There were two proper entries in the series, although a poorly received mobile version did release the other year. The franchise has been dormant in the form most want to see it in since 1999 and it never made it off of personal computers. Thus it has been up to other developers to try and scratch that itch for Dungeon Keeper fans on home consoles.
Cue the latest itch scratcher, available on PlayStation 4, Dungeons 2. Surprisingly it’s a sequel to the game Dungeons, which came out on PC back in 2011. Dungeons was an intriguing game with an emphasis on making dungeons that were challenging for the heroes that tried to conquer them. Once the heroes were satisfied that was the time to strike and harvest their soul to make yourself stronger.
It was an interesting take on the dungeon management genre and the inclusion of an on screen avatar also felt unique. When Dungeons 2 begins it allows you to control an on screen avatar but the emphasis quickly changes. Instead you are selecting minions and telling them where to go. It feels much more like Dungeons Keeper than the first game, which some will love. It’s just a shame that the more unique aspects of the original have been removed.
Most levels start the same, with you needing to get your dungeon in order and then venture out to find X or kill Y. Exploring the dungeon and building things are the strongest aspects of the game. Many of the walls contain gold, which is vital to growing your dungeon, and some may lead to secret rooms. These can vary from areas that contain high level allies that will aid you or enemies of various strengths that will try and kill off your minions.
It’s in combat that the game starts to show its issues, at least on consoles. Controls are clunky, text is small and some special attacks aren’t as simple to pull off as I imagine they would be using a keyboard and mouse. Some minions have specific moves but trying to select them in a big horde, which is what you’ll need a lot of the time, can be fiddly. By the time you get to them it will often be too late.
The other issue with hordes is there’s no way of telling them how to approach an enemy. Sometimes you’ll have your healers or long ranged specialists charging in to a fight first, then quickly dying, meaning by the time your tanks get there it’s too late and you’ll then have to spend 10 minutes resurrecting everyone and preparing the attack again. It quickly becomes frustrating and, upon it becoming frustrating, the repetitiveness begins to grate.
There is some variety in the gameplay, with a few levels relieving the need to maintain a dungeon. Even with the variety though the core of what you’re doing feels the same. With the clunkiness of controls being coupled with screen tearing and frame rate issues it is unlikely to be a good introduction to the dungeon management genre for newcomers. As with most dungeon management games levels in Dungeons 2 can last upwards to an hour, although they do have an ace up their sleeve to try and relieve the mundaneness.
The use of a fourth wall breaking narrator, voiced by Kevan Brighting of The Stanley Parable fame, breaks up the monotony and helps to point you in the right direction whilst lampooning the fantasy genre. You can change how chatty he is too, which means those that prefer not to be told what to do will be annoyed less. It seems some levels he has less to say than others but, for the most part, he is the main thing that adds to the story. The cutscenes are basic and without his humour would be far too dry.
Dungeons 2 is a game with some nice ideas, some of them borrowed and some of them original, but for the most part it can’t quite put them together cohesively. There are issues with the PlayStation 4 version that are likely not in the PC versions, especially problems with the controls. There aren’t many RTS games to play on the PlayStation 4 and if you really want to play one that is also a dungeon manager then Dungeons 2 is a great choice. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does enough to keep things ticking over.