Dungeon Keeper!

Augh, what a game, just an absolute classic! Icon the PC. Forget that this abomination exists, THISis the Dungeon Keeper you want to play. Or this one but you know, one game at a time.

Today we’re looking at the Bullfrog game released in 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows PCs, a timeless game from the days when Peter Molyneux stuff was something to be cherished and praised with no question. Yep, this is a game designed by Molyneux at his best, and just going by the box art alone you get the feeling it isn’t taking itself too seriously.

Aw, it’s a NICE toothy demon, the kind of guy that’d go out of his way to make you laugh while he’s eating your face. On a collector's note, this is the original European release that I have here. I actually like this box a little more than the American one, which has different logos and artwork, and features the tagline “Evil Is Good.”

Unfortunately mine doesn’t have the gatefold cover from that one but hey, you win some, you lose some, everyone dies in the end. Inside the box is another story though, with one of those super classy centered cardboard cutouts for the jewel case. And the game disc itself is pretty excellent on its own, but then you get to the reference card, which... haha I don’t know even how they call this a card, it’s 30 pages long! Then there’s the manual, which is a beefy 78 pages of instructional bliss.

All black and white, but all great information going into more than enough detail about every detail of the game's details in great detail. And don't forget the Deeper Dungeons Mission Disk, an expansion featuring 30 more challenging levels, graphical and AI adjustments, and was later sold together with the original game as Dungeon Keeper Gold.

Dungeon Keeper begins with an intro video showing the dungeon you’ll be keeping, along with the kind of folks you’ll be defending against. You know, classic fantasy archetypes like knights, archers, warriors, and wizards. D&D-kind of stuff all of which is just cannon fodder for the delighted demon-spawn you have fighting for you.

And yep, we’ll be taking a look at this lower-res MS-DOS version for most of the review, even though it’s not as graphically intensive as the higher-res mode or Windows 95 Direct3D version. I like chunky DOS games, so sue me. Anyway, off with his head, and then onto the main menu, where you’re given a choice to play single player or multiplayer.

Gameplay in each mode is largely the same, so we’ll be seeing single-player footage in this video. Oh, and it’s also worth mentioning here you can also play a skirmish mode against AI opponents in multiplayer using the “/1player” command line option. It’s an awesome feature that’s easy to miss if you’re not looking, so hey, the more you know.

Starting a single-player game brings you to a bright and colorful map screen, acting as a visual guide to a set of maps you’ll play through in a linear fashion. But the best part about this is the delightfully twisted narrator, who just oozes slimy detail in the best possible way...

