Let's Play Dungeon Keeper 2

[Tené]

Well, long after the wave of LPs that started up after FE started hers, I’ve decided to produce one of my own.
I’ve elected to take you through one of my all-time favourite games; Dungeon Keeper. Sadly, since the original game operates at such a low resolution I can’t actually get screenshots from it (they all come out with incorrect colours) I’m playing through its sequel. There really should have been a third part, but sadly the greatest game series ever never went beyond two.

Our objective in this game is to take over the world and spread mindless, glorious evil. In order to claim the surface world, we will require the twenty Portal Gems which allow us to access the sunlit land of the heroes. We have a great ally in the incredible Horned Reaper, known to his friends as Horny, or at least would be if any of his friends survive. We are also guided by a Mentor, who is never seen but always heard. You will come to either love him or hate him. For the sake of this LP I won’t be including most of his lines, since they consist almost entirely of game help. I will, however, copy out his briefing before each chapter.

Text in italics is out of character, simply to tell you game mechanics and the like.

So, without further ado, let’s play...

Dungeon Keeper 2.


Chapter I: “Warcry”
The time has come to begin my evil campaign. Upon consulting my mentor, we decided that the best place to start would be...

Smilesville.
“Welcome, Keeper. Before you lies a happy and carefree realm. The local champion Lord Antonius holds the first portal gem you require. Learn how to construct a dungeon, and build up your forces so that you can crush Lord Antonius to wipe the smile from his face.”

I have established my Dungeon Heart in the south of the region.

This is the nexus of my power; it draws mana from the land and sustains all of my magic, including my imp workers. Without it, I can do nothing in the world, so it is imperative that I defend it.
If your dungeon heart is destroyed, you lose the game.
Now that that is done, the first thing I will need is gold. I instructed my imps to mine out a nearby seam of the metal.

They are very fast workers, and managed to carve out the seam in seconds, providing me with three thousand gold pieces. It was still not enough, though, so I had them mine out more.

With twelve thousand pieces in my stores, I had the imps then claim the space in the tunnels to mark out my territory and extend the dungeon.

Claiming a tile allows you to act on it – place rooms or traps, drop creatures, and so on. On unclaimed territory you can only drop imps and cast a select few spells. On enemy territory you cannot act at all save for three spells.
Imps are useless in combat, so I need more powerful creatures to conquer the realm. To that end, I sought a portal.

Portals are your source of minions. All creatures come in through them. Your first portal will provide up to fifteen creatures. The type of creatures that come through depend on what rooms you have - certain rooms will attract certain creatures.
Very shortly after claiming the portal, a goblin came through to join me. It clearly liked what it saw, so it stayed in the dungeon to serve me.

While imps need only mana to sustain them, more natural creatures like the goblin have needs that must be catered to. The first is shelter; all creatures need a home. I had my imps carve out a room, and in that I lay out a lair.

Note here the room panel at the bottom. At the moment, I can only use two rooms, but this number will increase later on.
My goblin was pleased, and set up his own space within the lair. Goblins like simple camp-beds, so that is what he constructed.

Another need to satisfy was hunger. My creatures must be fed. For this, dungeon architects of old came up with the Hatchery, which is now the standard canteen for dungeons everywhere.

Here, plump, juicy chickens are born, grow, and get eaten by all minions. When tending to hordes of merciless killers, there is no need to consider a vegetarian option.
Time passed. Word of my dungeon got around. More goblins came to join my cause, and my numbers grew.

This is the Creature panel. It shows you how many of each type of creature are in your dungeon. With the buttons at the sides it can also tell you what they are doing and how happy they are. The picture isn't very clear, but I have five goblins.
But word of my dungeon reached not only the ears of potential employees.

Dwarfs! They tunnel through into my dungeon, tearing down the walls that bounded it. This was what my goblins are here for. They swarm the dwarfs, making short work of them. After rifling through their possessions for petty cash, they are left to rot.
Following this invasion, I feel that I should strike at Lord Antonius while the iron is hot. I instruct my imps to mine north toward his stronghold...

...and run across a strange artefact. I open the box, and some kind of magic spreads throughout my dungeon.

