KickStarter War for the Overworld - Dungeon Keeper clone

[zeitgeist]

Unfortunately, my predictions about the MP community dying by the time the game is reasonably finished came true, I just looked into it again because I saw it on sale, and it's one of the more frequent complaints about it on Steam. It's a shame, because apparently it has a lot of player-made maps on the Workshop.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

It was -75% recently so I finally bought it and played for a bit, but damn, the way most things in this game work feels so... weird and wrong.

What I mean is that I was playing level three. The campaign seems to carbon copy the DK2 idea of not having huge swaths of earth to build whatever dungeon you please, but instead having tight, snaky maps with lots of rock and caverns (huge decline imo), so I don't really have the space necessary to build what I'd want and how I'd want it, but I still build the biggest dungeon I could fit there. This results in me being able to attract 4 not-goblins, 2 not-warlocks and 2 not-trolls. Err, ok? So there's this reasonably big dungeon prepared and 8 creatures wandering through it, great.

But then shit really hits the fan. The lord of the land starts attacking me with waves of dozens of good guys yet my shitty 8-man army defeats them with literally no problems?? Apparently one basic blade trap and one cannon trap is enough to completely hold off and defeat an entire wave of attackers?? Then I attack the lord and my 8 grizzled veterans chip at his health bar for literally 5 minutes, while I'm watching in sort of amazement, casting a heal spell from time to time.

Is this just early game retardation or does the entire campaign look like that?

 

[Astral Rag]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/230190/discussions/0/141136086939386743/



Then why did they opt to use that POS engine to create a game like this in the first place? FFS, the game has been out since early 2015 and it still runs like crap. But don't worry people maybe future unity updates will make our years old game run a bit better.

Another recent one:

top of the line pc, still lag

 

[LESS T_T]

The developer received €150,000 from Creative Europe for their next game called Project Star Wards. It's 27% of total budget.

Probably this thing at their website:

Project Aftercare
Stay tuned! …

Inspired by the likes of Startopia, Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Scrubs and Futurama, Project Aftercare will put the player in the role of a down-trodden administrator tasked with the construction & maintenance of a series of spacestation hospitals, spread out over the backdrop of an alien-laden and farcical space opera. Within each station, the lowly administrator must hope to keep up with the influx of patients, diseases and random events as they build up the most profitable hospital the galaxy has ever seen.

 

[thesheeep]

That's... actually quite the logical choice, considering their last game.

 

[Jimmious]

Is War for the Overworld worth a playthrough for someone that was a DK fan? Meaning basically: Is the campaign interesting enough?

 

[thesheeep]

I'd say so, yes.
Most of the missions are similar, but so they were in DK, so that shouldn't be a problem.
And some of the missions are pretty unique. I remember one where you have no unit production, but have to use that command feature - it was a bit crappy, tbh, but definitely something interesting.

I think the "mostly positive" rating on Steam is justified.

 

[Darth Roxor]

It's alright, but I recommend getting it on a sale.

 

[Space Satan]

Bullfrog: Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, Populous
I bet it is easier to recycle units' behavior and just reshape it for "hospital" theme.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Campaign was shit. Felt too restricted, like I wasn't given any actual freedom as to how I want to build my dungeon. They used too many of those stupid unmineable blocks to shoehorn you into specific dungeon layouts, for example. The campaign felt more like a tutorial than anything else and not a very fun one at that. I'd rather just go back and replay DK again, which is what I did after refunding War for the Overworld. I got it during a discount and felt that even then it wasn't worth the price tag.

 

[Darth Roxor]

They used too many of those stupid unmineable blocks to shoehorn you into specific dungeon layouts, for example.

Yeah, this was annoying as fuck.

At first I thought it was a clever-ish way to ramp up the difficulty a bit (so you can't build a 10x10 training room), but then I realised it was more or less against the very idea of the game (which is making big dunjins).

 

[thesheeep]

They used too many of those stupid unmineable blocks to shoehorn you into specific dungeon layouts, for example. The campaign felt more like a tutorial than anything else and not a very fun one at that. I'd rather just go back and replay DK again, which is what I did after refunding War for the Overworld. I got it during a discount and felt that even then it wasn't worth the price tag.

So you played the game for under 2h and found the campaign restrictive and like a tutorial?

