Dungeon Keeper™ 2

Dungeon Keeper 2 is a hybrid action/builder/fantasy/RTS game in which you're cast as a demon charged with creating and running various layers of the underworld. In campaign mode you must destroy the realm of "The Sunlit Kingdom of the Heroes". ITS GOOD TO BE BAD and that's what you do in DK2. You build and manage your underworld, stock and populate it with variations on evil creatures, scary dungeons and other hellish themes so that do-gooders and niceness can be wiped from the face of the realm. All this is done via an on screen control panel and thru direct interaction with your hellish 3D underworld dungeon. It is of course, all in good fun and highly accessible. One aspect of DK2 you will like is its a very easy game to catch on to. With three modes to choose from - Campaign Mode, My Pet Dungeon Mode and Skirmish (sandbox) Mode. The first few levels of the Campaign Mode being very easy and very fun tutorials. With a great Tim Curry/Vincent Price-esque narration, by video game voiceover veteran Richard Ridings, to egg you on. In addition to the great tutorials and an easy to use interface (with just a tiny, almost negligible hint of clunk) there's a well set out manual if you ever do get stuck. A good variety of options and settings in regard to game speed, graphics quality etc also help your gaming experience. Visually, considering the 1990s "3D graphix" (wow dude!), it's not bad - altho that may vary as per your device and whether or not you have updated the game. While the viewing angles in-game are near seamless and many, ranging from top down to "shooter style" (which includes the ability to "possess" any one creature at a time in a first person view), the zoom is somewhat limited in that a higher more distant god's-eye view would have been useful. But all things considered, DK2 remains a very accessible and enjoyable RTS game and most important of all its FUN. And as you know if its not fun its not a game and DK2 is, if nothing else, a fun game. RATING 72%

Drogi GOGu, gra ta została wydana z fenomenalną polską lokalizacją, której tutaj brak. Kupiłbym ją bez dwóch zdań, gdyby tylko była dostępna!

Panowie, z tego co pamiętam ta gra była w pełni spolszczona, zresztą nie tylko ta. Z chęcią bym kupił, bo słyszałem że jest świetna, ale język może stanowić bariere nie do przeskoczenia

Tak, jak mój poprzednik napisał - gra jest absolutnie fenomenalna, jednak w polskiej wersji językowej! Proszę spróbujcie ją zdobyć!