I find that all of my goblins are now stronger.
In every level, secrets such as this are hidden. This one raises the level of every creature by 1; others have different effects.
Finally, we tunnel through to Antonius’ keep.
“Away with you, Keeper! You shall not taint Smilesville with your evil ways!”
He was expecting us! No matter. The goblins swarm him. He puts up a fight, but he has no hope against eight goblins attacking from all sides.

After a short battle, Antonius falls to his death in the dirt. As the goblins disperse back to their lairs, the Horned Reaper appears. He approaches the corpse of Lord Antonius, and collects from him the first portal gem.

[Naem]

Hey, cool. I've always wondered what this game was like. ^^

...This also reminds me I need to write a proper intro to my LP. Erm.

[Space]

Nice LP so far.

This game intrigues me and I wish to know more. TO WIKIPEDIA!




...Okay I need to obtain this game somehow.

[Tené]

It's a fantastic game if you can get hold of it, but the getting hold of it part may be tricky.

[ShardNet]

Jul 24, 2008 8:30:50 GMT 10 Tené said:

It's a fantastic game if you can get hold of it, but the getting hold of it part may be tricky.

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free?

Also nice LP.

[iBishyT]

We have Dungeon Keeper 2, as part of the "Sold Out" series. Doesn't seem to work on 64-bit systems though (just like many old games).

There was gonna be a third. You can see the teaser included with DK2. It was gonna involve you stepping out into the outer world and wreaking havoc on the land. Unfortunately though Bullfrog went down the plughole, taking Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Theme Park and Theme Hospital with it too.


A couple of the original guys of Bullfrog then formed their own company and made Black & White, the spiritual predecessor of Populous.

[Tené]

Jul 24, 2008 8:42:00 GMT 10 iBishyT said:

We have Dungeon Keeper 2, as part of the "Sold Out" series. Doesn't seem to work on 64-bit systems though (just like many old games).

There was gonna be a third. You can see the teaser included with DK2. It was gonna involve you stepping out into the outer world and wreaking havoc on the land. Unfortunately though Bullfrog went down the plughole, taking Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Theme Park and Theme Hospital with it too.


A couple of the original guys of Bullfrog then formed their own company and made Black & White, the spiritual predecessor of Populous.

I've had no trouble with DK2, even though this computer is terrible for playing old games. Anyway.
Peter Molyneux was the mastermind behind both Bullfrog's and Lionhead's games. I have a lot of respect for the guy, even if he is notorious for over-hyping his games.

Anyway, back to the LP, since the first few levels go so quickly.


Chapter II: "Enchantments"
After ransacking the town of Smilesville, we ran across the technology for some new rooms fit for a dungeon. We decided we would put them to good use in our next location.

“Sing-Song. A joyous land filled with light and music. Let us silence their wailing voices once and for all. This land is defended by Lord Darius, a much tougher opponent than Lord Antonius. Only by harnessing the forces of dark magic will you defeat him.
Build a library to attract warlocks to your cause. They will reveal to you the secrets of the arcane.”

Once again, I have established the heart of my dungeon in the south of the realm. I immediately get to work building up a dungeon like the one before. Gold earned from the pillaging of Smilesville means that I will not have to go mining for the stuff any time soon.

I lay out a lair and a hatchery, and claim the portal to my west. Soon, some goblins move in to serve me as they did before.

Sadly, I was unable to bring in any of my minions from Smilesville (I will have to rename that town at some point - the only people smiling there have it carved into their faces) which means that the fresh goblins serving me are at an entry level of combat prowess. This will not matter for long, though.
However, the strength of my goblins is secondary right now. I now possess the technology to construct a library.

This collection of tomes will provide a gateway into the world of the arcane. It is a must for any dungeon.
The way most rooms in Dungeon Keeper 2 work is that in the middle of every 3x3 area of tiles, there is a node for creatures to work on – in this case a bookcase. Additional nodes appear on stretches of reinforced wall at least three tiles long, meaning that reinforcing the walls of your dungeon, in addition to improving its appearance and providing a small amount of defence against intruders, can increase the efficiency of your rooms.

