Dungeons 2

Gameplay

Unlike its predecessor, Dungeons 2 is a more direct homage to Dungeon Keeper. You still play as the Ultimate Evil, but now as a disembodied spirit after his defeat by heroes of the Overworld, you are forced to rely on controlling your minions with the Hand of Terror. You hire minions from a portal up to a population limit, who have names, and can gain levels in both production and combat, and be trained into upgraded versions. Minions have specific needs that have to be met, such as pay, thirst, admiration or boredom - if they don't get what they want, they will go on strike and refuse to obey your commands. The game now allows you to slap your workers, grab minions and drop them where you wish, or drop resources such as gold, mana, barrels or boxes. The greatest change is how you can now enter the Overworld through specific cave exits - the same that heroes use to raid your dungeon. On the Overworld the game controls switches to a more direct Real Time Strategy, with direct mouse-click control of your units, multiple selections and hotkeys to abilities. As you destroy the holdings of the heroes, you not only stop their raids on your dungeon, but transform the land into evil landscape. Your ultimate goal is usually the destruction of a castle, but there are other separate dungeons holding quests too.

There are two playable factions (three with the DLC "A game of winter"), the Horde (composed of "greenskin" units) and the Demons. The single player campaign mostly focuses on the Horde, with only two Demon maps, but they are used in Skirmish and Multiplayer maps. The mentioned DLC adds a more difficult single player campaign for the third race (The Undead).

The player has to build the dungeon using left-click to select blocks for the minions to excavate. Rooms can be built onto empty spaces, but blocks can be filled back in as well to wall off an area. Some of the resources like gold and mana are hidden inside stone blocks while some walls cannot be excavated.

There are several resources available: Gold is mostly mined from regular rock walls excavated that contain gold veins, this gives a one-time gold income. Larger, gold/gem-encrusted blocks provide a steady gold flow though eventually run out and disappear. Gold is stored in the Treasury rooms. Mana is generated from Mana crystals that has to be excavated first. Afterwards, a Magic chamber needs to be built underneath to activate it. Mana balls are generated by the Naga (for the Horde) and the Shadow Demons (for the Demons), and stored in the same chambers. Boxes and Spider Eggs are used for building traps, doors, and for research. They are generated, respectively, in Tinkerer's Cave by Goblins (Horde) or in the Spider's Den by Fright Demons (Demons). Beer is brewed in the Brewery and is only required by the Horde units - if a unit gets thirsty they require beer periodically. Your minions brew Beer and store it in barrels in the Brewery

A sarcastic omnipresent narrator (Kevan Brighting, from the Stanley Parable) constantly narrates the Ultimate Evil's acts of vengeance... or inaction, in which case it sarcastically pushes the player to the right path. Humorous references to games like Dungeon Keeper, Warcraft, and fantasy series like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones are commonplace.

Background story

The story line evolves around the Ultimate Evil, fed up with the heroes of the Overworld constantly abusing his minions for experience points and stealing his gold, leads a giant army to the surface. Easily conquering the castle, the Evil is ambushed by the assembled heroes of the land and banished into a spirit form. Decades later, he awakens as a ghostly incorporeal version of himself, and with the aid of loyal minions, starts to rebuild his empire. On the way to punish the individual heroes and gain the alliance of other races, the Ultimate Evil learns of another faction fighting both the heroes and his own empire, the Demons led by the Chaotic Evil - in truth, another ghostly aspect of the Ultimate Evil himself. Also appearing and sometimes hindering or helping the Evil are the undead and their enigmatic leader.