Narrator: \\\

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enDungeon Keeper!Augh, what a game, just an absolute classicon the PC.Forget that this abomination exists, THISis the Dungeon Keeper you want to play.Or this one but you know, one game at a time.Today we’re looking at the Bullfrog gamereleased in 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows PCs,a timeless game from the days when PeterMolyneux stuff was something to be cherishedand praised with no question.Yep, this is a game designed by Molyneux athis best, and just going by the box art aloneyou get the feeling it isn’t taking itselftoo seriously.Aw it’s a NICE toothy demon, the kind ofguy that’d go out of his way to make youlaugh while he’s eating your face.On a collector’s note, this is the originalEuropean release that I have here.I actually like this box a little more thanthe American one, which has different logosand artwork, and features the tagline “EvilIs Good.”Unfortunately mine doesn’t have the gatefoldcover from that one but hey, you win some,you lose some, everyone dies in the end.Inside the box is another story though, withone of those super classy centered cardboardcutouts for the jewel case.And the game disc itself is pretty excellent onits own, but then you get to the referencecard, which... hahaI don’t know even how they call this a card,it’s 30 pages long!Then there’s the manual, which is a beefy78 pages of instructional bliss.All black and white, but all great informationgoing into more than enough detail about everydetail of the game’s details in great detail.And don't forget the Deeper Dungeons MissionDisk, an expansion featuring 30 more challenginglevels, graphical and AI adjustments, andwas later sold together with the originalgame as Dungeon Keeper Gold.Dungeon Keeper begins with an intro videoshowing the dungeon you’ll be keeping, alongwith the kind of folks you’ll be defendingagainst.You know, classic fantasy archetypes likeknights, archers, warriors, and wizards. D&D-kind of stuff allof which is just cannon fodder for the delectabledemon-spawn you have fighting for you.And yep, we’ll be taking a look at thislower-res MS-DOS version for most of the review,even though it’s not as graphically intensiveas the higher-res mode or Windows 95 Direct3D version.I like chunky DOS games, so sue me.Anyway, off with his head, and then onto themain menu, where you’re given a choice toplay single player or multiplayer.Gameplay in each mode is largely the same,so we’ll be seeing single-player footagein this video. Oh, and it’s also worth mentioninghere you can also play a skirmish mode againstAI opponents in multiplayer using the “/1player”command line option.It’s an awesome feature that’s easy tomiss if you’re not looking, so hey, themore you know. ♪ding ding ding diiinnng ♫Starting a single-player game brings you toa bright and colorful map screen, acting asa visual guide to a set of maps you’ll playthrough in a linear fashion.But the best part about this is the delightfullytwisted narrator, who just oozes slimy detail in the best possible way...Narrator: \"Set in the realm of joy, the people of Eversmile are plagued only by aching facial muscles, and not anthrax as we had hoped.\"\"Eversmile is a disgusting land of good humor and polite frivolity.\"The Deeper Dungeons pack on the other handjust gives you a list of maps to play in any order you like.But it’s meant to be played after you’vemastered the main game so I guess they figurehey, you know you want it, so why bother withforeplay.Speaking of the main event of the night, oh man.Dungeon Keeper is one of those games thatgrabs you by the nads right from the beginning,even if you have no idea what’s going onor what you’re really looking at.With each new map I love taking a moment tosit back and just do nothing for a minute, admiring thedark pixelated caverns and taking in thattortured ambient soundscape...Mmm, it’s like Populous knocked up Quake,I love it.Bullfrog were masters of building a captivatingatmosphere and aesthetic, and this was duein no small part to artist Mark Healey andsound designer Russell Shaw, the former ofwhich went onto design the Little Big Planetgames, and the latter went onto compose musicand sound for the Black & White and Fablegames.This stuff thoroughly augments Molyneux’s'90s game design in Dungeon Keeper, granting anexperience that leaves a lasting impressioneven two decades later.And while there are several real-time strategygames from '97 that still hold up, DungeonKeeper is one of those that goes a step furtherin my opinion.This is a role reversal of your typical dungeon-crawlingfantasy game, and instead of playing the hero,you play the villain. Or rather, the villain controlling the villains.There’s no crawling through a dungeon asa hero, you’re creating the dungeon forso-called heroes to crawl through, in an effortto ensure their swift demise.At the heart of your dungeon is the... heartof the dungeon, and the goal is to keep thisalive and beating at all costs.It is a 3D game that can be zoomed, rotated,and navigated pretty much how you’d expect, althoughit does feature a set of options to make itplay more like an overhead 2D RTS if that’smore your style.Regardless of how it looks, the first orderof business is to entice your minions to dothings like burrow into the landscape to expandyour dungeon, reinforce the walls and buildfloors, collect luscious loot and so on.Seams of valuable gold, gems, and other materialsrun through the ground, right alongside vats ofperilous lava, hoards of heroes and even competingdungeons, so it’s your job as dungeonkeeper to make sure your minions don’t delvetoo greedily and too deep.And unlike many other RTS games, you do thisby marking areas and influencing your minions,rather than selecting and queueing their actionsdirectly.Each minion is controlled by its own AI, which can adjusted in the options, butall that's going on