Dungeon Lords Collector's Edition
Posted March 3, 2006
When Dungeon Lords was released in May of 2005, the unfinished game was plagued with bugs and devoid of actual content that would have brought the fantasy-laden world alive. Nine months later, Heuristic Park's effort to finish the game through several patches has warranted a re-release with their Collector's edition. This is understandable considering the previous state of the game, but anyone that purchased the first edition is essentially screwed out of the final patch unless they purchase the CE. Personally, I never played the original, so this review will be a completely fresh look at the game in its current state.
The story opens with a long standing feud between two rival wizard lords struggling for control over their lands. Losing his grip to the more powerful Lord Barrowgrim, Lord Davenmor offers up his daughter, Ellowyn, for marriage with Barrowgrim. Ellowyn is in love with another, so she runs away which infuriates Barrowgrim and elevates the feud into war. Of course, only the chosen one will be able to find Ellowyn, find five relics of power, and bring peace to the surrounding lands. Any guesses who the chosen one is? The story is a clichéd mess and can be confusing to follow at first. The rambling opening cinematic tosses around all of these names hurriedly and rushes through the presentation in an empty, shallow manner.
Gameplay:
As the game begins, the character customization screen pops up and a list of classes/skill sets appear as well. The appearance customization options are not very expansive and seem far too limited for a RPG. On the other hand, the 30+ classes are varied and seemingly unlimited with different combinations. The classes determine the type of skills that come natural to your character as well as how much they cost in experience points. Learning new skill sets will advance your character's offense and defense throughout the game. The progression is slow through the first town of Fargrove, but gains momentum quickly after you leave.
In order to level up those skills, you must complete quests and kill all the enemies along the way. Unfortunately, the game offers far too little explanation on how to complete certain quests. Quite often, wandering for hours to find the next NPC to speak to is par for the course. Also, there is no variation on the types of quests provided. It's a contrived, repetitive process of searching, killing, and plundering endlessly. Dungeon Lords is less of a RPG in terms of objectives and more of a boring third-person kill-fest.
During the lengthy slaughter, there are a vast array of enemies that will have to be faced. Also, the enemies always spawn in large groups of six to eight baddies. Early in the game, this can be incredibly troublesome when encountering more than one group of randomly spawning evildoers. For example, I found myself in many situations of imminent death due to the multitude of spawned creatures around me. The game difficulty should have been tiered to fix the amount of enemies that spawn. Groups of two would have been far more manageable and increased my overall enjoyment in the early stages of the game. There is a random spawn slider in the options menu, but it barely decreases the spawn rate.
The artificial intelligence of the multitude of creatures is generally respectable. While the armored, melee enemies just saunter toward you in a malaise of rage, there are usually villains with ranged attacks in the tougher groups. It takes a bit of skill to integrate the surrounding environment as cover during your own offensive or defensive front. On a side note, I wish the developers have created a useful health system to follow during battles. The current system doesn't show how much health an enemy has left nor is it simple to understand.
After beating the latest group of adversaries, there are treasure chests scattered around each area waiting to be cracked open. While a chest is dangerous to open due to magical traps, the rewards are often great in terms of higher quality armor and weaponry. Each chest is slightly time consuming to open and requires the lock picking skill set to work consistently. The method of lock picking doesn't deviate greatly throughout the game, but the types of spells guarding the locks do. Unfortunately, unlocking all the chests in a particular area increases the time spent in the level, hence the number of random spawns rises. It's a poorly balanced trade-off which encourages skipping some of the loot in favor of escaping a dungeon alive.
If death does find your character, there are a couple options available. The first is a revive function that immediately brings you back to life at the expense of your attribute points. While this option offers a quick entry back into battle, it's never a good choice due to the permanent penalty accessed. The other method is to reload a previous save. Idiotically, the developer makes you return to the original menu to reload the last saved game. It's a painful, lengthy process that doesn't cater to the quick-load method of current PC titles.
Finally, there is a multiplayer co-op mode available to alleviate the problematic spawns, but it's next to impossible to find anyone playing the game. After waiting 30 minutes for a possible match, I finally was able to join another player's mission and attempt to help them finish the level. Unfortunately, the lag was horrifically awful and made the game completely unplayable. This feature is basically useless due to an absence of players.
