I've been thinking about this one for a while since I vaguely remember enjoying Dungeon Keeper 2 back in the day.

This is a fun game, but I have to say that I almost couldn't make it past the completely godawful storytelling and dialogue. The campaign starts off with a few "on rails" missions with a LOT of exposition. Interesting gameplay broken up with long, boring narration that reads like it was written by a ten year old who fancies themselves the next Douglas Adams. The narrator is quite good at VO, but I actually feel bad when I hear his lines because they're so cringe-worthy.

Seriously, this could be an excellent game if they just stopped trying so hard to be funny. Humor should not be forced, people. It's painful. For example, in the span of one mission, they used the "main character accidentally says a line from Lord of the Rings and then corrects themselves" joke at least three times. It wasn't funny the first time, so imagine my joy at having to hear it over and over again because all of this dialogue kicks off during the game with no option to skip it. (You can -- and should -- skip cutscenes if you hold down the "escape" key. A fitting key binding if I've ever seen one.)

Get a new writer for the next entry in the franchise, please. Or give me the option to omit all of the crappy dialogue in favor of simple mission objective popup or something.

Or just make it a serious game instead of trying to completely copy the tone of the DK games. You're playing a freakin' dungeon lord -- why not make it a dark game that maximizes that anti-hero ethos rather than trying to turn it into a parody piece?

My final word is that the gameplay is just fine and has kept me interested for the first six hours or so. By the second mission, I'd figured out how to build an overworld party that's pretty much impossible to kill, so that part got a bit easy. I was afraid the game would get boring, but now the raids on my dungeon are increasing A LOT and adding considerably to the challenge. This problem is compounded by the fact that traps don't seem to do a whole lot to stop invaders.

Worth a play at a discount, but I wouldn't buy this expecting a bunch of laughs. If that's what you're going for, do what I did...mute the game and put "Crossing Swords" on TV.

I've been thinking about this one for a while since I vaguely remember enjoying Dungeon Keeper 2 back in the day. This is a fun game, but I have to say that I almost couldn't make it past the completely godawful storytelling and dialogue. The campaign starts off with a few "on rails" missions with a LOT of exposition. Interesting gameplay broken up with long, boring narration that reads like it was written by a ten year old who fancies themselves the next Douglas Adams. The narrator is quite good at VO, but I actually feel bad when I hear his lines because they're so cringe-worthy. Seriously, this could be an excellent game if they just stopped trying so hard to be funny. Humor should not be forced, people. It's painful. For example, in the span of one mission, they used the "main character accidentally says a line from Lord of the Rings and then corrects themselves" joke at least three times. It wasn't funny the first time, so imagine my joy at having to hear it over and over again because all of this dialogue kicks off during the game with no option to skip it. (You can -- and should -- skip cutscenes if you hold down the "escape" key. A fitting key binding if I've ever seen one.) Get a new writer for the next entry in the franchise, please. Or give me the option to omit all of the crappy dialogue in favor of simple mission objective popup or something. Or just make it a serious game instead of trying to completely copy the tone of the DK games. You're playing a freakin' dungeon lord -- why not make it a dark game that maximizes that anti-hero ethos rather than trying to turn it into a parody piece? My final word is that the gameplay is just fine and has kept me interested for the first six hours or so. By the second mission, I'd figured out how to build an overworld party that's pretty much impossible to kill, so that part got a bit easy. I was afraid the game would get boring, but now the raids on my dungeon are increasing A LOT and adding considerably to the challenge. This problem is compounded by the fact that traps don't seem to do a whole lot to stop invaders. Worth a play at a discount, but I wouldn't buy this expecting a bunch of laughs. If that's what you're going for, do what I did...mute the game and put "Crossing Swords" on TV.