Customer Reviews

Dungeon Keeper 2

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We waited quite a while for Dungeon Keeper 2 to come out, and bought it immediately when it did. On one hand, it's great for a sequel. People who played DK1 will easily be able to pick up on moving units, building rooms, lining corridors with traps.

The graphics are better in the sense that they're more geared towards future development. Instead of pixel-based graphics, the creatures and rooms are now drawn with polygons. While that makes some of the monsters look clumsy, it does mean that future graphics will be much smoother and cleaner.

Going down into your dungeon by possessing a creature does not cause the creatures to turn into a cloud of dots - the rooms you roam through are still crisp and easy to see. Roaming through your own dungeons is one of the true pleasures of this game, too!

There are only a few extra rooms - you'd have hoped for much more from a sequel that took this long to make. The casino is neat, if only because a jackpot-winning minion starts dancing and singing when he wins. (Disco Inferno!)

Rooms have better graphics, though. The hen-houses in the hatchery, the on-wall bookshelves and torture racks, everything shows a subtle touch.

If choosing between DK1 and DK2, I'd definitely recommend people get this game. The challenges and gameplay in DK2 are better than DK1, and DK1 has many new extra features like Pet Dungeons.

New players will appreciate having a well crafted game that is a fun challenge, while experienced players will appreciate the subtle differences between the old and new version.

Don't expect a masterpiece of Sequelhood, but do expect a fun strategy gaming experience that will last quite a while!

This 1998 release is about as good as gaming gets. In 2005, I bought a used copy in order to re-experience DK2 which I had bought and sold many years earlier.

Today, the product is finicky, and won't work with every computer system. If you have a fancy sound card, you might experience program crashes. I still rate DK2 five stars, because I remember it was fully compatible in '98. How can the producer plan for future sound cards, which should by rights be backwards-compatible?

I had trouble getting it to work with my laptop, but it worked ok with my PC. Both systems run Windows 2000. The main thing is to be using a sound card that DK2 likes. There is a lot of advice out there on the net of marginal usefulness, and some gurus recommend modifying your Windows Registry, but that seemed a bunch of hogwash to me, and I just took the game to a different PC which had an older sound card, and had no more problems. That is, until I upgrade Direct X. Now the game crashes after 30 minutes.

In summary, expect the program to crash if you buy it. If you can get it to work--likely if you have an older PC--then it is very fun. And a bargain for the price--like Quake II.

I loved DK2 because it was naughty, fun, diverse, witty and easy to use. One of the great tragedies of video gaming is that the much-anticipated DK3 never was, or will be, released, due to the myopia of Electronic Arts, which bought Bullfrog, the original producers. They could have earned many millions from a DK3; but they chose not to. For whatever reason.

***RECOMMENDATIONS for Users/Consumers of DK2: ***

I am including this section for those diehard DK loyalists who really want to play this game on their Win 2000/XP system. There are a few things you have to do.

One is, download the upgrade to version 1.7. This is available for free on many places on the web. Get it from a legit source. Avoid pirate Russian/east European web sites which typically attempt to install spyware on your PC. DK2 will ***NOT WORK*** on Windows 2000 without this upgrade! You have been warned! I have never found any difficulty obtaining the upgrade as it is available on many gamer sites.

Two is, you may need to run dxdiag from your Windows Run menu. This *may* fix problems such as choppy/erratic sound or video. Or, it may not, and you may spend many hours trying to get it to work, without success.

Your best prognosis is if you are running Windows 98. This game is the most prone to crashing of any that I have played in my life, on my Win2K system.

Mainly, I recommend using on a Win 98 system.

I'll be perfectly honest. This title wouldn't be in my home if it hadn't been given to be as a birthday gift. In fact, I had the game for a month before even trying to play it. Was totally unimpressed the first night...but...something happened...addiction slowly began to set in...let's just say that this person stayed up playing Dungeon Keeper 2 until 4:30 this morning, fighting creatures, the urge to sleep, and the wisecracking game narrator who at 3 am informed me that "your nocturnal prowess has earned you a special gaming tip---GO TO BED!"

As others have mentioned, humor is a standout feature in Dungeon Keeper 2. If the game had taken itself seriously I wouldn't be staying up so late playing it. Not that humor is all there is though. Carving out a dungeon is challenging and requires strategy, lest you find your treasury drained of gold or end up facing an unexpected enemy attack that kills your minions off one by one.

