A set of imps are busy tunnelling through a section of nearby rock. Meanwhile, countless other beasts are wandering around, going about their business. As a fly, he's got nasty little teeth he chomps at a passing chicken to prove how well they work. The screen splits into a honeycomb viewpoint - flies have comPound- eyes, after all. Nick possesses a firefly and starts to buzz around. They storm away in the direction of the hero, thirsty for battle.įirst-person mode next. The imp runs into another room and raises a crowd of tougher beasts. As the fight progresses, a crowd of onlookers begins to gather - other creatures, hearing the commotion, have come to have a look.Īn enemy - a hero - wanders into the dungeon and is spotted by an imp, which becomes visibly startled. He drops a pair of monsters into a combat pit and they stan leathering one another. Nick loads up a thriving dungeon and starts to demonstrate some of the other new features. You feel you could reach into the screen, poke it, and get an eyeful of goo spurted back at you in return. Even the dungeon heart, the source of all your power, looks like a 'proper' organ. Everything looks crisper, dearer, and faintly more disgusting. It isn't just that they now sit more comfortably with their 3D surroundings, they also benefit k from lighting effects, they cast shadows, and they display far smoother animation than before. The main difference, the first thing that hits you, is how much better the creatures look now that they've been upgraded from pre-rendered sprites to polygonal models. I've been gawking so hard because Dungeon Keeper 2 looks fantastic. TVventy minutes later, I realise I've been gawking so hard at the images on the screen I've forgotten all about my coffee, which is now stone cold.
Then Goldsworthy fires up the game itself. I'm being shown an impressive FMV sequence created for the game by a French computer animation company previously responsible for some of the eye-popping 'sky traffic' scenes in The Fifth Element (the movie, not the game, dum-dum). Except instead of a map of the world, the screen is filled with the imposing form of Dungeon Keeper's horned reaper - or Horny, as they persist in calling him. My eyes are burning from lack of sleep.ĭungeon Keeper 2 producer Nick Goldsworthy prods a touch-screen panel, the lights in the room start to dim and the screen comes alive. An impressively huge (and flat) LCD screen occupies most of the wall in front of me. Within moments of arriving at Bullfrog's shiny HQ, I'm led to a small, neat conference room and supplied with a mug of instant coffee (a vending machine approximation of cappuccino courtesy of Maxwell House). My job is to find out whether the sequel's going to be any good or not. Complex because it was an ambitious, sprawling, multi-layered, multi-genre title with unusually elegant gameplay, and controversial because while some people loved it (myself included), others derided it as a repetitive, plodding game with an outdated graphics engine. I'm here to see Dungeon Keeper 2, the follow up to - duhhh - Dungeon Keeper 1, one of the most complex and controversial strategy games of all time. It is very interesting stuff and the game is the perfect blend of being challenging, but not so much that you will get sick of it and want to turn it off. That is right your minions need to have a casino so that they can blow off a little steam. This means you need to have an area where they can train, beds for them to sleep and places for them to relax… like a casino. They will fight to the death for you, but you need to help out.
The thing is, your units need to be looked after. These are your “units” and there is a great selection of them. You also need to “hire” minions to come and fight the bad fight for you. Mana is your life source so you need to keep that protected. There are many things that Dungeon Keeper 2 requires you to do. Keeping The Good Guys Out!Įach level of the game requires that you set up your dungeon and fight off the heroes. My only gripe with the presentation is that all of the dungeons kind of look the same. It is very well done and the characters show even more personality when you do this. This is a great deal of fun and adds a bit more action to the strategy element of the game. I know that sounds strange, but you can “possess” your minions in Dungeon Keeper 2 and when you do this you take direct control of them in a first-person point of view.
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