Graphics:
The character models are the most impressive aspect of the visual nuances within the game. The various creatures and NPC's are finely detailed and the usage of shadowing in combination with the fire effects is breathtaking. Sadly, the lack of character animations kills the realism. The majority of the characters just stand around in a motionless state. In addition, the surrounding environments shared a similar fate. Every environment is hopelessly static and lifeless. Additionally, the textures are average as best and look ugly at close range. The combination of the spiritless population with their inanimate surroundings destroys any immersion the developer attempted to create.
Also, the collision detection system is frightfully awful. The main character appears to be running on air when traveling around the world. Also, there are times when I am wildly swinging at immobile objects like treasure filled crates and they will not break without repositioning my character. Add this with hand-to-hand combat and it's a recipe for death when you have to face those massive spawns. On a completely separate note, the game ran pretty smoothly at 1600 by 1200 with my 9800 pro. I did experience occasionally graphical hitching at all resolutions when a random spawn occurred, although that was a nice warning of the oncoming onslaught.
Audio:
Beyond the opening menu, there is no soundtrack to accompany your character on the quest. Instead, the game attempts to rely on almost silent ambient noises, the combat sounds, and a variety of voiceovers. The ambient noises are pitiful in comparison to other games in the genre, especially when in the forest. The surrounding dungeon noises are slightly better, but nothing too impressive. The combat sound effects are accurate and fairly varied depending on the villain under attack. The magic spell sound effects do get a bit repetitive by the end of the game though.
The amount of voiceovers within the game is enormous, but the quality is hampered by inferior voice actors and actresses. There is zero recognizable talent within the game which falters in comparison to other games among the genre. The voiceovers usually sound like they are being read out of a book opposed to lifelike interaction. Overall, the aural features are barely enough to keep your interest and contribute greatly to the lifeless nature of the game.
Conclusion:
While the collector's edition of Dungeon Lords has been improved over the original in a variety of technical aspects and added features, the title is still a sad attempt at an epic RPG. The game will take countless hours to trudge through due to constant death, vague directions, and long loading times. It's not enjoyable nor is it worth spending any amount of time playing. The frustration involved for this hackneyed excursion through a lifeless world is far beyond any gratification offered by completion. Stick with Dungeon Siege II or Guild Wars if you want a RPG worth playing.
The story opens with a long standing feud between two rival wizard lords struggling for control over their lands. Losing his grip to the more powerful Lord Barrowgrim, Lord Davenmor offers up his daughter, Ellowyn, for marriage with Barrowgrim. Ellowyn is in love with another, so she runs away which infuriates Barrowgrim and elevates the feud into war. Of course, only the chosen one will be able to find Ellowyn, find five relics of power, and bring peace to the surrounding lands. Any guesses who the chosen one is? The story is a clichéd mess and can be confusing to follow at first. The rambling opening cinematic tosses around all of these names hurriedly and rushes through the presentation in an empty, shallow manner.
Gameplay:
As the game begins, the character customization screen pops up and a list of classes/skill sets appear as well. The appearance customization options are not very expansive and seem far too limited for a RPG. On the other hand, the 30+ classes are varied and seemingly unlimited with different combinations. The classes determine the type of skills that come natural to your character as well as how much they cost in experience points. Learning new skill sets will advance your character's offense and defense throughout the game. The progression is slow through the first town of Fargrove, but gains momentum quickly after you leave.
In order to level up those skills, you must complete quests and kill all the enemies along the way. Unfortunately, the game offers far too little explanation on how to complete certain quests. Quite often, wandering for hours to find the next NPC to speak to is par for the course. Also, there is no variation on the types of quests provided. It's a contrived, repetitive process of searching, killing, and plundering endlessly. Dungeon Lords is less of a RPG in terms of objectives and more of a boring third-person kill-fest.
During the lengthy slaughter, there are a vast array of enemies that will have to be faced. Also, the enemies always spawn in large groups of six to eight baddies. Early in the game, this can be incredibly troublesome when encountering more than one group of randomly spawning evildoers. For example, I found myself in many situations of imminent death due to the multitude of spawned creatures around me. The game difficulty should have been tiered to fix the amount of enemies that spawn. Groups of two would have been far more manageable and increased my overall enjoyment in the early stages of the game. There is a random spawn slider in the options menu, but it barely decreases the spawn rate.
