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I bought Dungeon Keeper 2 a few years on budget out of curiosity and at the time it struck me as being quite a fun game. I completed it, then decided to sell it, as it didn't grab me *that* much. About a year later I thought back to it and realised how much I would like to play it again, so I bought it again and worked my way through the campaign.
Dungeon Keeper is a real time strategy game with an obvious difference. You play on the side of evil and try to crush the sickeningly pure and good inhabitants of the Sunlit Kingdom. But there is more to the game than simply a change of side. In most Real Time strategy games you have control over your minions and little control over the terrain. In Dungeon Keeoer 2 the opposite is true. You can dig out your subterranean kingdom any way you see fit. You can build a few large rooms with few corridors, or you can build mazes of corridors and many small rooms; whatever strikes you as being a good strategy. However you have little control over your inhabitants. If you build a room it will attract a certain type of creature. Workshops attract Trolls, Libraries attract sorcerors, Combat Pits attract Dark Knights etc. But you can't order anyone to actually do anything. Of course they like to keep busy, so Trolls will toil ion the Workshop and Sorcerors will research Spells in the library but the only way to force someone to do anything is to physically lock them in a room.Strategically Dungeon Keeper is potentially rich. Gold is mined as a resource and is in only limited supply. Your creatures demand payment and higher level creatures demand a higher wage. If you run out of money your hard trained creatures will leave your dungeon in anger, so there is certainly pressure in completing a mission before your gold reserves run out. A dungeon with many corridors may make it harder for invaders to wind their way to your vulnerable dungeon heart and make good areas for boulder traps, but may result in your creatures having to walk too far to get to lair, hatchery or treasury. Obviously the converse is true. Many large rooms make areas accessible to your creatures but leave you wide open to enemy encroachments. No strategy is really the "right" one most of the time, and missions should not be thought of as a puzzle with only one solution.
Aesthethically Dungeon Keeper 2 is great. The graphics are good at conveying stone passages and gold seams, and you may feel feel a hint of gold fever as you zoom in to your treasury laden with chests overflowing with gold coins. The presentation is all quite tongue in cheek though so expect smiles rather than chills when you survey your realm. The voice acting is uniformly good and often amusing; the Troll with make a goofy annoyed sound when picked up and hearing the Goodly Folk describe you as a "foul fiend" is amusing. The music is excellent too. Although synth infused it contains a menacing ambience to convey your dungeon and Gregorian chant style music to denote the Heroes.
However there are some faults to the game. As I said Dungeon Keeper 2 is *potentially* strategically rich. Some missions simply need you to crush a rival Keeper and that isn't actually all that difficult. Simply build a dungeon, train them up using Training Rooms and Combat Pits and when your army is large enough and well trained enough just plant a call to arms flag on the dungeon heart and they'll destroy it. For me the game is at it's best when your dungeon is on the defensive as this is where your arsenal of traps comes into use. There is much strategy in placement of traps. Some can be used in harmony with others for greater effect. A freeze trap by itself for instance isn't much use but in conjunction with a lightning trap it can be brutal. Establishing killing zones laced with traps is an under utilised aspect of the game. Which is a shame as it's the most satisfying. Too often you're expected to be the attacker and this is where the game tends to play too much like a standard real time strategy game.
The spell list is curiously unsatisfying and limited too and some spells you might use only a couple of times in the game.
Of the game modes the Campaign is probably the best, as there are a wide variety of mission styles to complete. There is a Skirmish mode but the AI is too passive and most maps just require you to build up an army and unleash it. There are a few exceptions, but they are too few and far between.
However it's worth pointing out that it's rated Mature for a reason, mainly for the Mistress character. Her cries of ecstasy as she is being tortured on her own equipment certainly might meet with the disapproval of some family members if they hear it. Perhaps a pair of headphones would be recommended when playing this.
Overall a highly enjoyable and unusual strategy game that unfortunately could have improved upon. Still highly recommended.
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