Dungeons 2

Looking at Dungeons, it’s clear as day that we don’t need EA for a true Dungeon Keeper experience. This is it, and then some.

Come for the dungeon management, stay for goofy minions like Jayzee, Am’Adamss, and Kato.

Dungeons 2 lack some deep in the RTS part, but compensate it with a good dungeon building section.

Those who felt turned off by the critically maligned Dungeons would do well to give Dungeons 2 a look. It evolves the dungeon management subgenre in a number of clever ways, and the hands-on strategy elements make for a fantastic compliment.

Dungeons 2 does an admirable job of channeling that old-school Dungeon Keeper feel into a new title, and fans of the series will find some enjoyable evil to be had in the dungeon-sim genre. Swapping between dungeon and overworld can make the game feel schizophrenic at times, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not a significant detractor.

Maybe Dungeons 2 plays a little safe by ditching some of the more intriguing aspects of the previous game (I still think the idea of using overconfident adventurers as a form of drainable resource is a fantastically twisted conceit that could have been fleshed out further) in favour of going back to the roots of the dungeon management genre, but it’s hard to criticise Realmforge too much for that when the game is this enjoyable.

Some issues keep it from being a stand-alone great, but fans longing for a reboot of Dungeon Keeper could do a lot worse than this clever, enjoyable dungeon manager.

Dungeons 2 is nowhere near the level I wanted it to be. It would have been nice to see an evolution of the dungeon management genre that takes things to the level of complexity of city-builders like Pharaoh or Zeus...Instead, the title is a low complexity strategy game with some real-time strategy mechanics, providing a fun experience if you’re looking for something that could be described as a modern day Dungeon Keeper.

Operations on the surface communicate the idea of “spreading evil” nicely and provide good change of pace from traditional underground war. Not a blockbuster yet, but quite entertaining nevertheless. [Issue#199, p.70]

A lighthearted and colorful strategy game that is determined to replicate the formula of Dungeon Keeper while adding some fresh ideas of its own. However, this led to some awkward design decisions, uneven pacing and an unreliable interface. Alas, it is not as good as it could have been - but at least it's a much better game than the first Dungeons released in 2011.

One nice try that falls down because tries to do too much for one game. As a Dungeon Keeper like game it's fun, but the RTS elements draw back Dungeons 2 from being a far more enjoyable game.

The basic substance of Dungeons 2 is really good. You can tell that the developers had good ideas and have invested a lot of heart and soul into their baby.

Dungeons 2 is neither a great RTS nor a great Dungeon Keeper game. It’s just “pretty good” at both.

Finally, a successor to Dungeon Keeper 2 that is actually fun to play.

Dungeons 2 is a most successful RTS/management game than its lackluster predecessor, but is not yet able to approach to the same levels of Dungeon Keeper (and after all it was obvious). This Realmforge Studios hybrid works in the management part (funny and quite deep), but loses points when it tries to be Warcraft III and offers too simplistic RTS sections with little personality.

If some strangely-specific apocalyptic event wiped both Warcraft and Dungeon Keeper off the face of the earth, those brave souls with the will to continue might find something to cling to in Dungeons 2. Until that happens, the probably just best to stick with the real deal.

Even with all the progress compared to the predecessor it seems that the dev team bit off more than they can chew. While the dungeon building is rewarding albeit not challenging enough the overworld battles lack any strategic depth.

An attempt to resurrect the old classic succeeds in capturing its atmosphere. The game is ruined unfortunately by its poor strategic part and (sometimes) an embarrassing humor. [Issue#253]

Developers from Realmforge added several own ideas, innovations and improvements to the functional core of Dungeon Keeper. Unfortunately, they also made a lot of errors during this process.

It's not quite a keeper, but it's an improvement over the original.

Unfortunately, what’s new is simply the blending of two old parts that don’t work well enough in conjunction.

It’s a shame Dungeons 2’s above-ground RTS battles are so primitive and poor, because the underground dungeon-management stuff actually works fairly well.