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> Results: Dungeon Lords
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Dungeon Lords is a fantasy role-playing game from legendary game designer D.W. Bradley. Bradley designed the beloved Wizardry V through VII and the not so beloved Wizards & Warriors. This new game is called a ﾑfantasy combat RPG'. It claims to be a deep, complex RPG with a twisting storyline combined with a robust combat system. So how well does the game achieve these claims?
Not well at all. Quite simply, the game is a mess that was not ready for release. There are visibly missing features, some features you think might be missing but aren't sure, a number of poorly implemented or poorly balanced features, and several serious bugsﾗa couple of which are game ending. In the end you are left wondering how good the game could be if all of these issues were resolved.  Unless you are starved for an action-RPG game, just stop reading now and avoid this title. If you are a PC RPG fan looking for a game, download the demo and see how you feel about the action. While there are changes from the released product, if you hate the demo you won't like the game. If you are still reading this, here's why you might actually want to buy and play this game: for all the problems the game has, there are rewards for those players hardy enough to brave the game. The story is basic fantasy stuff in which you are ﾑthe chosen one' who will save the kingdom from the forces of evil, with various plot twists and turns along the way. There is nothing particularly new, or any true plot-branching or choices for the hero. Graphically the game is acceptable, with quality similar to Quake III Arena era games. The outdoor areas include a uniform forest area with lakes and swamps and occasional towns. The dungeons vary pretty widely in their design. Character models and animations vary from poor to excellent. Fortunately the monsters you spend most of the game battling are well designed. The game has a single musical theme, played only at the menu. The rest of the game uses ambient forest, jungle and monster sounds for environment. The combat system uses the first-person shooter ﾑWASD' control system, with hotkeys for quick access to items and menus. The combat uses a combination of directional movement and mouse clicks, similar to Jedi Knight II, and also has combos once a required skill level has been reached. There are some significant issues with the game. There are missing features such as an in-game map and appearance customization. Then there are poorly implemented features such as the Journal, which is the worst I have ever seen in a modern RPG. Also, rather than enemies with significant intelligence, the game throws ﾑspawn mobs' at you on a regular basis. Finally there are badly designed features such as the revive feature that removes any advancement points even if you have a resurrect scroll.  The best things about the game are the character customization, the dungeons, and to some extent the combat. The game uses a loose class system, where choice of class gives you ﾑdiscounts' in skill costs. Since you can obtain two Tier 1, two Tier 2 and one Tier 3 class, it is possible to construct a very powerful BattleMage, for example. The dungeons are very well designed, full of surprises and challenging puzzles and it is clear that the greatest effort went into their design. You really have to think about getting through the puzzle areasﾗmore than in any other recent RPG. Unfortunately, there are numerous problems that hamper even the good parts of Dungeon Lords. While I loved the dungeon designs and puzzles, the ﾑmob spawn' continues as you attempt to solve puzzles. This is annoying and comes across as lazy design. Also, although the melee combat works pretty well, the magical system is not well balanced. The ﾑcharges' for Arcane spells such as fireball are too expensive and rare, and the options for ﾑcamping' to replenish charges too infrequent and slow. Eventually you do reach the point where your mage can become a powerhouse, but getting there requires an undue level of dedication and effort. The other branches of magicﾗrune and celestial in particularﾗare even more woefully underdeveloped. Finally, while character customization lets you choose a path, combat reality requires significant melee skills. Plot-critical items in trapped chests also require every character take several levels of thieving skills when you would rather be developing your primary skills. While the game world is vast, it is empty. Outside of the initial town, there are no non-essential NPC's. The largest town has fewer than 10 people in six buildings. There is no ﾑcolor', no life to observe, and while you can see night and day transpire, it has little relevance anywhere in the world. Also, while the quests you get are interesting and challenging far beyond those normally found in action-RPGs, aside from class-progression quests there are no ﾑside quests'. Multiplayer action comes in the form of cooperative play of the single player game. I have been unable to try the LAN co-op and have made multiple unsuccessful attempts to play the Internet mode. I've tried it on computers that I've played many multiplayer games with ease, but with Dungeon Lords I could either not connect, and if I could connect the game was filled with lag. It might be fun over a LAN, but on the Internet it doesn't work. As a fully finished game with working multiplayer it would be a worthwhile game to spend money buying. Not a classic, nor one of the greats, but a fun game and worthwhile addition to the genre. It has a good story, very good character development system, fun and exciting combat and excellent dungeon designs. But it is hampered by an empty world, missing or poorly implemented features, and numerous bugs and poor design choices. Some of these things balance out, and the excellent dungeons stand as truly remarkable challenges. It is a game that I had a lot of fun playing, but will probably rarely touch in the future. There is no excuse for shipping a game in this state. The unpolished release manages to stand out among many other unpolished games. 
There are many ﾑrating gap' games, especially in the E to T range. This game is rated T, but there is an M-rated level of blood. There is, however, no bad language, no nudity or implied sexual situations, and the women are not displayed in an objectified manner. The pacing of the story and dialogue is from a different gaming era, and younger gamers may find it boring or annoying. But if they enjoy the action of games like Jedi Knight II, and are looking for a fun fantasy role-playing game, this might be worth a try.
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