It was only a matter of time before the scent of all those books reach the local warlock population. They soon get to work researching, devising spells for me to cast.
While they work on that, I shall construct the other room that I have earned.

This room will allow my creatures to train, and become more formidable fighters.
The Training Room will allow all creatures to train up to level four. Any further than that must be earned through real combat. It has a similar layout to the library, with nodes. Training creatures costs gold – not a lot, but if you have a lot of training creatures they can become a great drain on your account.
Now, in addition to excellent researchers, warlocks make powerful combatants with spells. Since I have already drawn three warlocks to my cause, I have one train instead of research.

You can pick up and drop your creatures anywhere in your dungeon. Dropping them will stun them for a few seconds, so you can’t drop a load of creatures right in the middle of a fight. If a creature is dropped in a room, it will work there instead of wherever it would have otherwise chosen, and it will do so more efficiently to boot.
While the warlock starts to train in combat, the others in research have come up with a new spell – the power to create imps to work in my dungeon.

This is the spell panel. Currently the Create Imp spell is highlighted. The red wedge in the other spell shows how long until it is researched. Once all spells are researched, the research will go into upgrading them.
Each imp you create costs more mana than the last. They will also continue to drain mana, so if you have too many you may end up losing mana every tick instead of gaining it. If this happens, and you run out of mana, your imps will start dying.
Before long, the researching warlocks come across another new spell – a thunderbolt. Since I do not particularly want to fry any of my own creatures, I will not use it yet.

Also, my imps have finished reinforcing the walls around my dungeon. Around the training room they have added targets to the walls – excellent for my training warlocks.
But there is no time to train. A team of dwarfs breach a wall in my dungeon distressingly close to the heart.

Here, the thunderbolt spell is coming into great use. My skilled goblins help too.
While my minions recuperate from the battle, the imps go exploring the tunnel the dwarfs had left.

It opens out into a great cavern, and I can sense that there is only a thin layer of rock between this cavern and Lord Darius.
Before the time comes to strike, though, my creatures need paying.

Your creatures regularly need paying, in addition to rest and food. When payday rolls around, they will all go to the nearest store of money to get their pay. My only store at the moment is the dungeon heart, so they converge there.
Finally, the time has come to assault the keep. I dig through to Darius’ location.

More dwarfs were waiting in ambush, but they are quickly dispatched. Then Darius himself finally comes to challenge me.
“Keeper! Dare not think that you will conquer will conquer me, you evil wretch. My dwarves and the power of good will drive you from this land!”
Unfortunately for Darius, being pure of heart is no substitute for being good with a sword. Fresh from battle, my goblins and warlocks leap into the fray. I strike at the meagre resistance with thunderbolts.
“You seek to defile my realm with your foul sorcery? You will perish, Keeper!”
Quiet, you.

It does not take long for the so-called hero to fall to his knees. Once again, the Horned Reaper comes to collect the portal gem.

Sing-Song falls to the flame. To hear their singing turn to screaming has been a tremendous joy to my ears.


As a side-note, the mentor will occasionally come up with random comments that do not relate to gameplay, but are amusing. I’m not sure if they are triggered by anything related to what he says, but still.

“It is the witching hour. Curses are half-price.”
Odd. I don’t think I’ve seen that one before.

[The Pletch]

Shard, the game's old as hell. You can probably find it for, like, ten bucks in the discount bin somewhere.

[Neo // Racing Stripe A/V]

Am I the only one who imagines the Zelda "da-da-da-daaa" jingle playing when he picks up the Gem?

[Hayden]

Jul 25, 2008 5:59:08 GMT 10 Neo // Racing Stripe A/V said:

Am I the only one who imagines the Zelda "da-da-da-daaa" jingle playing when he picks up the Gem?

Nope.

[Sergeant Dull]

I need this game. I like my strategy games >>

[Tené]

Chapter III: “Greed”

The villagers of Sing-Song divulged to me a new technology – the plans for constructing workshops, as well as rudimentary traps and doors. They will be put to good use in the next realm.

“Ramshackle. This is a peaceful land, but a poor one, since its defender Lord Avaricious has frittered away his riches. If you can amass enough gold he will surely be tempted into leaving his fortress and attacking you personally. Build a workshop, and fill your land with fiendish traps and doors to protect your hard-won treasuries. Lure this fool to his doom, and claim his portal gem.”


