• Publisher: Kalypso
  • Release Date: Feb 15, 2011
Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 93 Ratings

  • Summary: Dungeons follows the mis-adventures of the foremost of all Dungeon Lords, who spends his time luring heroes into his labyrinthine creations with the promise of treasure and a good fight - only to be trapped by his ingenious devices. Once they are in his grasp, our Dungeon Lord must look after and cherish his new found prisoners until they are more comfortable with their surroundings because come the "harvest", happy heroes have more precious soul energy for you to gleefully extract via foul prisons or twisted torture chambers! Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 35
  2. Negative: 3 out of 35
  1. Mar 21, 2011
    90
    Dungeons is one of the new kings of the genre, and it's incredibly difficult to put down.
  2. 85
    Dungeons is not what we were expecting, and that's completely fine with us. With clever and enjoyable gameplay that turns the tower defense genre on its head, this one is a real keeper.
  3. Feb 21, 2011
    71
    It has its flaws, but if you have a hankering for some classic evil dungeon master gameplay with a nifty new twist, Dungoens will satiate your hunger.
  4. Mar 23, 2011
    42
    In the end, if you are looking for a modern day Dungeon Keeper, this isn't it, whether or not Realmforge tried to design that game or not is immaterial.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 42
  2. Negative: 20 out of 42
  1. 10
    Dungeons was alot of fun to play, its a game of its own, a mix of Tower Defense/Tycoon/Action RPG all in one, if you like those types of games, then you should try Dungeons, if you want Dungeon Keeper 3, then you should pass, its not fair to judge this game to Dugeon Keeper 3 like most people are doing, anyway great game, i had fun with it Expand
  2. Dungeons is one of those games nobody expects to be any good but ends up being surprisingly good. Unfortunately, with it looking a lot like Dungeon Keeper, a lot of people are buying it thinking it is a clone of dungeon keeper and have been disappointed. Hence some of the low review scores. Fact is Dungeons is its own unique game which does pay homage to the older DK series but is a vastly different experience. It that will probably appeal more to Dungeon Designers and Theme/Tycoon game fans more than RTSG fans. The biggest shock for most is that in Dungeons you want the heroes to come in to your Dungeons and lay out a welcome mat for them. Then leading them around your dungeon until they get nice and fat on soul energy that rises when they have fun before you finally move in and kill them to harvest that soul energy and recover their gold. So you see, it has a unique feel about it. Expand
  3. CEO
    5
    As others have said. Don't expect Dungeon Keeper 3 here. A shame, considering much of the marketing for the game seemed to go out of its way to make the DK comparison ... which is quite misleading. Dungeons plays like a Tower defense and RPG mix, but doesn't do either very well. Your "towers" are split into three main types: creature spawners, gold piles and prestige decorations. Prestige decorations help pull heroes (bad guys) through your dungeon in your intended route, gold piles satisfy heroes need for gold and creature spawners satisfy a heroes need for combat ... while not doing a very good job of actually killing heroes. This is where the problems start to occur. In order to kill heroes after their needs have been fulfilled (the game mechanics reward letting heroes explore until their need bar is full, allowing you to harvest more soul energy from them) your dungeon master must personally seek out and slay the hero before he leaves your dungeon. The level of micromanagement required to keep a steady supply of resources, expand your dungeon as necessary and personally chase down satisfied heroes quickly becomes tedious and overly difficult. The are some interesting ideas here. The interplay between the resource types (gold from expanding your dungeon by mining and killing heroes, soul power by torturing satisfied heroes and prestige point by placing decorative items throughout your dungeon) makes for a intriguing balancing act, but is quite often ruined by side quests the drain your resources for no reason or scenario mechanics that cause a steady loss of resources. The developers seem to have misunderstood what makes for a fun management game. You are too often forced to forgo developing the dungeon *you* would want in order to make the dungeon that is quickest to build. A pace controlled more by user decisions and less by predetermined timers would have been a step in the right direction. The game tries too hard to be challenging (mostly challenging your ability to micromanage) while forgetting to let the player have fun and appreciate what he has built. Hopefully a good modding community will get their hands on this. Expand
  4. 3
    Too bad UI, extremely unfriendly tutorials, meaningless monsters, stupid heroes... Even if you consider this game and Dungeon Keeper series separately, still, there is no point to evaluate. What a disappointment! If you expect Dungeon Keeper 3, just leave and forget about this game. Expand

See all 42 User Reviews