I played the demo and enjoyed it, eventually purchasing the game to get the chance to play more than the first two missions. In this game, stealth is the most important mechanic; every design decision supports it well. You can massacre everyone if you want... but you will need an escape plan if you raise the alarms, because you can only tank a few shots before a character dies. Savescumming is also essential. Although the controls are great, there will be times that they don't register properly, you misjudge distances, who's watching an area, time an assassination incorrectly, or accidentally hide in the one bush the AI chooses to search after finding a body nearby. The devs understood this, and provided the ability to load from a few of your recent quicksaves, quickly loading the last one or writing new ones at the press of a button. A special input mode allows you to queue actions for each of your characters if you ever encounter a timing-critical puzzle. On Normal difficulty, good coordination means you won't need such tight precision. Each character has a unique combination of skills. There's a wide variety of them and one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game is discovering how they combine . Finding two guards watching eachother's back difficult? Easy!... if you have Aiko turn one of them around and Mugen use his AoE. The vision and cover mechanics deserve praise for being both fun and challenging, and the level design deserves praise for being open-ended and interesting. In addition to your skills, each level has unique ways to dispatch enemies, get between areas, and distract the guards. Bonus objectives give a challenging way to replay each level. There's so much good design to praise in this game that it's easy to overlook the story and characters. Every level's objectives play into the story, every character is different, and a fairly compelling story unfolds. It's no Hamlet, but the storytelling is competent; nothing sloppy to criticize.
I found that Dungeons II has enough engaging content to justify its price. It's not a super challenging RTS and there's some ways that it can be imbalanced, but it does provide just enough micromanagement challenges to be interesting. The art is cohesive, and the controls are fairly intuitive. I've completed the single player campaign and received a pleasant surprise halfway through, after the tutorial levels had been finished. Before I waffle on, I shall pass my verdict: It's an enjoyable *experience*, though it may lack some of the features hardcore gamers expect. If you enjoy stories such as The Hitchiker's Guide to The Galaxy, or The Stanley Parable, you will love this game because of the narration and the tone; there's many game objects that are humourous and pay homage to pop culture (and to Dungeon Keeper). The DLC is /not/ necessary to enjoy the game, and adds more scenarios (and a new playable horde) at the price of 2 coffees. The game introduces new players to the previous game's story quite elegantly, and also avoids boring old players of Dungeons. It's worth the price, but is by no means a hardcore game. However there are some small gripes I have. It can be a bit challenging at first to grab units and objects because without enabling a cursor setting, it's unclear where to hover in order to highlight the desired object. The zoom is too small for RTS of this scale, however it's enough to be playable. In most of the scenario, you must learn to rush objectives you have the absolute minimum of sustenance to pay your horde. Your natural desire is to turtle and build a massive and interesting labrynth, but this will not be possible in the scenarios, and is not always easy in multiplayer. Picture this as an RTS for players who want fast games instead of sprawling empires.
