"A strategy-based game that leaves the standard concepts of chivalry and honor far behind in the dust...yay!"

Dungeon Keeper is just one of those games that really leaves you with a smug smile of contentment, and plenty of nostalgia down the road. It's been about five years since I purchased Dungeon Keeper, but it's still one of my favorite games to play. If you're tired of being fed the whole "chivalry and honor" bit in other strategy games, then you'll definitely LOVE the concept behind this game.

Basically, you're the "dungeon keeper". You start out with a piece of land (well, basically it's just rocks and lava), which you must develope into a mighty empire that is meant to be FEARED. What devices do you have at your disposal to help you reach your goals? Well, for one, you have imps who will work for nothing and sculpt the area for you. By carving out space, you can start placing your rooms -- a treasure room, a training room, a torture chamber (yay!), a prison, a lair...yeah, it goes on and on. I'm sure you get the point.

But your first and always primary objective is to get your hands on some gold, because you can't build anything without it. On top of that, when you begin to attract creatures through the portal (vampires, orcs, mistresses, spiders, beetles, wizards, etc.) you WILL have to pay them, cause they certainly won't work for free.

Of course, on top of all of this is the main objective for each level, to dominate all of the other dungeons around you. The game starts out by giving you only one other dungeon to face off against, but as the game moves along, you'll find yourself put up against much more than that. To claim control of another dungeon and complete the level you MUST either : a) destroy your opponent's dungeon heart, or b) destroy the Lord of the Land and all of his baddies.

Yeah...it definitely sounds like a daunting task, but trust me, it isn't as hard as it sounds. Dungeon Keeper is definitely user/newbie friendly. Beginning levels have tutorials, and beating them is fairly easy. But the game definitely jacks up the difficulty towards the end, and the length of time it takes to completely beat each level also begins to skyrocket.

Even though this game is definitely getting along in years, the graphics are still really quite good. Lots of detail and massive areas to play around in make this game really fun. Also, the voice-acting is top-notch in this game, and there's tons of humor thrown in, so you don't find yourself taking the game TOO seriously. The music, when it's there, is alright, but nothing special. Of course, you'll be so busy trying to get about 3 million things done in each level, that you'll probably never the notice the music anyway.

But hey, noone ever said that being evil was easy, and Dungeon Keeper certainly proves that. I can't think of any other game that makes it so fun, challenging and fulfilling to completely whoop the good guys. You'll get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside each and every time...and isn't that what games are all about?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/04