A cult classic: Dungeon Keeper 2

 

 

 

Dungeon Keeper 2 is the sequel to the acclaimed Dungeon Keeper, which originally spawned from the great mind of Peter Molyneux before he left Bullfrog. The game has a huge cult following and is one of the few games which I can always go back to and play.

 

Dungeon Keeper 2 is an RTS game where your aim is to keep your dungeon heart alive and shatter your opponents. You take the form of a big floating hand which is used to control the many creatures in the game and build the dungeon itself.

 



 

You progress through the game with world domination in mind, there is a 3d map which is divided into regions – you can then click to decide which map to play. There are 20 main levels in the campaign, but you can also unlock other maps and mini games.



 

In the game there are different types of rooms which you can build to improve your creatures or resources. Some rooms such as a lair and hatchery, are mandatory, so that your creature has somewhere to sleep and eat.

 

The creatures in your command can be used to fight, research new spells, or be used as scouts and guards. They join your dungeon through a portal, which must be claimed by an imp. The size of the rooms you build also determine the kinds of creatures which your dungeon will attract. It is important to bear this in mind when you may be limited to a certain amount of space.

 

 You start off with four imps, which are used for digging, claiming land, mining gold, dragging wounded creatures around, etc. The imp is the most important creature for a dungeon keeper, as they are used to build everything. However, they burn your mana resources so it’s not a good idea to have too many at once.

 

It is also possible to torture an enemy creature until they defect to serve your evil cause. This will however cause problems if they have to share living space with evil creatures and they will become unhappy. If any creature is too unhappy with your overlord skills, they will leave the dungeon and never return. Therefore, you have to build separate lairs and hatcheries to ensure that all creatures are happy.

 

 

There are also undead creatures, skeletons and vampires. Skeletons are obtained by letting a prisoner die while held hostage in your prison (this won’t work if they are left to die anywhere else). Once the creature turns into a skeleton, they can then be dropped into the dungeon and will act as a normal creature. Skeletons have no fear, and so are useful for taking out fear traps (which are annoying and will scare away imps etc).

Vampires are creature by dragging a corpse into a graveyard. When a vampire dies, they will regenerate in the nearest graveyard. But if he meets a Monk, is level one, or you don't have any Graveyards, than he will disappear in a swarm  of bats and won’t come back.

 

A fun and also useful spell in the game, is the possession spell. This spell allows the player to possess a creature and see the world through their eyes and control their actions.  This can be used on imps for example, to dig up gold faster – or on a creature to use a particular ability.

 

 

There are also other game modes available such as multiplayer, skirmish and my pet dungeon. My pet dungeon is a sandbox mode where you can amass a huge dungeon and keep playing for as long as you want. You can then order enemies at any level you want, to charge in and attack – testing the strength of your dungeon. This is useful to see how quickly you can form a solid dungeon, or for just relaxing and building without pressure.

This game is definitely a favourite of mine, I hope to make a few videos soon to show how the gameplay and different game modes work. If I've sparked your interest in this game at all, I believe that you can pick it up from gog.com for next to nothing.