“I like being bad. It makes me happy.” ~Venom Fresh ideas. No matter how you look at it, those are, like, the most valuable thing. Sure, you can do with copy/pasted content for some time, but at some point you'll need to come up with something new. When it's about present times, those Activision and Ubisoft titles are a perfect example. Again and again we're getting ourselves the same game. The. Same. Exact . Game. Doesn't even matter how good such a game is. After playing two or three clones? You're done. You know how it is. Been there, done that. And it's not like it's a new thing or something. Was always like that. Westwood made Command & Conquer ? Everybody's making their own C&C . BLIZZARD created Diablo ? Everybody's making their own Diablo . Why am I telling you that? Well, because people behind this game here were nothing like that. After they've reached a certain point, their every new game started to be unique and groundbreaking. Cyberpunk corpo wars ( Syndicate )? Open world (ish) battles between wizards on flying carpets ( Magic Carpet )? A game about alien race forcing us, lower beings, to restore world after a global disaster ( Genewars )? Guys sure knew how to think outside the box. Nowadays, co-founder of BULLFROG Productions , Peter Molyneux , is considered to be a joke. Back in his BULLFROG time? He was a legend. And this here is a nice example of that. Where should I start. First of all, Dungeon Keeper is a game about bad guys. Which is a pretty common thing nowadays, but back in 1997? That alone was quite innovative. Not only we were evil, the game wanted us to take pride in that. Killing valiant protectors of some peaceful lands (the main villain here is actually Avatar from Lord British ' Ultima series, which I always thought is hilarious) was one thing. Domestic violence? That was something else. You know how sometimes, while playing the RTS games (and this here is an RTS game) you want to start punching your workers for doing their job too slow? Well. You can do exactly that in Dungeon Keeper . Want your guys to work faster? Beat the crap out of them. And it's so juicy, so satisfying that... OK, OK, I'll say it. It's good to be bad! But of course, the motif is not the only interesting thing about this game. The most important thing about Dungeon Keeper is that, like some other BULLFROG titles before it, it established its own unique gameplay rules and mechanics. Long story short, you're in a dungeon. In the middle of it is your “heart” – a shining white orb. You lose it – you're dead. And since you're, well, evil, everybody wants you dead – not only the good guys from surface, but also the other evil dungeon lords (and your friends online, because yes, multiplayer used to be a thing). In other words, keep. Your. Heart. Safe. How? Well. You can't fight by yourself. Aside from your “heart” you have no physical representation in a game. But you can hire help. Which is another interesting thing. Nobody will fight for you just because. But if you'll offer some gold? That's the whole other story. You thought of Majesty – you're absolutely correct. Yet it was three years before it and unlike Majesty not paying your guys in time can be fatal in Dungeon Keeper . You know how it is. One evil dude didn't pay other evil dudes in time and all of the sudden those who didn't get paid march to attack Kremlin. I mean, your dungeon heart. How to get gold? Well, excavate dungeon. Which is the game's signature feature. Spawn some imps, punch 'em to speed things up, and then make 'em dig. Gold veins are marked on your map, but (and that's one of the very best things here) there's more than just gold hidden in the dungeon. You never know what you may find. You may find some useful rooms, you may find some new servants, you may unlock secret levels... Even though what we have here is an RTS game, it feels a lot like something about exploration. And the atmosphere? It's absolutely fantastic. For example, sound (comes with some really satisfying ambient too) plays a very big role. While flying over the unexplored parts covered by darkness (our usual “fog of war” thing), you'll still hear what's going on down there. Which (aside from adding to the mood) will give you strong hints about where to dig. And it's a very important thing because blindly digging everywhere is not really a good idea. See, excavating your new dungeon is one thing. Fortifying it? Is another. Freshly excavated walls are an easy target to your enemies. You can easily excavate it? Your enemies can do the same. Therefore, you don't want your guests to have easy time invading you – make sure to invest some time into fortifying your walls. You have been warned. Talking 'bout walls. Planning. Like in Theme Park / Hospital , planning is a very important thing in this game. What makes it even more interesting is that even among your own dudes... things won't be perfectly smooth all the time. Some servants, for example... Just eat the others. And naturally, placing 'em in the same living space is not really a good idea. The won't be as many details about the rooms as in Theme Hospital , but still, you either think about what you're doing or pay the price. Warlocks don't like the noise from the nearby workshop, spiders eat flies, some trolls are hungry... Everybody's complaining. And your goal is to somehow prepare all that mess for the invasion. That's Dungeon Keeper . And there was nothing like it. Once again, BULLFROG delivered beautiful and unique game with one-of-a-kind gameplay. Now. A couple of words about this exact version. They finally brought Dungeon Keeper to Steam and I must say, I'm disappointed. Just because it's the same thing we had in ORIGIN . And, unlike Red Alert 2 , which appeared in Steam half-broken (due to broken cutscene files), it is not a good thing. See, Dungeon Keeper was one of those games that had both DOS and Windows versions on disc. Moreover, so-called Gold version introduced so-called Direct3D version with 3dfx support. Sounds cool? Well, neither of that is presented here. Which means that the “gold” thing in a title is a lie. What we've actually got is the DOS version running through the most basic version of DOSBox out there. We're still free to switch to SVGA visuals (all we need is to press Ctrl+R during gameplay), Deeper Dungeon expansion that added 30 new levels (15 for single player and 15 for multiplayer) is, of course, presented, but that's pretty much it. Which, like I already said, is disappointing. I don't want to say that this version is unplayable or something. Dungeon Keeper is a great game and I sure had fun re-playing it, but come on. Years later, they've finally brought this beautiful gem to Steam and they didn't bother one bit to improve over that lazy-ass ORIGIN / GOG release, which just took the lamest version available and added DOSBox , just because it was the easiest thing to do. Still, you didn't play this game? Do yourself a favor and check it out. With it being a pretty old game, it may take some time to get used to controls (everything you may need is here – from speed settings to zoom and camera rotation, but still, it's an old game), but it's totally worth it. Also, there's a great third-party app called KeeperFX , which not only lets you experience the game in modernized environment (you'll need the original game files to use it and this version will do just fine), but also adds tons of new maps and campaigns. For free. Because apparently some people care more than EA , who makes actual money from selling this product. Dixi.
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