Dungeon Lords Preview

After a while I encountered my first enemies - several rabid rats which were in a beastly mood. The bastards attacked me, so I had to suppress my initial urge to run away as I was curious to see what the combat system was like. Well, the situation is very simple when it comes to combat: you have the option to attack or to defend yourself, with the possibility of performing several combo moves in order to keep your precious head on your shoulders. Melee combat is of course only a part of the combat system: soon I discovered I was also able to perform ranged attacks and cast spells, even imbue my weapons with magic, giving them magical attributes.

Too bad I never learned to read.

Quit poking me with that sword, bitch!

When I finally made it to the city, I discovered the gate was closed under the orders of the city's Lord, whose only daughter was missing. However, there was a goblin nearby who was more than willing to show me the secret passage into the city, so I gladly accepted his offer to get me in. And you know what - never trust a goblin who calls himself 'Scorch'. The next thing I knew, those little creeps attacked me so I had an opportunity to put my sword to some good use. Killing my enemies brought me a considerable amount of experience points and gold coins. Of course, I also gained whatever my dead enemies dropped, from healing potions to their weapons.

This is where I first noticed that combat, although fairly simple and basically a typical hack-and-slash experience, does look and play rather good. Of course, it is also rather rough at the moment, but I discovered that my enemies, although not exactly a bunch of Einsteins, weren't that stupid either. They are quite capable of surrounding you and hitting you quite hard until you end up a pile of dead meat, so this is not one of those poor Diablo clones where you only need to press the attack button fast enough and occasionally drink a potion or two. You will need a fair amount of skill to defend yourself. Some of the enemies that can present a real challenge: more specifically, the headless brutes, orc trolls, and goblin mages.

During the battle you sometimes get to see a small note informing you about your opponents' health - this is most helpful as your enemies' health, just as your own, recovers with time so you should not let your enemies recuperate but try to finish them off at all costs.

Similar to other games in the genre, Dungeon Lords requires you to destroy crates and similar objects, as well as to disarm treasure chests scattered around the level in order to obtain gold, weapons and some other useful trinkets. Some treasure chests are protected with very powerful traps that need to be deactivated before you can enjoy their contents. The game brings a rather interesting trap deactivation system where it is necessary to press the button in the right moment in order to open the chest (unless you want to bash it). It is possible to see what the odds are and if it would be better to just leave the bloody thing alone.

After completing several sections of the game I noticed the levels were rather large and varied, with lots of interesting, yet simple puzzles, and some memorable, rather involving scenes, but more on that in our full review of the game.

Concerning the schools of magic and spells featured in Dungeon Lords, Heuristic Park boasts with more than 90 spells present in four different schools of magic. The most basic school is the arcane magic, which concentrates around offensive spells ideal for inflicting direct damage to your opponents. This school includes some very effective spells such as fireball, which are irreplaceable when it comes to tough opponents with a strong melee attack. Another school is the celestial school of magic, which features crystals needed for casting celestial-based spells. These usually serve for healing, slowing time and such. As you need spell books in order to cast arcane spells, you need to find crystals in order to cast celestial spells. Crystals take some time to recharge, so it is of course impossible to cast an infinite number of spells. When it comes to arcane magic, you only have a certain number of arcane spells at your disposal, so if you want to cast more spells, you will have to find more spell books.

The 'black magic school' - nether magic - is probably my favorite school of magic as it features summoning spells (mind you, I am a born druid), and it also allows you magic enhancement of your weapons. One of the simplest, yet rather useful was the Sword of Baal, which allowed me to improve the damage I inflicted with my sword and spared me the expense of buying a new expensive weapon. Nether magic is intended for all creative people out there, as it allows you to mix various ingredients such as bat wings, hippo's farts and such. Rune magic is protective and pretty much functions on the same basic principle of collecting runes for obtaining magic effect which, in this case, are rather long-lasting.

Although you will play solo in Dungeon Lords, the game will support up to eight players in multiplayer, which will allow for cooperative multiplayer where you will be able to join forces with other heroes. The game will also feature a special session mode for player-versus-player game play, as well as deathmatch sessions.

There are several instances in the game I immensely liked. One was in a certain temple where I found myself in a completely empty room - empty, that is, apart from two impressive 'Athens guards' statues positioned against two walls. I exited the room and followed the corridor to the right, only to discover the door has closed in front of my very nose. The same happened in the left corridor, so I turned around in order to go back where I came from. And there they were, two intimidating stone guards on the stairs, with their eyes glowing blue in the dark. I wasn't expecting that, so they managed to scare the hell out of me. I started a fight with them, only to realize I didn't stand a chance. I managed, however, to notice a switch situated where the stone guard previously slumbered. I flipped the switch, dodged the elemental abominations and went back into the corridor - the doors were open once again and I followed the right corridor only to walk through the shadow portal and more importantly, away from the enchanted statues.

Although the game needs more polish, it is already obvious that we are talking about a potentially excellent title which incorporates a simple movement and combat system, very detailed character customization, a wide range of effective spells from four different schools of magic, interesting level design and engaging quests and side-quests.

The thing is, hack-and-slash RPGs were never my cup of tea - I always preferred tactical combat to frenzied hack-and-slash action - but I admire the way Heuristic Park has managed to make the action more involving and sophisticated. Looking forward to playing this title once the full retail version becomes available.