It's always fun to discover an overlooked game. When you're poring over the stock at Babbage's... stuck in a sea of Need for Turismo Racer 5 clones... it's easy to pass by the games and genres that are under-represented on the racks. There's probably only one copy of Dungeon Keeper 2 at your local Babbage's. And it's probably stored sideways.
By god, man! Pull that one out! DK2 is a terrific army-building and city-constructing game, in the traditional real-time strategy style. It's your own SimDungeon.
As the titular Dungeon Keeper, you must carve your underground lair out of unexplored rock. Your dungeons grows in personality as you create rooms and then "paint" them for specific purposes: prison, torture chamber, training room, etc. The kind of dungeon you build determines what creatures you will attract... and eager-to-serve minions will start walking into your dungeon as soon as the level starts. It's your job to keep them happy (fed and paid) while preparing them to take over whatever enemy dungeons may be nearby.
More often than not, the enemy dungeons are controlled by the Goodly Heroes... your stereotypical collection of Tolkien castoffs. The enemy AI is very poor, and their chief advantage lies mainly in number. Therefore, a great many of your wins will come from tactical planning, not storming the castle. As the campaign mode progresses, you'll come into conflict with enemy Keepers, who are just as evil as you... but with the same lame AI.
Graphically, the world of DK2 is entirely 3D. The camera view can be spun and zoomed to any level or position... including a very satisfying close up perspective. Zooming in is very helpful during major battles, so you can more easily tell which creatures need to healed or moved around. But even more impressive (and this is one of those bonus features I can't stop raving about), you can magically possess one of your creatures and see your dungeon though its eyes. When in "possessed" mode, the game turns into a simple first-person shooter. Now, it's not a GREAT first-person shooter... it's rather slow and a little awkward, but it's still great fun to be able to walk around your creations and subjects. (Imagine how cool it would be to do this in something like Starcraft!) You can use your creatures' various weapons and spells to lead attacks on the enemy, all while controlling it at their visual level. Impressively, the game has different viewpoints for different creatures: when inside a fire-breathing salamander, you'll see everything in shades of red; the human guard has to look through the slits of his helmet; and while you're playing a skeleton, all the game's noises will sound hollow and muted. The possession feature makes the Dungeon Keeper series a standout, and really shows off how a fully 3D RTS can integrate a more interactive design. (As opposed to the standard far-off three-quarter god-perspective.)
There are lots of other niceties as well, like the varied creature animations, the wealth of sounds, the ability to control your dungeon's interior lighting... lots of stuff that really isn't necessary to play the game, but Bullfrog put it in anyway because they knew it was good. And to find a few easter eggs, try possessing a chicken or playing the game after midnight.
But all of this goodness does come at a cost. Because of all the 3D rotating and zooming and animating, the actual population of your dungeon can be very limited. Throughout the campaign game, my population averaged about 30 creatures at any given time. In most RTS games, an army of 30 means an army of fodder. So you never really get that classic feeling of having raised a gigantic horde. Plus, you have to pay your mooks every so often, so a smaller, well-trained army is often better anyway. (Hint: build a prison as soon as you can so you can raise skeletons. Skeletons don't require food or wages, and are very willing to train to improve fighting skills.)
Also, the levels tend to be fairly easy to complete. The Goodly Heroes are often so stupid that you can just pick them off one by one. Since most levels end simply by killing the designated Lord of the Land, all you have to do is gang up on him and ignore anything else. Luckily, there are a few breakout levels that require some genuine thought (especially when finances are limited) and some interesting bonus levels that you'll be able to try over and over again.
After each campaign level, you'll get a brief full-motion video movie. Although they are all beautiful, they are mostly stupid... like the one that dramatically shows an imp running from a giant, only to escape by dropping his backpack. What? Was that it? Although they make for interesting end-level prizes (you can view them all again later form the extras menu), they're really FMV just for the sake of having FMV.
Once you've finished the campaign mode, you can still tackle the My Pet Dungeon mode (which is a series of open-ended levels) or instigate skirmish levels for a quick fight. Multiplayer over LAN or internet is included, as well as a poor man's battle.net connection service. (Which I have yet to see much activity on... my suggestion is to round up your own players and play multiplayer on your LAN.)
Dungeon Keeper 2 is just about all I've played this month, to the point where it totally pre-empted my other current favorites. There's no greater compliment a game can receive.
