Here is the
latest review, sent to us by Jehan - thanx! Futurenet.com - May '97 It's the same old story told in countless myths, films and computer games. An evil horde has descended upon a peaceful town and is threatening to wreak havoc. And then HE arrives, the hero of the piece. A prince from some far-off land, perhaps, or an honest dwarf, or just that young and unassuming fellow with the mysterious birthmark that no one really noticed before. Armed with only his courage, a sword and some particularly cheesy dialogue, he enters the foul lair and vanquishes the devilish hordes, asking only the princess's hand for his reward. And they all live happily ever after... But this is just one side of the story. Ask any self-despising dungeon keeper and he'll tell you a rather different tale. Well, in Dungeon Keeper you get to play the bad guys for a change. Games designer extraordinaire Peter Molyneux's last game for Bullfrog casts you in the role of one such dungeon master, enabling you to construct a labyrinthine lair, fill it with treasure rooms to tempt the heroes in, and a sprinkling of traps and monsters to dispose of them. The concept was always a great one and, understandably, has had game fans salivating for the last two years (since the game was first announced). The game is finally with us and the promise has more than been fulfilled; Dungeon Keeper is everything we expected it would be and a lot more besides. We wanted a good variety of creatures to control and heroes to vanquish -- Dungeon Keeper includes a total of 17 distinct villains here, along with 13 heroic types, all having their own specialities and methods of attack. We wanted to be able to design our own dungeons and traps. There are 36 different single-player maps, 14 specialist rooms (ranging from the basic training rooms, lairs and libraries to the more fiendish prisons, temples and torture rooms) and 12 kinds of traps and doors to discourage enemy approach. We wanted huge outlandish battles. Dungeon Keeper has bucketloads of them. Once the fireballs are flying, things do notably get confusing. But don't worry, there's a complicated, but fair, system of hit points, experience and good old-fashioned luck behind the multi-coloured melee. We also wanted to get directly involved in important battles. The constantly available 'possess' spell allows the keeper to do just that. Entering the body of any creature at any time, you can assist in their work or battle, or just wander round the dungeon via a Doom-style first-person view, while the other spells, such as 'heal', 'lighting' and 'destroy walls', enable you to help out from a distance. Above all, though, we just wanted a compelling, addictive game. Rest assured, Dungeon Keeper is just that. From the very first sight of your scampering imps we guarantee you will be absorbed. There's just so much to keep you interested. Each creature is a character in itself, with a number of attributes including anger, health, experience, defence, luck, dexterity, blood type and unique name.
On top of this, every species has its own unique quirks. Spiders' and flies' mutual hatred seems obvious enough, but warlocks' dislike of vampires will only be learned after some considerable fighting. Certain creatures get abusive or respond differently to certain stimuli. The higher class of creature dislikes having to share its lair with scummy beetles, for example, and, whereas most species can be speeded up by torturing or imprisoning one of their number, the kinky mistresses actually enjoy a good session of torture themselves -- quite disturbing really. You can torture or imprison enemies and heroes until they turn over to your side, give up their secrets or just waste away into ghosts and skeletons. And the game is as flexible as it is deep. If you're the sort of person who likes to control each and every attack, you can be on hand to supervise all the way, modifying each creature's priorities and dragging, dropping and slapping them into the correct place, or even possessing the creature and doing it yourself. But if you are more concerned with the overall strategy, you can just zoom the view back, create a few necessary rooms and concentrate on the tactical periphery of your domain while the creatures take care of everything else. There are even various levels of computer assistance if you don't want to bother with one particular area and, as you progress, the artificial intelligence modifies itself to match your own particular playing style. And we have barely scratched the surface here. There are secrets throughout the 36 levels, with bonus levels and special power-ups, before you even begin to consider the wonders of the multiplayer networked mode. In short this is the sort of game you bought your PC for and is probably the best game this year. Buy it. |
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