Frodo
05-31-2005, 10:56 AM
Here is a short review from the Washington Post that I found at the Star-Telegram.com website. The Star-Telegram is a Dallas/Fort Worth newspaper. I pasted the whole thing here since the site is subscription based (its free though). http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/11778062.htm
Dungeon Lords
DreamCatcher Games for Win 98 or newer, $40
This game comes from a developer, D.W. Bradley, with a long history of making titles for hard-core fans of role-playing games -- the folks who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons on pen and paper. Dungeon Lords heads in a different direction. As a single-player, third-person-perspective role-playing game, it has you spending much more time running, jumping and slashing than patiently collecting swords and shields or "leveling up" your character by succeeding at side quests.
Because of all the monsters that keep appearing randomly, you can rarely let your guard down -- something that ought to appeal to action gamers. On the other hand, role-playing aficionados will also find a detailed character system that allows for plenty of interesting diversions in the form of side quests, guilds to join and nonplayer characters to meet and sometimes kill. These two schools of game design, however, don't always combine pleasingly.
Once you've hacked through the first few beasts and figured out the lay of the land, Dungeon Lords starts to fall short in other ways. Parts look embarrassingly unfinished: You can't craft your character's looks, even though the manual says you can, and the hot key for bringing up a map overlay doesn't do anything. The graphics look average at best and suffer from a lack of variety.; how long do you want to waste blundering around, lost in the same nondescript woods? Finally, the monsters here act pitifully stupid. Some can't climb stairs, while others simply stand there and yell at you as you ventilate them with arrows.
It's possible to have a good time playing Dungeon Lords, but it takes a little too much forgiveness for both its sloppy workmanship and occasional mishmash of genres.
-- John Breeden II,
The Washington Post
Dungeon Lords
DreamCatcher Games for Win 98 or newer, $40
This game comes from a developer, D.W. Bradley, with a long history of making titles for hard-core fans of role-playing games -- the folks who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons on pen and paper. Dungeon Lords heads in a different direction. As a single-player, third-person-perspective role-playing game, it has you spending much more time running, jumping and slashing than patiently collecting swords and shields or "leveling up" your character by succeeding at side quests.
Because of all the monsters that keep appearing randomly, you can rarely let your guard down -- something that ought to appeal to action gamers. On the other hand, role-playing aficionados will also find a detailed character system that allows for plenty of interesting diversions in the form of side quests, guilds to join and nonplayer characters to meet and sometimes kill. These two schools of game design, however, don't always combine pleasingly.
Once you've hacked through the first few beasts and figured out the lay of the land, Dungeon Lords starts to fall short in other ways. Parts look embarrassingly unfinished: You can't craft your character's looks, even though the manual says you can, and the hot key for bringing up a map overlay doesn't do anything. The graphics look average at best and suffer from a lack of variety.; how long do you want to waste blundering around, lost in the same nondescript woods? Finally, the monsters here act pitifully stupid. Some can't climb stairs, while others simply stand there and yell at you as you ventilate them with arrows.
It's possible to have a good time playing Dungeon Lords, but it takes a little too much forgiveness for both its sloppy workmanship and occasional mishmash of genres.
-- John Breeden II,
The Washington Post