Nintengod
10-28-2007, 01:12 PM
Dungeon Keeper - PC (Released 1997)
The mid to late 1990s was a bit of a golden age for gaming. We had the likes of Mario 64, Goldeneye, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Zelda, Half Life, Quake 2 etc etc coming out left, right and centre. Another classic game came out on PC in 1997 called Dungeon Keeper. Made by the same people who did Populous, Theme Hospital et al.
Dungeon Keeper is a "god"-game, a strategy game. You are a keeper of a dungeon (oddly enough), and you appear as a hand which is moved by the mouse, and this hand can control your entire dungeon which you design. You also have a dungeon heart. This is to be protected, and if its attacked by enemy's, you will face death.
The game is set underground and in rocks, which you need imps to cave through, tunnel and create rooms and open spaces for you to set out your evil dungeon. Yes, you play the bad guy in this. Your aim is to prey on all the towns in the Dungeon Keeper world till its all yours. The world starts out as this beautiful landscape, and you have to turn it into hell.
So going back to HOW you achieve this, your imps are crucial to creating the space, then you need to lure creatures in to complete the masterplan. All sorts of fiendish creatures enter your domain : spiders, hell hounds, orks, dragons, bile demons, skeletons, wizards, horned reapers and many more. Each have unique personalitys and skills key to the game's completion. You need to keep them happy with nice living quarters, plenty of food, and objectives for them to get on with....otherwise they will either leave your dungeon or worse...start attacking your other creatures and cause havoc!
Once your dungeon is built up, your enemy (who are essentially the good guys) will start trying to get into your lair. You must stop them by attacking them with your own spells, set up traps and most importantly release your strongest creatures upon them. Once you defeated them, its on to a new part of the map. A witty narrator quips about your conquests....adding a lovely bit of humour to this awesome piece of software.
The learning curve of this game is absolutely flawless, and it sucks you in for hours upon hours of gameplay. The control system is so intuitive you will fall in love with it early on. Graphically, its nothing to write home about today, it all looks dark and the textures look relatively blotchy, and the creatures are all sprite based rather than in 3D. But it does look right for what the game needs, and it works well. Another great feature is the ability to possess one of your minions.....and you then go into a 1st person perspective, which is absolutely brilliant, as you can see your dungeon from a creatures perspective! You can also attack enemies this way, and search out new area's. Different creatures move and see differently.....the hell hounds for example see in black and white, whilst a fly has warped vision but can see a much wider spectrum....plus he can fly!
It's touches like this which make this game one of the best games ever made, and even to this day stands out as truly playable and involving. For me, its one of the greatest PC games ever made, and its sequel never quite captured the charm of the original reviewed here. Buy this game....it runs perfectly well on Windows XP, so don't worry about compatibility.
BUY THIS GAME!
Score : 9.5/10
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Dungkeep.jpg
http://www.viridiangames.com/images/dk.jpg
http://www.juegomania.org/Dungeon+Keeper+Gold/fotos/pc/1/1028_t/Foto+Dungeon+Keeper+Gold.jpg
The mid to late 1990s was a bit of a golden age for gaming. We had the likes of Mario 64, Goldeneye, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Zelda, Half Life, Quake 2 etc etc coming out left, right and centre. Another classic game came out on PC in 1997 called Dungeon Keeper. Made by the same people who did Populous, Theme Hospital et al.
Dungeon Keeper is a "god"-game, a strategy game. You are a keeper of a dungeon (oddly enough), and you appear as a hand which is moved by the mouse, and this hand can control your entire dungeon which you design. You also have a dungeon heart. This is to be protected, and if its attacked by enemy's, you will face death.
The game is set underground and in rocks, which you need imps to cave through, tunnel and create rooms and open spaces for you to set out your evil dungeon. Yes, you play the bad guy in this. Your aim is to prey on all the towns in the Dungeon Keeper world till its all yours. The world starts out as this beautiful landscape, and you have to turn it into hell.
So going back to HOW you achieve this, your imps are crucial to creating the space, then you need to lure creatures in to complete the masterplan. All sorts of fiendish creatures enter your domain : spiders, hell hounds, orks, dragons, bile demons, skeletons, wizards, horned reapers and many more. Each have unique personalitys and skills key to the game's completion. You need to keep them happy with nice living quarters, plenty of food, and objectives for them to get on with....otherwise they will either leave your dungeon or worse...start attacking your other creatures and cause havoc!
Once your dungeon is built up, your enemy (who are essentially the good guys) will start trying to get into your lair. You must stop them by attacking them with your own spells, set up traps and most importantly release your strongest creatures upon them. Once you defeated them, its on to a new part of the map. A witty narrator quips about your conquests....adding a lovely bit of humour to this awesome piece of software.
The learning curve of this game is absolutely flawless, and it sucks you in for hours upon hours of gameplay. The control system is so intuitive you will fall in love with it early on. Graphically, its nothing to write home about today, it all looks dark and the textures look relatively blotchy, and the creatures are all sprite based rather than in 3D. But it does look right for what the game needs, and it works well. Another great feature is the ability to possess one of your minions.....and you then go into a 1st person perspective, which is absolutely brilliant, as you can see your dungeon from a creatures perspective! You can also attack enemies this way, and search out new area's. Different creatures move and see differently.....the hell hounds for example see in black and white, whilst a fly has warped vision but can see a much wider spectrum....plus he can fly!
It's touches like this which make this game one of the best games ever made, and even to this day stands out as truly playable and involving. For me, its one of the greatest PC games ever made, and its sequel never quite captured the charm of the original reviewed here. Buy this game....it runs perfectly well on Windows XP, so don't worry about compatibility.
BUY THIS GAME!
Score : 9.5/10
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Dungkeep.jpg
http://www.viridiangames.com/images/dk.jpg
http://www.juegomania.org/Dungeon+Keeper+Gold/fotos/pc/1/1028_t/Foto+Dungeon+Keeper+Gold.jpg