Dungeons (Remake of Dungeon Keeper)

[Vaiti]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/57650/

So I saw this today on Steams "Coming Soon" list. I got the feelig just from the title it might be a Dungeon Keeper remake, but wasn't optimistic that is what it was, seeing as I've never actually seen a remake in all these years. However from watching the trailer, it would appear to be just that, an updated Dungeon Keeper.

You take on the role of the Dungeon Lord, you make a Dungeon, and you control minons to fight off adventurers.

The one thing that had me cautious about this game actually being anywhere near like the games it's remaking was the publisher being Kalypso Media, because at first I couldn't quite place where I knew the name from, and I thought it might have been one of those studios that tends to churn out pure drool. Well after a quick search, these are the same guys who made such awesome titles as Sins of a Solar Empire, Tropico 3, GalCiv 2, and other goodness.

edit: derp derp, I left off the er on keeper for some reason

Comes out in February and I'm pretty excited. This is the kind of game I absolutely love.

[Lucas]

http://www.dungeons-game.com/ (very informative website!  )

still waiting my beta invite for it *taps foot*

[Sky]

Looks cool.


However, what are you on about the publisher? Developer, son, developer: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Realmforge%20Studios

[Vaiti]

I dunno, I tend to look at a publisher myself first, then who is developing, but I'm backwards.

The developer hasn't put out anything spectacular, but what they have put out hasn't been bad either, just not my kinds of games. The 3d work was ok, but kind of art studentish on their earlier titles. But good art students 
I tend to focus more on who a publisher is just because I know the process involved in getting your game published by certain publishers seeing as I work for a developer and know what loops we have to jump through to get our titles published.
The titles Kalypso have put out aren't the biggest budget titles in the world, but that are good for what they are, if not above average.

[Trippy]

KeepER

[Sky]

I dunno, I tend to look at a publisher myself first, then who is developing, but I'm backwards.

So because someone apparently got a publishing deal for Stardock titles, this thus-far lackluster dev house will be able to deliver a Sins/GalCiv2 quality title. On a beloved franchise of one of the better dev houses in the history of pc gaming (Bullfrog, not EA).

Right.

[Vaiti]

That is my hope. And they have been lackluster more in game ideas than I'd say ability, so I'm hoping having a pretty much fleshed out hard to fuck up formula to work with ends up with a game that is pretty much an update of one of the games I loved growing up. I really haven't seen anyone else make a run at this so seeing it done at all makes me happy. Seeing it done by people I'm not 100% convinced are total morons just yet makes me happy. This is a title I'd like to remain nice and optimistic about.

Trailer looks like they have pretty much got the idea and concept down. The graphics are improved over their previous titles. I'm making excuses, or finding them, but well, for this, I want to.

[Sky]

They have a better shot than Stardock these days (Kael's team excepted, I guess).

Or Firaxis  

Or Molyneux 

[Ghambit]

Isnt there an MMO version of this ilk coming out soon?  Might have been a browsergame.
There's a thread on f13 somewhere about it.

[Ingmar]

The original Dungeon Keeper is probably still in my list of Top 5 Most Disappointing Games, the premise was so promising and the execution just didn't live up to what I wanted from it at all.

[Ratman_tf]

The original Dungeon Keeper is probably still in my list of Top 5 Most Disappointing Games, the premise was so promising and the execution just didn't live up to what I wanted from it at all.

I loved the original. Played the living shit out of it. I hope this one is just as good.

[Sheepherder]

Dungeon Keeper failed on a number of fronts.  The most prominent being that it would have made a really fucking awesome Dwarf Fortress style game if Molyneux had sank any time into sandbox play.

[Pezzle]

I still play Dungeon Keeper 2

Not getting excited about this one though.  Less anger that way.

[Sky]

It was only disappointing in the usual Molyneux hype kind of way. Though I do concede Sheep's point.

This remake looks pretty primitive.

[AutomaticZen]

Maybe Tecmo can do a new Deception game as well!

I'll keep my hopes low and play Ghost Master and Evil Genius on Steam.

It doesn't look like it's worth $39.99 though.

[Mrbloodworth]

I loved Deception series and Dungeon keeper.

[Rendakor]

I've never heard of Dungeon Keeper, but man did I love some Deception back on the PS1.

[Sheepherder]

You missed one of the most awesome opening cinematics ever made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyS17KRo_aA

[Lucas]

Brief preview on Strategy Informer:

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/dungeons/445/preview.html

Looks like the release date is February 4th, 2011.

[Lucas]

Now available on Steam (Steam Special Edition) 44.99 Euro

[nurtsi]

The game is no DK for sure.

I hate the prestige crap you have decorate the dungeon with. It makes the gameplay slow when you just have to wait for new heroes to come so you can milk them for soul energy to build prestige to build new stuff. Also expanding the area you control with pentagrams is bollocks. The DK mechanism of imps claiming territory was better.

