Funny, atmospheric and stunningly original (Dungeon Keeper (PC))

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Dungeon Keeper (PC)
Date:	02/10/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great humour, great presentation, original concept

Disadvantages: Gameplay can become a little repetitive

Dungeon Keeper starts off with a great FMV intro in which a noble-looking knight charges headlong past rows of skeletons into a forebidding looking dungeon to do battle with the horrors that lie waiting within- it reminds very strongly of the intro to the classic 80s kids' gameshow Knightmare, only with lots more blood and an excellent heavy metal soundtrack.

The game itself is an interesting take on the real-time strategy genre, casting you as the guardian of a dungeon filled with various grotesque monsters, your task being to mine seams of gold to fill your treasury with riches both to entice goody-goody heroes into your realm and also to allow you to build new rooms, traps and doors as you expand and strengthen your dungeon.

You must build lairs to give new creatures room to live, prisons and torture chambers to hold captured heroes and hopefully convert them to your cause, workshops to build new structures and libraries to research new spells and technology. Your minions are a colourful and varied lot, including warlocks, trolls, giant spiders, sword-wielding skeletons and bile demons, huge obese legless creatures who drag themselves along with their arms and attack with flails attached to the long horns on their heads.

The game is primarily seen from an overhead 3d-isometric (and fully rotatable) perspective, although the creatures themselves are just 2d sprites. The graphics look very dated now but they still retain a sense of atmosphere and uniqueness that makes them very appealing despite their age.

Whilst you can set rally points for your creatures you cant actually control them directly, or rather you can, but only one at a time, via your Possession spell, which allows you to see your dungeon from your creature's eyes as you roam about its dank walls in first person. Ultimately the gameplay is slightly flawed and can become repetitive, but such is the originality and attention to detail on offer that the game still retains plenty of longevity.

The ambient score is very creepy and rather excellent, as are the various announcements performed by one Richard Ridgely, who comments on the goings on in your Dungeon in a low and menacing voice positively dripping with dark mischief and British humour. Dungeon Keeper's sequel is bigger and better in almost every respect, but the original game still retains plenty of charm and remains well worth a look.

Summary: A flawed classic, but a classic nonetheless