Quite possibly the finest game ever released. Endlessly addictive, completely original, and full of charming and fascinating detail and depth.Quite possibly the finest game ever released. Endlessly addictive, completely original, and full of charming and fascinating detail and depth. You lead a home-grown brigade of horrors, from demons and trolls to giant spiders and vampires, in a campaign of brutality against the would-be do-gooders of the world. Beginning each level with a bare chamber, you, as an omnipresent demi-god, must command a hellish workforce to construct a dungeon fit for your monstrous minions. They must train, sleep, be paid, eat, and worship, but most importantly, they must kill! The world of Dungeon Keeper is tongue-in-cheek and cartoony, but nonetheless engrossing, convincing and certainly not cuddly. You are given minimal information about the world - you're evil, you have a dungeon, you want to take over the world, and heroes will try to stop you. That's all you need to know, for it's the minutiae that fascinate. For example, enlist the services of a Warlock, and he'll willingly devote time to researching new spells and the like in your Library. He's your best researcher, but hates being disturbed - he'll shoot fireballs at any intruders upon his bookish habits! Worse, he can't stand the sight of Vampires, and the feeling's mutual - if they share a 'lair' (a rather dank-looking room wherein creatures make their homes) it won't be long before they're at each other's throats in a duel to the death. Details such as this can inform your dungeon layout - make sure there's room for Vampires and Warlocks to have separate lairs, and keep your library tucked away somewhere not too busy - certainly avoid having it along the route to your treasure room, which creatures visit to collect payment for their services. Each creature and each aspect of the game is rendered with a similar level of attention to detail and care - there's far too much for a review to cover. I feel a special mention must be given to the sound effects for the creatures and heroes - a staggering variety, ranging from battle cries and chants to disgruntled grunts (when they're imprisoned, for example) and screams of anguish (which can often be heard resonating from a torture chamber, should you build one, or better, several!).
The overall effect is that even though it's almost 15 years old now, Dungeon Keeper is still engaging enough to hold it's own against newer, flashier titles. The 2D sprites perfectly encapsulate the spirit of each creature, and there's even the option to 'possess' any given goon and roam around a (rather blocky, it must be said) 3D realm, casting spells, levelling up and doing battle like a mini-RPG. The nature of the game lends itself to the more patient gamer - whilst battles can be frantic and intense, there are often long periods of 'training' creatures, micro-managing your economy, building new additions to your dungeon, manufacturing and laying traps, and so on. None of which is a bad thing by any means - it serves to make the whole experience more immersive, and often the key is to strike a balance between defence and research, and aggressive expansion.
Sadly, the series was tarnished somwhat by the release of Dungeon Keeper 2, which lost much of the charm and well-craftedness that makes this first outing so enjoyable. It's also notoriously difficult to get this game to work on modern machines, as it was released in 1997, but if you get the opportunity to play it, you're in for quite the treat (or should that be 'trick'?!)… Expand