Back to DK II and Evil Genius

[Vaiti]

That makes me so sad to hear. The price tag had me worried as it was, 45€ seemed abit much. Betting it gets price slashed quick, at which point I'll likely snatch it up regardless. Need to find some gameplay videos to throw into this thread first.

[Ghambit]

Here's to holding out hope the pbbg version is a bit better, when it's done.

[Pezzle]

Avoid this game.

Here is an overview of my brief play.

Starts out with some cutscene.  Your assistant has an annoying voice, not awesome like DK.  You also have a character that represents your royal evilness.  For some reason you start out badass but you must 'flee'.  In order to gain the strength to flee you are forced to place decorations around your dungeon as some form of tutorial.  Mind you, just walking up and attacking invaders flat out kicks their asses.  Whatever, you get to the stairs, get demoted and start a regular level. 

So, the normal level.  You have to harvest soul energy from invaders by letting them pick up gold then killing them.  You claim land by dropping monster generators near them.  You do not build rooms and it is very difficult to tell where you can place your lairs.  Oh, and your troops just stand there.  I could not figure out how to get them to patrol or do anything remotely useful.  So I spent my time running back and forth between the dungeon gate and some stairs where hostile monsters came in every so often.  Eventually I gained access to skeletons but at that point I quit in disgust trying to juggle my monster generators into positions they might be useful. 

Maybe buy it for 5 or 10 bucks.  It may become a fantastic game later or in skirmishes?  Perhaps someone with greater willpower can get further.  Back to DK2 for me.

[K9]

That's a shame; it sounds like they saw the outline of what DK was, but completely failed to see what made it great.

I miss Bullfrog, they were one of those rare beautiful collaborations of minds that turned out a series of fantastic games with few duff offerings.

[Furiously]

Ahh Syndicate... How I still love thee.

[K9]

Syndicate is an IP I would be thrilled to see redone well.

[Ironwood]

I'm not so sure.  I loved all the Bullfrog games, but I suspect a lot of what we Feel right now is something that just wouldn't be easily recaptured.  We've seen way too many remakes these days be really quite shit...

Ah, if I owned my own software house, the games I'd bring back from the dead...

[K9]

You are almost certainly right, which is a shame. Syndicate (Wars) and Dungeon Keeper were both pretty awesome sandbox games in their own way,

Although I'd say that Magicka (all bugs and such aside) is a recent game which follows in the light hearted and slightly offbeat humor that characterised so many bullfrog games. So there is potential out there, it's just going to struggle to get noticed.

[Krakrok]

One of the developers of Syndicate has a couple flash game series' (Shadez and Boxhead) that capture a bit of the feel of Syndicate.

http://www.games.seantcooper.com/

[Ratman_tf]

Here is an overview of my brief play.

Starts out with some cutscene.  Your assistant has an annoying voice, not awesome like DK.  You also have a character that represents your royal evilness.  For some reason you start out badass but you must 'flee'.  In order to gain the strength to flee you are forced to place decorations around your dungeon as some form of tutorial.  Mind you, just walking up and attacking invaders flat out kicks their asses.  Whatever, you get to the stairs, get demoted and start a regular level. 

So, the normal level.  You have to harvest soul energy from invaders by letting them pick up gold then killing them.  You claim land by dropping monster generators near them.  You do not build rooms and it is very difficult to tell where you can place your lairs.  Oh, and your troops just stand there.  I could not figure out how to get them to patrol or do anything remotely useful.  So I spent my time running back and forth between the dungeon gate and some stairs where hostile monsters came in every so often.  Eventually I gained access to skeletons but at that point I quit in disgust trying to juggle my monster generators into positions they might be useful. 

Maybe buy it for 5 or 10 bucks.  It may become a fantastic game later or in skirmishes?  Perhaps someone with greater willpower can get further.  Back to DK2 for me.

Yup. Pretty disappointing. Even taken as a not-Dungeonkeeper game, it's not that great.

[Trouble]

The first computer game ever that really captured me was ThemePark. My friend had it. I remember there was some....issues because I would go over to his house just because I want to play it. I had no fucking idea how I could even get it for myself. 1993-1994 I think. Then a few years later ThemeHospital.

Bullfrog will never die in my heart and no one has ever made games as good as them in the arenas they did stuff in. This isn't nostalgia, it's just a fact. I don't WHY it's like that, obviously not a tech issue.

[K9]

I can still hear the announcements from Theme Hospital in my head if I think about it. I loved the shit out of that game.

[Der Helm]

I can still hear the announcements from Theme Hospital in my head if I think about it. I loved the shit out of that game.

"The patients are requested not to die in the building" ..."Doctor required in Slack Tongue Clinic" ... "Nurse required in ward"

 

[NiX]

"The patients are requested not to die in the building" ..."Doctor required in Slack Tongue Clinic" ... "Nurse required in ward"

 

I've been playing it recently and it's just as fun.