Dungeon Keeper Review
In Dungeon Keeper, slap your imps to keep them in line, summon foul minions, and plumb the depths for riches in this F2P strategy game.
Nothing tugs at my heartstrings more than a salute to the games of my youth, and I can recall many a fond moment slapping my imps around and building torture chambers in the classic version of Dungeon Keeper.
Listen to me... classic version... when did I get so old that all the games I played are now considered classic? Sigh... oh well, needless to say, I was fairly intrigued when I saw a brand new Dungeon Keeper game on the market, and I was really excited to relive those hey days of my youth.
But you know what they say, the new never seem to live up to the old, and I quickly found myself disappointed with this new version of my beloved Dungeon Keeper. Still, when I stopped comparing it to an old, cherished memory, today's game wasn't all that bad.
The Story of Dungeon Keeper
Just like the original, you step into the dark halls of your dungeon eager to take the reigns of your new domain. Your mentor, a red devil-like creature walks you through the general gist of dungeon keeping.
He introduces you to your dungeon heart, which is a living, beating center of your dungeon. It's responsible for summoning minions and is the ultimate lifeblood of your domain. You must protect your heart at all costs.
There are various other buildings and structures that you'll need to become familiar with such as gold mines and oar mines, which supply precious resources to your dungeon. You'll need both oar and mine to summon minions, build traps, and upgrade structures.
Your minions can be summoned through your heart and are at your beck and call when it comes to attacking other dungeons and defending your own dark domain. There are familiar creatures such as Skeletons, Trolls, Wizards, and Bile Demons.
And that's about it for the story. You basically get a dungeon to run, and you have to defend it from other keepers. Plus you get to attack other dungeons.
So far so good in keeping up with the classic version.
The Graphics of Dungeon Keeper
Okay, well here's where new is definitely better. While I still adore the old graphics, (remember your blobby dangling hand and the little brown/green blips that were your imps?) the new artwork is quite polished and hard to dismiss.
With the ability to zoom in on your dungeon, you can examine the minute details of your minions. I can see the gleaming blue eye sockets of my skeletons and the trail of red ooze my bile demons leave.
The new imps are adorable. They almost look like pink gremlins with their wide eyes and pointy teeth. It makes me almost not want to slap them at all... almost.
The Gameplay of Dungeon Keeper
Now here's where the game really deviates from the original. Dungeon Keeper is now your classic free-2-play, slow-going game where you have to wait 4 hours before you can harvest gems from a single tile of heavy rock... sigh.
This is not what I was looking for AT ALL. Where's the real-time strategy based game I know and love, where I can gather resources, slap my imps as they run around and do my bidding? Where's the noise you listen to as you race to gather riches before the other keepers break through your walls??
This was not my old game and it made me very sad.
Instead they took a kicking concept and forced it into a boring time wasting game that didn't really do it for me. I mean, it was cool at first when I was making my imps dig out the earth and shape my dungeon, but I didn't really feel like sitting there for hours while they constructed a simple room or dug up some hard gems.
Still, when I took out my prior expectations, and looked at it solely from the view of evaluating another F2P dungeon simulation game, then things did get a little better.
I definitely prefer the theme of the game over any other game I've played lately. And I enjoyed how you could launch an attack on another person's dungeon whenever you wanted.
Campaign missions helped you access more resources, while upgrading your mines also provided you with well stocked dungeon.
Gems helped make everything go faster, but, of course, you need to pay real money for those if you use up your meager supply. Unfortunately, imps could only be purchased with gems, so you're stuck with only two workers unless you want to shell out some cash.
The Music, Sound & Voice Acting of Dungeon Keeper
I have to hand it to the developers, they nailed the voice of your keeper guide... the actor sounds exactly like the actor in the original... oh wait... that's because it is. The same actor that is.
That's right, the same man, Richard Ridings, who delighted me years ago with the original Dungeon Keeper voice is now giving life to the new Dungeon Keeper... and that's pretty damn awesome.
I can't complain about the sounds or music either as both were well done and in keeping with the theme of the game. I especially enjoyed the sound your minions made from the crazy cackles of your wizards to the squeals of your imps when you showed them who's boss.
Overall Conclusion for Dungeon Keeper
Overall, while I was seriously disappointed that this new tablet version didn't resemble the old game I loved in my youth, it wasn't all half bad.
If you're looking for a decently themed F2P game that doesn't require constant attention, than Dungeon Keeper might just fit the bill.
However, if you're looking for a repeat visit down memory lane, than you might want to save yourself the heartache and keep your cherished memories alive by skipping this rendition.