A warm feeling of nostalgia washes over me as I expand my dungeon. Snots dig around the paths leading from my dungeon heart, creating lairs, gobbler farms, training rooms, and traps. I start to build up my base, enlisting a variety of demons, undead, and horde creatures to help me vanquish the forces of good. It all feels very familiar to someone raised on Bullfrog games. Then came the announcement, “Enemies are in your dungeon.” I rounded the corner, ready to tackle those pesky dwarves. Then I saw them. Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders?
Dungeons 4puts you firmly back in the role of The Absolute Evil, a disembodied hand commanding minions to amass an army overseen by Dark Elf Thalya, and vanquish the forces of good. While the storyline for the game’s 20-mission campaign follows on from Dungeons 3, if you, like me, have no prior knowledge, don’t worry. The experience is not diminished in any way. All you need is a desire to see evil win the fight for once.
The Dungeons series somehow passed me by, but Dungeons 4 has quickly mined its way into my evil-loving heart where it will likely stay for a long time. It has all the hallmarks of a classic dungeon builder. There are resources to balance, rooms to create, armies to grow, and needs to be met. The top-down view fits perfectly for this task, and while Dungeon Keeper is clearly an influence here, Dungeons 4 has grown well beyond any humble evil beginnings into a sprawling cavern of dangers.
Deep underground I expected to rule over all without being challenged. I mean, I’m The Absolute Evil, right? This dark dungeon located deep in underground caverns, surrounded by random lava pits, is surely my domain. It checks all the evil lair boxes. I have gold and gems to mine, rocks to hollow out, lava to push enemies into, and some nice long corridors begging for a Saw trap. However, as I expanded my base to reach the corners of the map, I was surprised to find not just one, but two unexpected opponents - spiders and dwarves.
Spiders I should have expected. I mean, dark caves are their whole thing, so their presence is perfectly understandable; even if my gut instinct is that I must immediately burn everything to the ground and run away. It turns out there are some demons that can help with that, and it’s just as satisfying as stomping on one in the bathtub. So, spiders obliterated, I dug deeper until I hit a shiny dungeon door. Dwarves.
I initially thought the forces of good were confined to the overworld, prancing around in the land of unicorns and sunshine. Well, it turns out that the dwarves got a sniff of the gems and gold down here, and they want some for themselves. You’ll need to amass a decent-sized army to stomp them out as well, since many of them have firmly set up camp, especially if you’re playing on higher-level difficulty settings.
The presence of threats from new angles adds an extra dimension to your planning and gameplay. If you hit these pesky dwarves too soon they’ll come flooding out and seek your resources for themselves. However, you can’t put off fighting the dwarves forever, because their bases hold portals to the overworld which you’ll often need to use in order to fulfill your objectives.
The overworld adventures also switch focus a little as the emphasis here is firmly on conquering your enemies with RTS-style combat. The switch works well but you’ll never end up with huge battles of hundreds of enemies due to the fact that the dungeon has an in-built minion cap. There are three types of creatures you may create, and leveling each branch increases your army size.
The hard cap for your army remains in double digits, so you can’t just turtle up until you have 200 troops and can stomp your enemies in seconds.
Having to plan more carefully against unseen dangers means the management and strategy side of the game is hugely increased. The minions under your control will need food, training, and relaxation as well as a place to sleep. These are the easiest needs to meet as they don’t change unless you level up and increase your creature cap. However, they are just the start. Your dungeon will also need reinforced walls, guards, and traps to protect its heart. Invaders can destroy these items, and as they increase in number and level, your defenses will have to match.
to fulfill these requirements you’ll have to manage two separate resources: gold and the aptly-named evilness. That’s right, your lair is upgraded by collecting evilness, generated by your evil deeds. There’s a natural build-up over time due to things like slaughtering goodly invaders, but you will eventually hit a wall and have to venture to the overworld. Sometimes this is sooner than you’d like, but you have to make a choice. There are unicorns to slay for a large influx of evilness, but at the cost of a long fight, or you can seek out and destroy the many patrols in the cities above you. Dealer’s choice.
As you level up further, you can also choose to add magic to the mix. Again this is something that needs to be managed. You’ll have to dig up mana, learn the spells, cast the spells, then rinse and repeat. There are also manavores to contend with, annoying creatures who start as small critters you can easily miss, but then eat your mana and increase their own strength at the cost of your casting power.
TIP - Never underestimate the manavores. They are easy to stomp when they appear, but they get very strong and very fast, if left near mana.
The campaign also includes some levels with unique mechanics, such as needing to protect and feed baby Gorgu (yes, they went there), who somehow manages to devour a large number of adult heroes, despite his tiny size.
You can find out more about the game’s humourin our preview
If you’re thinking this all sounds a little wild and humorous you’d be correct. Laughter is the backbone of this game with everything hung upon it. From the campaign’s story with its quips and fourth wall breaking to the names of the spells and the minions, everything has a comedic edge to it, brought to life with excellent music and narration.
Dungeons 4 is a complete package that delivers a way to embrace your dark side, build your very own evil empire, and see the forces of good reduced to dust. It heavily focuses on resource management more than strategic combat, which may be off-putting to some, but there’s a lot of challenge here, and combat is equally as satisfying. Just watch out for the unicorns. They’re more fierce than you’d think.