I was a huge fan of the first Dungeon Keeper, which oozed personality from every pore: the sandbox experience, the fun variety of levels (and secrets!), the atmospheric soundtrack, the enjoyable sound effects, the easy to comprehend interface, the vast selection of creatures and the difficutly in managing your dungeon in order to maintain your creature (and avoid making them stray to the enemy keeper's side). There were barely any cutscenes and the overall atmosphere was sinister without going overboard. My only gripe was that you couldn't play custom maps against the AI back in the day (unlike Starcraft), making the fun restricted to either replaying the amazing campaign all over again or battling on multiplayer (which I couldn't at the time). When DK2 was first released I remember wanting to play it but preferring games such as Half Life and Unreal Tournament instead... ... to be honest? Thank goodness I made that choice, otherwise I would've gotten pretty pissed off if I had bought this game full price. Let me briefly explain the good aspects of DK2: + it is in 3D + you can pick up more than 8 units at a time + it has new room types + it has a working skirmish system and a "my pet dungeon", which lets you grow your dungeon as much as you want. Unfortunately the bad aspects are so many that I'd be afraid to list them all. Here's just a taste: -------------------- - the cutscenes are embarrassingly stupid Adding (repetitive) slap-stick comedy to a formerly sinister game. I suspect that this tactic was used to lower the gamer age-group. ------------------- - the game is almost entirely a fan service to all the "Horny" fans (the horned reaper in the box art) You're constantly reminded that if you succeed in getting a certain number of gemstones throughout the campain you then gain the power to summon horny once during a game. At the end of almost each level, you see him walk over the gem of the fallen Lords doing the same animation over-and-over again. It gets boring really quickly and, quite frankly, I don't care about using him during the game at all. In the original game, he was a unit like all the rest and only helped to add variety (and difficulty) to dungeon management... no more. What is all this fuss about making him the star of the game? --------------- - The levels are relatively brief, unoriginal and the bonus stages feel ripped off of the original's For anyone familiar with the first Dungeon Keeper, you'll get a long series of pseudo-tutorial levels where they teach you about lairs, treasure chambers, hatcheries and whatnot. In the first game that was ok, because the concept was fresh and the player needed to get accustomed with it, but now you get more of the same and feel that it gets dragged on for too long. The developers then decided to make you choose where to go, making you miss out on some stages and forcing you to replay all those boring tutorial stages over again just to see the levels you missed the first time around (... you know what? No thanks). Furthermore, the secret missions I saw were an watered-down copy of the original. As far as I know, if you win a bonus stage you don't receive any rewards for the next mission you'll play (unlike the original's). --------------- - The sound effects and soundtrack fall short in comparison to the original. The soundtrack of the first game was genuinely chilling at times. There were moments where all you'd heard was the atmospheric music and the echoes of water droplets in the underground lakes and footsteps in the pitch-black sections of the map. The slap sound effects felt meaty and it felt good (in a very sadistic way) to slap your imps back to work: not only were they entertaining, but useful in making your workforce more efficient. What about now? Nope. The music is definitely less appealing and, more often than not, obfuscated by the constant messages you get from your advisor. The slap sound effect is flimsy and even the advantages you get from it have been toned down... again, perhaps an attempt to lower the PEGI rating? Who knows. The other sounds are ok, I guess, but I can't help but feel that the atmosphere's been lost. ------------------- - The new rooms don't add much They're more of an added fluff. They add no true functional purpose to the plate. Besides, some old rooms have been nerfed to submission. Just to name few examples, the training room can only train units up to level 4 and the prison needs to have 9 or more tiles for it to actually hold in enemies and (for some unexplicable reason) the torture chamber doesn't generate ghosts any more. ---------------------- - There are less units to command and some have been nerfed for bad measure There used to be 16 units which you could attract to your dungeon; one of which was the demon spawn which could evolve into a dragon. What about now? 12. The demon spawn, tentacle, ghost, dragon, orc, spider, beetle and hellhound vanished but the development team just couldn't help but keep the firefly in the ranks; the most useless unit of all. The scheleton became an expendable unit, which doesn't gain the experience of the hero that dies in your prison but rather starts from level 1. He doesn't require food nor money as a plus, but seems much weaker as a fighter this time around. ------------------------- - The interface is a step backwards and boring I won't deny that the original's interface was a tad complex, but once you got used to it (and read the manual) it was great. You'd even get many interesting stats from it such as the creature stats, which would tell you the creature's name, skills, luck and even age and blood type! What about now? Streamlined. For some this is a good thing, but for me this means that all the appealing side stats got lost and each and every unit is just an identical faceless pawn. The 'skill' and 'dexterity' stats are nowhere to be seen, and you'll never be able to get scenarios where you can place a firefly to study in the library, for example, with little progress to be made because it lacks a sufficient level of skill... nope. Now the few faceless units you have at your disposal either have a specific purpose in the dungeon or none at all! Isn't that fantastic? *sigh*... ...and don't get me started on the creature moods. In the original they were depicted as a very-easy-to-spot black-picture-on-white thought bubble... but what about now? They're stuffed at the center of their flower-shaped health bar with a black icon on a red background, making it difficult to understand what's going on. The only thing "helping" you out is the advisor, who constantly speaks, immediately warning you of how many farts a unit made even when you couldn't care less. Besides, sometimes the AI is so stupid that, for example, it becomes unhappy the moment it gets hungry... even if the hatchery is FULL OF FOOD. ========= Enough. I've rambled way too much. These are just the countless examples of what you'll get: an average game that feeds off of the success of the original. I'm reaching the end of the campaign with no difficulties whatsoever (unlike the original as well) and am unfortunately disappointed. If you can look beyond the sprite-like graphics I strongly urge anyone to buy the first Dungeon Keeper instead of this shoddy imitation. That's the *true* classic that should be remembered, back when Peter Molyneux was in charge at Bullfrog and shipping out great games.