The advantage of not being an avid PC gamer means I have no reference, when EA rerelease a classic, on if they have butchered it. Dungeon Keeper is a strategy game revolving around building up a dungeon in hell. Upgrade building, mine new rooms, recruit minions to raid other bases and defend your own in this huge single and multiplayer game.
The most difficult part of reviewing Dungeon Keeper is getting across the pure scope of the game. With so many different facets it is difficult to know where to start.
The game focuses on your dungeon and this is where you will spend most of your time. It can be enhanced by constructing buildings and traps and also by upgrading any structures currently made. Upgrades are financed through stone and gold, of which you have two mines for each located in your dungeon. Unfortunately these mines are also entrances for other players, real and computer, to stage raids on your base. The player must strike a balance between defence and offence when deciding what to upgrade and when. This is nicely managed due to your dungeon being completely customisable, dig away rock to create unique passages to trap and confuse raiding players.
A key concept of this game is time. Everything takes time, digging away soft rock (3secs), building a new trap (30mins), upgrading a building (1-4hrs), digging away hard rock (1 day). When completing a task set one of your imps at it and it will complete after its time has expired. EA have of course created ways to speed up this waiting, by purchasing gems, but I think the game is actually better without them. Like the online game EVE, much of the enjoyment from this game comes from upgrading your base and minions. Many players will only have short amounts of time to play this game, on the toilet or the bus, and so makes it perfect for setting something going and then having it done by the time you come back to it.
The plot and campaign of the game revolves around raiding other dungeons and defending your own. This is also a really enjoyable part of the game. Raiding other dungeons requires thought and care as obviously other players will have constructed their dungeons to withstand a raid. Different minions, or which there are about 12, go after different parts meaning there is a huge amount of tactics which can be used to succeed in a raid. As you progress through the game gradually you face tougher and tougher dungeons with larger and larger armies which keeps you wanting to achieve the safest personal dungeon and the best attack record.
This game initially seems too good to be true but the problems creep up on you gradually as you play.
Gameplay balance? Defending your base and attacking others is fun but usually is either too easy or too hard. This means the skill and satisfaction is reduced. There is also the issue of ‘what’s the point’? Why spend all this time upgrading a virtual dungeon when by the time you have got it to the higher levels the gameplay gets boring anyway? I suppose this argument can be used with any game but considering most of your time is spent waiting for upgrades I felt the ‘what’s the point’ feeling a lot.
Time. The game has been cleverly set up so it doesn’t take long to upgrade most buildings half way. The problem occurs as you start moving into the later stages of the game and a building a lot longer to upgrade. With limited amounts of imps to upgrade buildings this is basically EA saying “pay for our game or you won’t enjoy playing our game”.
Game dynamics: After about 20 raids on other dungeons you realise the tactics are pretty similar and all you are getting is more gold and stone. Once you have got bored of raiding there is not much left in the game to hold your interest.
This game has lots of great aspects and a huge amount of content, especially as it costs you nothing in the app store. Unfortunetly the paid aspects gradually encroach on the experience until they completely destroy it.
TL DR:
The Good
- Loads of content
- Addicting gameplay
- Fun PvP modes attacking and defending dungeons
- Great graphics
The Bad
- Sometimes connection cuts out breaking up gameplay
- Building times gradually get too long for it to be enjoyable
- Game loses its originality quickly
The Ugly
- The classic EA freemium model to try to make you pay
Final words
This game could have been brilliant. With a one off payment this game has a huge amount of content to make it evolve as you play, it is also lots of fun to play, whether against real people or the computer. Instead they released half a game trying to make as much money as possible. This game is definitely worth a download but after a few days you’ll hit the pay wall and slowly your enthusiasm will wane until your imps stand forsaken in your once great dungeon. A missed opportunity by EA – what a shame.
Rating 65/100
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