What would you prefer? That you just get a giant playfield with no discernable structure whatsoever so that every mission plays the same? Brilliant!

Besides, you are really exaggerating. Once you are done with the first missions, there are still some restrictions, but I never felt like I could not build what I want to. I guess I never wanted to build that 10x10 training room

 

[Hobo Elf]

What would you prefer? That you just get a giant playfield with no discernable structure whatsoever so that every mission plays the same? Brilliant!

Worked for Dungeon Keeper and KeeperRL.

 

[thesheeep]

Hobo Elf KeeperRL is barely comparable, it's more of a light Dwarf Fortress and less of a DK. If I'm not mistaken, it lives more off its emergent gameplay, and less off any specific mission structure.
And Dungeon Keeper, well... if the game came out today, the number one complaint would be boring/repetitive missions. For a reason. Honestly, I never finished it. About halfway through the game, I just always lost interest.
So I can't really agree that it "worked".

I rather have some restrictions and quirks thrown my way to make things more interesting.
Dungeons 2 does that fairly well, too, btw.

If you want your missions to be pretty much always the same, why not just play skirmishes and leave the campaign to those who enjoy some variation?

 

[Hobo Elf]

KeeperRL is perfectly comparable as a game where you build your own dungeon and that it doesn't fuck you in the ass by having the developers create ready layouts for you where the only player input is where you want to put your rooms.

Dungeon layout variation comes from the available resources, how the enemy has their base set up and hazards. Dungeon Keeper gives the player a lot of freedom to build how they like (excluding a few missions) and it never gets tedious or repetitive, unlike WftO which has too many restrictions.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Awesome game.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

This just got a major update! Also a new expansion, The Under Games, is out and it's 75% off for the first 24 hours.

 

[Fryjar]

I'm looking for a Dungeon Keeper inspired game (which doesn't mean it needs to be a clone) which is also compelling game play wise.

Now that War for the Overworld has been out for a few years, has it turned into a good game?
Compared to Dungeons 3 or 2, which one of the three would you recommend more? Is there any other game I should be looking for?

 

[Curious_Tongue]

It's essentially a Dungeon Keeper clone.

I'm amazed EA didn't sue them.

It's definitely worth playing.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I'd correct the previous post.

It's a dungeon keeper 2 clone.

I didn't like it much when I tried it, but it was some time ago and I also didn't really like DK2 at the time it came out.

Unfortunately, there are no DK clones as everyone seems to target DK2 as the source material by default.

 

[Storyfag]

It does scratch that DK2 itch, definitely. Some fun mechanics and all, but in the end I found the campaign rather meh.

 

[Perkel]

Spend like 10 hours playing campaign. That note about it being restrictive is true as hell. Aside from first mission and that defense one i never feel like i have enough space for anything. It is not that i am forced to build what they tell me that is fine but basically having no place for anything is annoying as hell.

It feels like it was made by bunch of people who wanted DK2 multiplayer rather than campaign which is what people loved about DK2. Skirmish was always hollow experience in DK2 because that type of game is not really suited for competition. DK2 for me always was more like puzzle/builder game rather than strategy game.

Moreover the change to system where you need more buildings to spawn more monsters is also imho wrong. Because it instantly makes game about space rather than "do". What i mean by that is that in DK2 rooms spawned devices and size of the room decided how many of those devices could be spawned not how many monsters you will spawn.

Also for some reason narrator in WoO annoys me as hell. He has amazing voice but his role in this game is like hammer while in DK2 he was seducing your with his voice. He sounds more like pompous asshole than voice of evil speaking to your ear.

The other thing is that it looks like garbage. Yes models are better but lighting is completely whacked. I thought i had my nostalgia glasses so i quickly checked and yep old DK2 is literally better looking game because everything there "pulsates" with various colored lights instead of being basically gray like WftO all around, hand has light, various other things cast simple lights and they are "pulsating" making dungeon feel like it lives.

 

[Perkel]

That being said. It is decent romp if you like that type of games since there is nothing really like it.

 

[lightbane]

That's all we have nowadays. "Good enough" copies, shadows of former masterpieces.
Still better than having the original butchered with a "modern remake", a mobile game/gambling addiction simulator adaptation, or both.

 

[Space Satan]

Overall this project was a decent "first game" that could provide funds for next game to develop as developers were modders as far as I know