Management / Sim Dungeons 4 - fourth time's the charm

[Baron Dupek]

Dungeons 4 will emerge from the darkness in 2023 when the title will be available with Xbox Game Pass for console and PC and will be released on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch™.

The Absolute Evil and its trusted cough servant, the Dark Elf Thalya, return in Dungeons 4 after the events of its fabulous predecessor to bring about their triumph over the forces of good once more.

Build a cozy and comfortable Dungeon to suit your creatures’ needs and rule over them, then send them out into the Overworld to kindly remind the good people living there that the Absolute Evil rules over their lands. Gather your Evilness in new and dynamic ways and unleash it upon the lush green forests and plains of the Overworld to turn them over to the dark side. But make sure that your Dungeon is well-secured by traps and defended by your creatures, for those pesky Overworlders won’t just twiddle their thumbs while you turn their land into the Absolute Evil’s most pleasurable holiday paradise.

But what is that noise? “Gold, gold, gold and gems, gold and gems and gold!” The ancient song echoes throughout the underworld, accompanied by the clanging steel of hammers and axes. The Dwarves have arrived to claim their share of the abundant resources and together with the Elves and Humans of the Overworld, they send out their raiding parties to find the Dungeon’s heart.
Dungeons 4 keeps the spirit of its predecessor, but everything is now bigger, better, and with even more dynamic Evilness™.

 

[JarlFrank]

So I got all of these on Steam and tried them, they're decent enough but...

Can someone explain to me what's the actual difference between each title? They pretty much play the same.

 

[KateMicucci]

I gave up on Dungeons III because of the female MC's voice acting.

Build a cozy and comfortable Dungeon to suit your creatures’ needs and rule over them, then send them out into the Overworld to kindly remind the good people living there that the Absolute Evil rules over their lands.

Having different control schemes for units in the overworld and underworld was un-cozy. I get that we're trying to remake a 30 year old game or whatever, but there would be nothing wrong with having normal RTS controls for the underworld too.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

My enjoyment of this series would increase sevenfold if they focused less on their writing.

 

[thesheeep]

I'm honestly suprised the series is still alive and kicking.
Pleasantly surprised, though.

Sure, the series never reached Dungeon Keeper heights of quality, but I'd still say the games (so far) have been enjoyable enough. Just probably not worth the initial asking price.

 

[Jaedar]

So I got all of these on Steam and tried them, they're decent enough but...

Can someone explain to me what's the actual difference between each title? They pretty much play the same.

Isn't dungeons one more of a theme park builder than a dungeon builder? Can't remember dungeons 2, but iirc 3 was kind of an rts except the combat and the base building happened on different levels?

I didn't really like any of them. I'm surprised they were successful enough that they are making more.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I quite enjoyed how they married the Dungeon Keeper aspects with some WC3-esque RTSing. The different control schemes for underworld / overworld was a bit off and felt like something that was essentially 'solved' by the Majesty series is something I wish the devs would've looked into, but, eh. Like others I found the *cough* humorous dialogue to be not quite as humorous as the writers probably thought it was. While I'm not a fan of funny fantasy in the slightest, they could've at least tried to write some jokes or make it a funny setting or.. I don't know, something? Anything? All of the "jokes and gags" in these games are references to other fantasy games and franchises. That's not a joke. It's frustrating to think that somewhere out there is a person walking among us living a normal life, and he was responsible for this crap.

 

[kangaxx]

Apparently this has just come out on Steam. Has anyone played?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Tried it on the game pass. Feels like a pointless sequel to me. Has a few changes here and there that feel arbitrary as they ultimately don't enhance or alter game in any meaningful way. Just little tweaks done for the sake of it. Otherwise it's exactly the same game as Dungeons 3. This could've been a story expansion for D3 that they instead warped into a 50€ product. Get it if you must know what happens next in the story (lol) otherwise you're fine just replaying the previous game. Definitely do not get this at full price.

 

[kangaxx]

I haven't got any of the previous ones, would you say to get this one or the third one? Or just stick to KeeperDK?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Just to be clear: do you mean KeeperRL? If so then I can't comment since I've not played it yet. Anyway if you want to try Dungeons then 3 is not a bad entry point. It's cheaper and has pretty much the same shit going on for it. Get it on a sale, too. It's fine dumb fun but it doesn't scratch the itch the same way Dungeon Keeper does.

 

[kangaxx]

I actually meant KeeperFX, great mod for DK. Thanks in that case I'll wait until Dungeons 4 is heavily discounted before trying.

 

[Gandalf]

Played a couple of Dungeons games and they felt to me like a mix between DK and Warcraft. They don't have this amazing atmosphere of the original DK, but what game does really?

 

[ArchAngel]

I started playing D4 on gamepass two days ago and I like it. This is my first Dungeons game, I've played Dungeon Keeper many years ago.
Yes humor is silly but fun. They even took a stab at Disney at one point ..
I am only in mission 5 so I do not have access to all tech yet, game is still adding new stuff each mission.
Dungeon stuff feels a lot like DK except here all tech depends on collecting Evilness which you need to go to topworld to get or do missions.

