each map has a set of achievements to get to get a free spell scroll, like don?t heal your dungeon heart, don?t let the Dungeon lord be defeated and revived at the dungeon heart at a cost of tis own HP gather X number materials build X number gimmicks,ect,ect..
The goal of the game is not really build to gather an army and destroy everything in your path but rather to protect your dungeon heart, gather soul energy do the maps main quest and try and do the quests your BOSS sends you, the Dungeon Lord that?s above you sends messages now and then to do X , Y or Z?and thank god it auto saves a lot because some of the requests are madding!
The AI is pretty weak, unlike most RTS the only unit you have control over is your Dungeon lord your monsters hand out around their pentagrams and protect the area around them or at least try too you need a swarm half the time to handle heroes who level up as you gather resources and can easily kill monsters as you can sometimes easily kill them.
The AI can be rather hit/miss you cast a fire ball spell and the targets can be half a screen away and it still hits like lag on a MMO, you can also pile gimmicks in a area and sometimes block off that path to Heroes and monsters which can be helpful in giving enough room for the Hero AI to wander and gather soul energy and not bug the monsters you put in front of your dungeon heart.
The mechanics make the game for me though all in all its more worth 20-30$ than 40$ but I am still enjoying it.
Score: 5/10
Disclosures: This game was obtained via [retail store] and reviewed on the [Windows 7 on MAX settings]. Approximately 20 hours of play was devoted to single-player mode (completed 0 time) Does not have multiplayer.
Parents: Comical script/dialog with cartoon violence, some blood, no gore,, no profanities (as far as I know). This game is fine for TEENS 13+ (like me).
Deaf and Hard of Hearing: The game has subtitles for most dialogue, but in some cases audible cues will help with player performance.
(I put it here since its unworthy of the user review section LOL)
ungeons Pro: Interesting take on RTS resource gathering
Con: Everything else.
WTF: You right hand goblin has a sweet tooth and thing for lemon lime slime monsters!
Wow this is a neat lil game its thoroughly broken/poorly implanted/unpolished even with the patch but as a Dungeon Keeper fan this keeps me interested. This game also takes nods from Over Lord, sadly tho the game is strife with quality issues from script to dialog to performance issues which are mostly fixed in the latest patch..
The engine looks a lot like dungeon keeper 2 or WC3 only with more texture, polys and such but runs almost slower than it at times, sound is ok music is ok just nothing stands out?other than me being reminded of hexen every other time music is played. Loading times can be really bad even one of the text tips on the loading screen says something to the existent of ?These text tips are here to cover up the absurdly long loading times.?
The story is simple you are silent Dark Dungeon Lord who?s girl friend has taken over or destroyed his dungeon, it does not really say as he left without much of a fight so he?s sent to the top or bottom of the Dungeon Lord hierarchy and has to work his way back to being the Dark prince of all Dungeon lords or something.
There is not much else you have an old goblin who is your right hand man,like Over Lord, who takes up for your characters lack of a dialog with his own, like Over Lord. He does all the talking/communication. Speaking of Communication the script is on par with middling Saturday morning cartoons IE it can be funny but it rarely is. Overlord has a much better script and a bit better Dialog? and there?s nothing wrong with dungeon keeper(ok is a lie mechanics could use a tiny bit of work).
Suffice to say the story is not the reason you are playing this thing.
Unlike the previously mentioned titles this works a bit differently. You control both the isometric RTS controls and the Dungeon Lord who gets a 3 way skill tree of offensive spells and abilities, defensive abilities for your monsters and improved abilities for cheaper gimmicks, better and goblins and non offensive/defensive spells. Think War craft 3 with the main champion always selected only it?s a Dungeon keeper clone with a twist. Combat is done by hit/miss rolls in real time.
That twist is you place objects (prestige gimmicks) around the dungeon to gain more prestige to build higher level objects and summon higher level monsters. You place Bones, fireplaces, lamps, ect building rooms item by item. This may sound overwhelming but you only have 2 specific room types that you build the library and the armory and the interesting bit is it?s not for your monsters but the Heroes that come frolicking in from the Hero gates that are places throughout the dungeon.
The RTS system works off of 4 basic mechanics, 1.Soul energy is what you use to buy prestige gimmicks, upgrade all monsters, increase your dungeon heart?s hitpoints and your own level as well as buy more worker goblins to be summoned or buy a dungeon heart guardian so you can wander off to do stuff with some protection for your dungeon heart as when its destroyed its game over.
The interesting part is you reap the soul energy from Heroes you get a tiny bit if your Dungeon Lord kills them directly but what you really want is them to go to your gold piles, armory or library which increase their soul energy it by bit. They also can gain it by fighting or taking damage but that is unreliable to gather lots of soul energy. You want them to gather up soul energy and be struck down so they can be taken to your prison where they are slowly drained of soul energy. Some hero gates can be opened but once they are opened you are SLO until you can afford the close gate spell.
2. Prestige is a limiting mechanic that the higher it grows the more powerful the Dungeon Lord is and the higher level objects and monsters you can summon. You use soul energy to buy them and place them around your dungeons area of influence like any normal RTS build.
3.Gold is used to buy/summon monster pentagrams which expand your dungeons influence, its also used to build gold piles/chests , armory, library and prisons.
4.Monsters can only be summon if you have one other their shelters within the area of your dungeons influence and it also adds to the base number of how many monsters you can buy/summon.
You can also destroy any gimmick/pentagram you own and get half its cost back as well as kill any of your monsters but you get nothing for it.
Each map has a set of achievements to get to get a free spell scroll, like don?t heal your dungeon heart, don?t let the Dungeon lord be defeated and revived at the dungeon heart at a cost of tis own HP gather X number materials build X number gimmicks,ect,ect..
The goal of the game is not really build to gather an army and destroy everything in your path but rather to protect your dungeon heart, gather soul energy do the maps main quest and try and do the quests your BOSS sends you, the Dungeon Lord that?s above you sends messages now and then to do X , Y or Z?and thank god it auto saves a lot because some of the requests are madding!
The AI is pretty weak, unlike most RTS the only unit you have control over is your Dungeon lord your monsters hand out around their pentagrams and protect the area around them or at least try too you need a swarm half the time to handle heroes who level up as you gather resources and can easily kill monsters as you can sometimes easily kill them.
The AI can be rather hit/miss you cast a fire ball spell and the targets can be half a screen away and it still hits like lag on a MMO, you can also pile gimmicks in a area and sometimes block off that path to Heroes and monsters which can be helpful in giving enough room for the Hero AI to wander and gather soul energy and not bug the monsters you put in front of your dungeon heart.
The mechanics make the game for me though all in all its more worth 20-30$ than 40$ but I am still enjoying it.
Score: 5/10
Disclosures: This game was obtained via [retail store] and reviewed on the [Windows 7 on MAX settings]. Approximately 20 hours of play was devoted to single-player mode (completed 0 time) Does not have multiplayer.
Parents: Comical script/dialog with cartoon violence, some blood, no gore,, no profanities (as far as I know). This game is fine for TEENS 13+ (like me
). Deaf and Hard of Hearing: The game has subtitles for most dialogue, but in some cases audible cues will help with player performance.
(I put it here since its unworthy of the user review section LOL)