Like any good game, Dungeon Keeper 2 is easy to learn, but difficult to master. The first level is literally a tutorial in which most of your moves are prompted by the helpful though occasionally sarcastic narrator ("The very rock yawns in anticipation of your next fascinating move," he'll intone if you pause the game for several minutes).

Each succeeding level builds upon the previous, with new challenges being added. Already-completed levels can be replayed as many times as desired, which can be a great way to take a small breather after a lengthy battle with a new enemy.

Each of your dungeon creatures has its own distinct personality. Like children, they'll whine loudly if unable to find a place to sleep, eat, etc. Refuse to cater to a creature's demands and it will eventually leave your dungeon in a huff. On the flip side, if you find the bellyaching to be intolerable in one of the later levels, pick the griper up and drop him in a prison. Eventually he'll die and will come back to life as a more agreeable skeleton! The dead even rise again as vampires in later levels of the game.

Beautiful graphics and sound, first-rate gameplay, and a wonderfully off-beat sense of humor. Dungeon Keeper 2 is first-rate!

The one thing that irritated me about the original DK was the hundreds of superfluous creatures, like tentacles, which never did anything, couldn't fight and just got squished. Happily, there are no such weedy specimens in the splendidly animated and fun DK2. Not only is there more surreal humour ("Your dungeon is on a slope, angry creatures cannot play marbles") but there are better spells, more interesting traps and limitations which stretch you. The enemies are more fun to kill, and the only drawback is that you can't continue a dungeon after you've won. Still, you can't have everything. Now, if you don't mind I'm off to see how my mana score is doing.

Looking for a way to spend the long, dreary winter nights? DK2 is guaranteed to keep you up until the wee hours of the morning. Wonderful graphics, a fairly easy user interface and a sick sense of humour make this offering a sure winner. Be prepared to devote the next 40 hours of your life to mastering this.

I have to preface this review by saying that I am very, very picky when it comes to computer games. I usually find even the most highly-acclaimed titles dull and uninspiring. That being said, what a breath of fresh (er, dank and moldy?) air Dungeon Keeper II is.

I bought this game on a whim. Like most games more than a couple years old, it was dirt cheap, so I decided to take a chance. And how happy I am that I did! Dungeon Keeper 2 is absolutely one of the most fun and addiciting games I've played in 20+ years of gaming. The gameplay is so simple, yet so compelling that I was hooked within 10 minutes. The music and sound effects are great (love those moaning evil mistresses and the groans of the prisoners being tortured). The voiceover work is absolutely the BEST that I have ever heard in a computer game. Whoever the narrator is, he's a voiceover god. Also, the humor in this game is actually funny -- very funny. Unlike most games that fail pitifully in the humor department whenever they attempt it, Bullfrog really pulled it off. And in terms of the graphics, even though they're considered very old at this point, they still look good to me.

Anyhow, I look forward to my next session of Dungeon Keeper 2. My last one went until 2AM (I just couldn't stop). I'd advise anyone who's going to play this game not to start too late, unless you're a night owl. But do yourself a favor and GET THIS GAME. You won't regret it.

This game is a perfect blend of real-time-strategy, simulation, fanstasy role-playing and action. The graphics are mind-boggling, given the low system requirements. The audio is equally outstanding. The gameplay puts such classics as the Warcraft series to shame. It is, beyond any doubt in my mind, the best PC game ever made. Only the Grand Theft Auto series is this complete, this immersive, this original, this good. The terrible shame is that the developers, Bullfrog, shelved the third installment in the series. Write your congressman -- this must not stand! And if you don't already have DK2, get it immediately and prepare to lose weeks of your life to it.

The graphics are decent, the objectives are challenging, and you get to play the villain...what could go wrong? True, it doesn't always work on all computers and crashes a lot but if you keep up with saves its not really that big of a deal. I do warn you that this game is pretty addictive once you get it running smoothly though.

Absolutely great! Great graphics, (not perfect by todays standards!)super fun, and you can download lots of maps and even an editor!! I have half life, halo, doom 3, UT2004, all Need for Speeds,and more; yet I play this MORE!

I never played the first Dungeon Keeper, but I love playing this one. It's like a SimCity, but in my opinion more fun. <wow, I finally get to play something where the good guys are SUPPOSED to loose> It's fun, especially if you role-play, getting to play the nasties that you're usually trying to kill.