 

[Lord of Riva]

I actually meant KeeperFX, great mod for DK. Thanks in that case I'll wait until Dungeons 4 is heavily discounted before trying.

Stick with Dungeon keeper, if you want a game like this play War for the Overworld.

Dungeons 2-4 hasn't much in common with DK and 1 is a whole different (and shitty) beast altogether.

 

[Gandalf]

War for the Overworld

Isn't this more like a DK2, though?

 

[Lord of Riva]

War for the Overworld

Isn't this more like a DK2, though?

Well...

I'm biased, I worked on the game (not getting money out of it anymore, so thats not a selfplug), so I would rather not compare it. It's different than either DK 1 or 2 and it's own thing, it's also not that good by any reasonable metric but when it comes to gameplay it takes more from 2 than 1, even though that is not really a fair comparison.

I love DK 1, I think it's the better game, because it's more fun, it has vision and it looks way cooler but DK 2 updated a lot of things and made changes that fixed a lot of really wierd design decisions that are kinda shit in DK 1. If you play them side by side you wil realise that the second game is superior in a lot of ways compared to the first, I just don't like how it looks and It's just, by far, not as cool.

WFTO is a lot more fast paced than both and it also, that is not deniable, from inexperienced developers and the low Budget we had and that shows. I still think it's worth to play if you have the Itch, I *know* a lot of people put their blood and sweat into it and I think we succeded in a lot of ways but just not all, as well. So check it out. It's fun in Multiplayer as well.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

War for the Overworld

Isn't this more like a DK2, though?

Yes, it is. Also, extremely meh at best.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Hey, no hard feelings, right. Of all the DK2-like attempts it was probably the best one. Not that it says much.

I love DK 1, I think it's the better game, because it's more fun, it has vision and it looks way cooler but DK 2 updated a lot of things and made changes that fixed a lot of really wierd design decisions that are kinda shit in DK 1. If you play them side by side you wil realise that the second game is superior in a lot of ways compared to the first, I just don't like how it looks and It's just, by far, not as cool.

Other than charm, atmosphere and all that jazz games used to once have, DK1 is better mainly for two very measurable reasons:

1. Creature cast. DK2 is not only boring and lame with its "everything's a humanoid" approach, but also very uncreative with many mobs having a pretty much carbon-copy among heroes. You get a thief, an elf archer, a knight and then the ultimate critter is a fallen angel? Yeah, no.
2. And this is by far the biggest one: the campaign. DK1 has different setups and challenges, but never forgets about its core strength and attraction: allowing the player to build, maintain and have fun with a dungeon that he wants. This is very much not the case in DK2, where the campaign falls way too hard for the "quirky xdd" and "puzzle like" memes and in fact there are multiple levels where you pretty much do not build a dungeon at all.

Now, it is true that DK2 introduced a lot of very legit mechanical improvements, but it's not something that can power it through when the content and fun isn't quite there.

All that I can say is that DK1 is one of my most regularly replayed games and probably my third favorite game ever. DK2 I didn't even finish on release, only did it once much later and never really feel like getting back to it. I tried a couple of times, but never went past the first few maps. Don't think it's a horrible game and definitely not the kind of a rapetrain sequel that many other cult games received (myth, homm, fallout et al.), but kinda meh, really.

 

[Raghar]

Was it dumbed down for consoles?

 

[ArchAngel]

Was it dumbed down for consoles?

I doubt it. Playing it on hard on console would be really really hard. Whole thing was designed around using a mouse, with controller everything is harder and slower.

 

[Dr1f7]

I tried dungeons 3 but was kind of surprised that, for a game supposedly about dungeons, I ended up spending like 4/5 of my time in the overworld map playing janky wc3 unit control.

and also, does dungeon layout/design even really matter in these games? I literally just build the required rooms *wherever* then roll out with a big army and either leave like 2 behind to defend or research portals to warp back and forth
idk I guess I was expecting a game where the actual dungeon you build was important but really it seems like the overwhelming focus is on the overworld map, seems backwards game should be called "land" or something
idk if i'm missing something or if this is actually how the game works? I only got like 5 or 6 missions in

also minor gripe that the research doesn't carry over from mission to mission.. so I have a level 10 hero that suddenly becomes level 1 in the next mission, I have to research how to make fucking chickens every mission etc..
the writing is funny at times them cutting off the "racist dwarf" mid sentence was p funny

 

[ArchAngel]

In D4 having good trap design is key or you will need to portal back all the time

 

[Dr1f7]

ok mr. kalypso but i still ain't paying $50 for your game hmu when it's in some dollar bundle

 

[ArchAngel]

ok mr. kalypso but i still ain't paying $50 for your game hmu when it's in some dollar bundle

I played it for "free" on game pass