The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Soon there will be a sequel. This is the original.

You take the role of a Keeper. You're responsible for designing the dungeon, managing its finances, organizing the troops, and leading them against the heroes (or rival monsters) that threaten your very existance. All of this is in real-time, so you've got to deal with these concerns all at once. So far, it's nothing unusual.

The first few levels are pretty simple. Their purpose is to get you up to speed with the game engine and with how the game works. This is important because the later levels pick up the pace right quick, be it by putting you into a disadvantageous start position or by pinning you between two enemy Keepers, or by doing both *and* tossing in a bunch of those damned namby-pamby heroes to boot.

So where's the fun part? It's in the little things. The first is that, as an Evil Overlord, you control the Hand of Evil. You can use it to grab your creatures, grab power-ups, grab gold, and release it wherever you can reach. You can also use it to slap your creatures, and anyone else in your custody, until they die in a spray of blood.

Building on this are the Prison, Torture Chamber, and Graveyard rooms. Each of these rooms allow you the option of converting an enemy into an ally. The Prison and the Torture Chamber are a one-two combo, so you need the former to use the latter; a Prison allows you to capture defeated foes. If they die in your Prison, they become Skeletons and join your Legions of Doom. Otherwise, they waste away until your slap them dead--this doesn't create Skeletons (I've tried)--or you put them into the Torture Chamber. Once in that room, either the foe converts or he dies and becomes a Ghost. Either way, you gain another Evil Minion to throw against the enemy. The Graveyard is for any creature, yours or theirs, who dies in battle. Each corpse put there may become a Vampire, who joins your Horde of Monstrous Doom. Again, you win.

The big selling point is the ability to possess your creatures, which puts you into first-person mode. Besides being able to walk about your dungeon, you can also go wherever the possessee may pass and use whatever abilities it has. (This can be very fun, if you're running around inside a high-level Dragon or a converted hero.)

So how's the game as a whole? Imagine if Dr. Demento got together with Weird Al and hired Don LaFontaine for the voiceovers, then got a top-notch crew to write the code. That's the feel, and the look. Now put your prefered wargaming guru in charge of writing the game rules, and you've got Dungeon Keeper.

This game's been out for quite some time. It's got to be in the cheap bins somewhere, and you're bound to know someone with a copy that they're not playing because they beat it already. Borrow it, and get in on the fun before Dungeon Keeper II arrives. You'll be glad that you did.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dungeon Keeper
Author: A team of talented, demented folks who earned their paychecks for this one. Category: Real-time Strategy Company/Publisher: Bullfrog Productions, Ltd. Line: Dungeon Keeper Page count: n/a ISBN: n/a SKU: n/a Playtest Review by Bradford C. Walker on 08/12/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	Soon there will be a sequel. This is the original. You take the role of a Keeper. You're responsible for designing the dungeon, managing its finances, organizing the troops, and leading them against the heroes (or rival monsters) that threaten your very existance. All of this is in real-time, so you've got to deal with these concerns all at once. So far, it's nothing unusual. The first few levels are pretty simple. Their purpose is to get you up to speed with the game engine and with how the game works. This is important because the later levels pick up the pace right quick, be it by putting you into a disadvantageous start position or by pinning you between two enemy Keepers, or by doing both and tossing in a bunch of those damned namby-pamby heroes to boot. So where's the fun part? It's in the little things. The first is that, as an Evil Overlord, you control the Hand of Evil. You can use it to grab your creatures, grab power-ups, grab gold, and release it wherever you can reach. You can also use it to slap your creatures, and anyone else in your custody, until they die in a spray of blood. Building on this are the Prison, Torture Chamber, and Graveyard rooms. Each of these rooms allow you the option of converting an enemy into an ally. The Prison and the Torture Chamber are a one-two combo, so you need the former to use the latter; a Prison allows you to capture defeated foes. If they die in your Prison, they become Skeletons and join your Legions of Doom. Otherwise, they waste away until your slap them dead--this doesn't create Skeletons (I've tried)--or you put them into the Torture Chamber. Once in that room, either the foe converts or he dies and becomes a Ghost. Either way, you gain another Evil Minion to throw against the enemy. The Graveyard is for any creature, yours or theirs, who dies in battle. Each corpse put there may become a Vampire, who joins your Horde of Monstrous Doom. Again, you win. The big selling point is the ability to possess your creatures, which puts you into first-person mode. Besides being able to walk about your dungeon, you can also go wherever the possessee may pass and use whatever abilities it has. (This can be very fun, if you're running around inside a high-level Dragon or a converted hero.) So how's the game as a whole? Imagine if Dr. Demento got together with Weird Al and hired Don LaFontaine for the voiceovers, then got a top-notch crew to write the code. That's the feel, and the look. Now put your prefered wargaming guru in charge of writing the game rules, and you've got Dungeon Keeper. This game's been out for quite some time. It's got to be in the cheap bins somewhere, and you're bound to know someone with a copy that they're not playing because they beat it already. Borrow it, and get in on the fun before Dungeon Keeper II arrives. You'll be glad that you did. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)