Dungeons 3

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[h1]Third Dungeon's the charm![/h1] The Absolute Evil is back to conquer new lands. Realizing he needs a field commander to lead the evil armies, the writes-excessively-long-prologues-Evil corrupts exactly the right target for the job – a dark elf sorceress named Thalya. The stage is set for an epic tale of the bad guys winning, heroes getting crushed by the thousands, overdone pop culture references and the fourth wall being destroyed beyond any repairs. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] Similarly to [i]Dungeons 2[/i], the basic gameplay is a fusion of dungeon building and real time strategy. Unlike [i]Dungeons 2[/i], you get to command all three Evil factions, the Horde, the Demons and the Undead at the same time. This of course means that you need to consider and take care of all the separate needs of the different factions to keep the dungeon running smoothly. In addition, each of the three Evil factions plays a specific role in the dungeon: [b]The Horde:[/b] Orcs and Goblins are the only ones who can operate the Tinkerer's Machinarium to build traps and doors. [b]The Demons:[/b] The Demons are the only ones who can produce mana at the Arcanium. Furthermore, mana is required both for spells and some of the needs of the Demons. [b]The Undead:[/b] The Undead can revive dead Horde units or evil heroes in the Crypt and produce magic toolboxes required to build more powerful variants of regular doors and traps. On one hand, this provides a fair amount of possible strategies and combinations. On the other hand though, the population cap means you'll most likely have to either focus on a single faction or a combination of two. And since the combat units or Creatures are required to operate the work units, there's a chance you may need some units of one faction not to fight, but to produce a certain resource, even if having them around doesn't suit the combat playstyle you're going for at the time. There are two exceptions to the common Creatures. Titan units unique to each faction and hero units that have been turned evil. The evil heroes have a cap of their own and don't count towards the common unit cap. However, heroes can only be converted to evil by using the Torture Chamber and there's a chance they just die, meaning getting the exact group of evil heroes to your liking will likely take some time. As before, once the Creatures are sent to the Overworld, the game plays more like a RTS. One of the new features are the Islands of Evilness. Locations of interest that change in appearance depending on whether the forces of Good or Evil are holding the position at the time. Evilness is a new resource required for researching new rooms, units and upgrades. The catch being that the heroes may try to reclaim the Islands of Evilness you've conquered. Much as the game is about building dungeons, it is not recommended to explore the Underground too deep too soon. For the Underground features enemies in the form of monsters like dragons and giant spiders. Provoke them too soon, and you'll find yourself under attack from multiple directions. Although, the locations of the most dangerous monster nests tend to be rather predictable, usually near the corners of the Underground map close to diamond veins that provide an infinite amount of gold. I wouldn't say the game is exactly hard, but on some levels you may need to play at least somewhat aggressively on the Overworld to take out some hero unit spawning buildings soon or conquer Islands of Evilness early to proceed fast enough. Failure to do so can sometimes result in finding yourself under attack by more enemies than you can handle. ( I think this detail might be even more pronounced in the sequel, [i]Dungeons 4[/i] ). Fortunately, the 20 mission main campaign is easily among the strongest points of the game. Once the basics have been learned, the missions are highly varied. On one, you will attack and destroy deliveries, on another the Overworld map alternates between day and night determining which side has a combat advantage, on another you will produce gallons of beer to motivate a lazy Ogre to fight to name a few. [h3]Humor[/h3] This is arguably the element that determines whether you'll love or hate this game. Or not. A neverending stream of pop culture references, usually but not limited to major fantasy series and franchises, Kevan Brighting returns as a stereotypical evil British narrator, and Thalya showing no respect to the fourth wall and getting into fights with said narrator on a regular basis. Many of the jokes are either cringeworthy or so terrible they are hilarious. But I believe even if you don't like all of them, there are regardless some good ones that ensure the game has never a dull moment. [h3]The Deliciously Evil (Good)[/h3] [b]+ Command all three Evil factions simultaneously + A strong campaign with a wide variety of different types of missions to keep things interesting + Lots of Heroes to meet (and kill) and lands to conquer and Evilfy + The fourth wall breaks and Thalya's war with the narrator provide no small amount of levity, largely thanks to the voice actors[/b] [h3] Nauseatingly Good (The Bad)[/h3] [b]- Some of the humor and references feels somewhat forced, and it can become an annoyance over time - Some unit types from [i]Dungeons 2[/i] didn't carry over to this game - Population cap may be a little small and rather restricting, particularly whenever you require some combat units primarily to produce a certain resource to keep the dungeon going - There is multiplayer co-op mode, but lacks a versus mode that would allow attacking the other players dungeon like in [i]Dungeons 2[/i]. (Granted, whether or not this is relevant depends on if you play multiplayer or only single player). - Later features can only be unlocked by purchasing the DLC[/b] [h2]Verdict[/h2] [h3]8,9/10[/h3] Many say [i]Dungeons 3[/i] is the closest to a spiritual successor to [i]Dungeon Keeper[/i] Kalypso Media has ever created. And I see no reason to dispute that claim. Even with some of the shortcomings the game has, it is still great dungeonbuilding fun. At the time I'm writing this, I have played through [i]Dungeons[/i] 2, 3 and 4. Out of the games, 3 just might be the one that does the formula just right. Would I be so bold as to consider [i]Dungeons 3[/i] as the gold standard of the series to use when comparing the other games? I actually might do just that.