here is they’ll do whatever job makesthe most sense in relation to their mood andsurroundings.You can use your god hand to pick them upand drop them somewhere else, or even slapthem because Molyneux has always been reallyinto that I guess, but whether or not they’lldo precisely what you hope for depends ona variety of factors.There’s also a somewhat useless featurethat allows you to take possession of creaturesdirectly, which is cool but there’s only so much you cando this way.Yeah you can fight in first-person but itsucks, so more often than not it’s justbetter to take a hands-off approach and letthem do their own thing.Besides, your main job is not to take directcontrol, but rather to dole out generalizedplans and provide incentives that help themachieve your goals.A lot of this comes from setting aside areasin the dungeon to become specific rooms byassigning functions to individual tiles.For example, creatures need places to rest so you’llbuild lairs, they also need food so you build hatcheries,they can level up so you build training gyms,gold and loot has to be stored in treasurerooms, if you want to research new tech youbuild libraries and workshops, and so on.As you build more rooms and improve dungeonconditions, new monsters and minions willbe attracted to the dungeon and waltz througha nearby portal to do your bidding.Giant beetles, spiders, warlocks, trolls,dragons, just a wide menagerie of beastiesand demons, they’re great.And kinda cute actually.With each new creature comes a new set ofthings to take care of; sometimes thisis as simple as requiring a certain room touse separate from other creatures, but moreoften than not it just means you need moregold.Demonic voice: \"IT IS PAYDAY.\"Yep, this is a business operation; even pureevil is a slave to the mighty dollar!Every so often your monsters will demand compensation,and when pay day comes you better have enoughgold in the treasure pile or there will behell to pay.So long as you keep everything in line, thenoh man, those pesky heroes won’t stand a chance!Each map has a different objective of course,but no matter what, at some point you’regoing to be attacked by humans.Reinforced doors and walls only last for solong against an army of LARPers, and oncethey break through and start shouting masculinecatchphrases you’d better be ready.And uh, heh, yeah when the game goes into full-onbattle mode, it’s an audiovisual onslaughtof blood, screams, farts, and explosions...*sounds of blood, screams, farts, and explosions*The main strategy here really is not in the battles themselves, since the creatures largely take care of the tactics.It's really in the preparation, and that isa big reason Dungeon Keeper stands out.If you’ve trained your creatures well enoughand get them to the heroes in time,chances are you’ll wipe the floor with them.Yeah you can do things like calling down lightningbolts and heal your guys if you have the goldand spells to do so, so it’s not 100% hands-off during battles,but each unit will still just do what theydo as individuals.Plop them down near the action and watch withglee as they bash humanity’s heroes into the ground.I like that this doesn’t rely on franticmid-battle clicking and dragging, and insteadyou can just enjoy all your meticulous planningpaying dividends in corpses and sweet loot.Either that or fail spectacularly, which is something that'sdefinitely going to be happening a lot, too.Demon voice: \"YOU HAVE BEEN DEFEATED.\"And that is the main game of Dungeon Keeper.Build a dungeon, enhance it to attract units,maintain it to keep said units, and bypassobstacles as they arise.There’s still just as much micromanagementas you would expect in an RTS, but it’s delegatedto different parts of the game world thataren’t normally addressed in other titles.Plus, it’s just so packed full of charmand dark humor that I wouldn’t be able toturn it away, regardless of gameplay.Everything from the music, to the dungeonannouncer, to the masses of noisy chickensyou’ll need to feed hell’s armies justmake me strangely happy...*sounds of noisy chicken masses*And yeah you’re burning a nice, happy kingdom toground and torturing creatures so they becomeangry ghosts and stuff like that, but whenit happens with this kind of cheeky humorand lighthearted silliness, it’s never seriousenough for me to do anything but laugh atthe absurdity of it.Quite simply, Dungeon Keeper was, and is,something truly special, and it’s all kindsof entertaining.And you can enjoy it, too, quite easily thankfully!Physical copies are really not that tough to come byand it’s pretty simple to run it in DOSBox, butif you don’t want to bother with that it’scurrently available for download on GOG.comand EA’s Origin service.If that’s not enough, there’s still acommunity of players modding the game to thisday, which has resulted in projects like KeeperFX.This is a fan-made version of the game thataddresses several bugs, tweaks some of the gameplay,and improves various things in terms of renderingand performance to try and provide the bestDungeon Keeper experience possible on modernhardware.And I gotta admit, even if I’m a fan of the originalDOS game’s aesthetic, that’s mainly becauseI’m a crazy ‘90s nostalgia addict withtoo many old computers lying around.If I’m honest the experience only improves with the higherresolution and smootherperformance with things like KeeperFX.So, if anything that I’ve said in this videohas you interested, then by all means,please give Dungeon Keeper a look.Yeah there’s still the sequel and yeah somepeople prefer it, but nonetheless there’ssomething mighty special about the originaland I cannot recommend it enough.And if you enjoyed this video on Dungeon Keeper, then perhapsyou'd like to see some of my videos on other things.There's new ones every Monday and Friday here on LGR, so check 'em out if you'd like!And as always, thank you very much for watching what you just did!\n"