The artificial intelligence of the multitude of creatures is generally respectable. While the armored, melee enemies just saunter toward you in a malaise of rage, there are usually villains with ranged attacks in the tougher groups. It takes a bit of skill to integrate the surrounding environment as cover during your own offensive or defensive front. On a side note, I wish the developers have created a useful health system to follow during battles. The current system doesn't show how much health an enemy has left nor is it simple to understand.
After beating the latest group of adversaries, there are treasure chests scattered around each area waiting to be cracked open. While a chest is dangerous to open due to magical traps, the rewards are often great in terms of higher quality armor and weaponry. Each chest is slightly time consuming to open and requires the lock picking skill set to work consistently. The method of lock picking doesn't deviate greatly throughout the game, but the types of spells guarding the locks do. Unfortunately, unlocking all the chests in a particular area increases the time spent in the level, hence the number of random spawns rises. It's a poorly balanced trade-off which encourages skipping some of the loot in favor of escaping a dungeon alive.
If death does find your character, there are a couple options available. The first is a revive function that immediately brings you back to life at the expense of your attribute points. While this option offers a quick entry back into battle, it's never a good choice due to the permanent penalty accessed. The other method is to reload a previous save. Idiotically, the developer makes you return to the original menu to reload the last saved game. It's a painful, lengthy process that doesn't cater to the quick-load method of current PC titles.
Finally, there is a multiplayer co-op mode available to alleviate the problematic spawns, but it's next to impossible to find anyone playing the game. After waiting 30 minutes for a possible match, I finally was able to join another player's mission and attempt to help them finish the level. Unfortunately, the lag was horrifically awful and made the game completely unplayable. This feature is basically useless due to an absence of players.
Graphics:
The character models are the most impressive aspect of the visual nuances within the game. The various creatures and NPC's are finely detailed and the usage of shadowing in combination with the fire effects is breathtaking. Sadly, the lack of character animations kills the realism. The majority of the characters just stand around in a motionless state. In addition, the surrounding environments shared a similar fate. Every environment is hopelessly static and lifeless. Additionally, the textures are average as best and look ugly at close range. The combination of the spiritless population with their inanimate surroundings destroys any immersion the developer attempted to create.
Also, the collision detection system is frightfully awful. The main character appears to be running on air when traveling around the world. Also, there are times when I am wildly swinging at immobile objects like treasure filled crates and they will not break without repositioning my character. Add this with hand-to-hand combat and it's a recipe for death when you have to face those massive spawns. On a completely separate note, the game ran pretty smoothly at 1600 by 1200 with my 9800 pro. I did experience occasionally graphical hitching at all resolutions when a random spawn occurred, although that was a nice warning of the oncoming onslaught.
Audio:
Beyond the opening menu, there is no soundtrack to accompany your character on the quest. Instead, the game attempts to rely on almost silent ambient noises, the combat sounds, and a variety of voiceovers. The ambient noises are pitiful in comparison to other games in the genre, especially when in the forest. The surrounding dungeon noises are slightly better, but nothing too impressive. The combat sound effects are accurate and fairly varied depending on the villain under attack. The magic spell sound effects do get a bit repetitive by the end of the game though.
The amount of voiceovers within the game is enormous, but the quality is hampered by inferior voice actors and actresses. There is zero recognizable talent within the game which falters in comparison to other games among the genre. The voiceovers usually sound like they are being read out of a book opposed to lifelike interaction. Overall, the aural features are barely enough to keep your interest and contribute greatly to the lifeless nature of the game.
Conclusion:
While the collector's edition of Dungeon Lords has been improved over the original in a variety of technical aspects and added features, the title is still a sad attempt at an epic RPG. The game will take countless hours to trudge through due to constant death, vague directions, and long loading times. It's not enjoyable nor is it worth spending any amount of time playing. The frustration involved for this hackneyed excursion through a lifeless world is far beyond any gratification offered by completion. Stick with Dungeon Siege II or Guild Wars if you want a RPG worth playing.