Again, I begin in the south. There is a convenient sort of ring formed by an underground river, which makes a fitting location for the heart. With it in place, I set about building up a dungeon as before.
This dungeon will be larger than my previous efforts, and to finance it I require more gold than can be stored in the space around the heart. To solve this, I construct a Treasury, in which my imps can store excess gold.

While establishing my dungeon, a curious firefly buzzed its way in through the portal.

This is no ordinary insect, though. At some point in the past, a rather mad warlock experimented on simple fireflies to make them more dangerous weapons. All he achieved was making them large, and they are nowadays a common sight in deeper forests. While poor combatants, fireflies make great scouts, so I welcome it to my service.
With my dungeon established, it is time to assemble a workshop. Defending my domain is too important a job to leave simply to living creatures, which can tire.

The Workshop has nodes similar to the library and training room, but these do not appear in every 3x3 block. Instead, they appear in every other, forming a cross pattern in larger rooms.
It is built, but at a cost. I must mine out further gold to have enough to train any creatures.
Meanwhile, the workshop draws attention from the local troll population.

Trolls make surprisingly effective workers for their intelligence, so I draft in several.
Unfortunately, the gold vein I was mining backed onto a large cavern, across which lies the fortress of Lord Avaricious.

I now have a point through which heroes of all sorts can access my dungeon. I need to defend it. To that end, I place a sentry trap near my dungeon heart...

...and a wooden door by the corridor to the cavern.

Neither of them are fantastic defences, but I have been unable to find any more effective designs, and leaving invention to trolls results in a lot of waste with no progress. Once they know what they are doing, though, the traps and door are quickly completed and placed.

When you have a workshop, the Manufacturing panel is made available. From it, you can select traps and doors to place in valid locations on your territory. When placed, a blueprint appears in that location, and workers in the workshop begin to construct it. When finished, a box appears in the workshop, and your imps drag it to the place of the trap or door.
I am not, however, the only one to use traps to defend my land.

Lord Avaricious defends himself well. He is still able to send out raiders against my dungeon, though. I have my firefly trace where they are coming from, and I find a hero gate.

Hero gates are access points by which heroes can enter your domain. It is possible to destroy them, but not if there is anything around them. I’ll explain that when I actually destroy one some other time.
I waste no time in assaulting Lord Avaricious. My creatures attack and destroy the cannons, though not without harm.

While claiming the land around, my imps discover a map of the whole area. This is very useful for reconnaissance, as you can imagine.

This secret reveals the whole map to you. It also allows you to see what is happening there – the fog of war doesn’t return after you’ve explored a place.
While attempting to claim the land by Lord Avaricious’ fortress, some of his guards come out to attack them. The Lord himself also reveals himself to fight – I cannot believe my luck! I have every creature in the dungeon assault him.
“Your destiny is to die by my sword!”
This isn’t actually supposed to happen. What’s meant to happen is that you mine out all of the gold in the realm, then he comes at you with a small force. However, I managed to lure him out accidentally with imps. It surprised me enough that I didn’t manage to take a screenshot.
The battle draws out for a while, but the man falls in the end. With the portal gem in sight, the Horned Reaper once again comes to claim it.

The sunlit land of the heroes draws closer with every victory.

[Sergeant Dull]

This is genius scripting.

I must say it would be quite difficult to LP some age of empires three...

[Oberstleutnant Insipid]

This game sounds awesome.

Also, Black and White? I wanted to buy that game a long time ago, but my granny wouldn't let me since she found out you can sacrifice babies and throw peasants around.

EDIT: Download the Gold version here - www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=5103

[Sergeant Dull]

Jul 29, 2008 18:20:27 GMT 10 Oberstleutnant Insipid said:

This game sounds awesome.

Also, Black and White? I wanted to buy that game a long time ago, but my granny wouldn't let me since she found out you can sacrifice babies and throw peasants around.

EDIT: Download the Gold version here - www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=5103

That is Dungeon Keeper One. Just letting people know, too make sure.