Dungeon Keeper 2

Format PC

Developer Bullfrog

Publisher Electronic Arts

Genre Sim / Strategy

Each level starts out with a Dungeon Heart, some cash and a handful of imps. The Dungeon Heart is the nerve centre of your realm, and if it gets destroyed it's game over. You need to mine out the gold that surrounds your Dungeon Heart, expand these passages into rooms and try to attract some minions to do your dirty work for you. Whether you're playing the single player campaign or a multi player deathmatch the idea is the same - build the biggest and best dungeon you can and fend off your attacker using guile, cunning, traps and brute force. But your creatures won't work in any old conditions. You have to provide a few little luxuries, and even pay them, or they might get upset and stage a mass walk out.

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A huge variety of creatures come under your control in Dungeon Keeper 2. The most basic are imps, magical critters that you can create using your mana force. If you want anything more powerful you'll need to find and claim a portal, which is a gateway to Monsters 'R' Us, or something. But even that
isn't enough, as you need to provide the right selection of rooms before the beasties will appear. And beware that even though they are all on your side, some types of minion can't stand others - you might see them swatting at Fireflies, for example, and woe betide anyone who makes too much noise near a
studious Warlock.



Trolls and Goblins are useful in a fight, but they are most useful to you in a workshop or Training Room. A library attracts Warlocks, who study to research new spells and traps. Build a guard room and Dark Elves will appear, their sharp shooting crossbow skills are handy in a pitched battle. More exotic creatures are harder to gain. You need a Torture Chamber to attract kinky Mistresses, and you won't see a Dark Knight without a Combat Pit. Skeletons and Vampires can also be created by leaving the dead bodies of your enemy in a Prison or Graveyard. The ultimate beastie is Horny, a massive Red Devil who can only be summoned when your mana level goes through the roof. He stomps about the place leaving burning footsteps, and eats most other creatures for breakfast.



As well as a fighting force, you can provide traps and doors to hinder the progress of invading heroes. Doors are fairly self explanatory, ranging as they do from simple wooden affairs to magical portals and hidden entrances. There are loads of trap types, and most have a cool effect. A fear trap will scare off individual attackers, while an alarm trap will cause your minions to come running when it is set off. Whenever you place a trap or door, a blueprint appears on the spot, then your trolls will build the item in their workshop before an imp drags it into position. It's the little details like this that make Dungeon Keeper 2 cool.

As you dig out your dungeon, you need to assign room types to spaces in order to attract some minions. Most basic are the lair, for sleeping, and the hatchery, which supplies food. After this you'll need a treasury to store gold, a library for your warlocks and a workshop so your trolls can manufacture traps and doors. If you want your creatures to get stronger you must provide a training room, although they can only power up to level four here, Further experience is gained through battle. A guard room is useful because anyone posted there will spot attacks coming a mile off.



After this, things get more sophisticated. A torture chamber will attract Mistresses, and can also be used to get information out of captured heroes. You can also build a prison and a graveyard, to turn vanquished foes into Skeletons or Vampires, and a temple means you can also carry out sacrifices.
The casino is a place where your minions will happily go to spend their hard earned gold, and you can even rig the payout so they lose it all. Finally, the combat pit can be used to train up fighters when they've reached the limit in the training room



Once you have Warlocks studying in your library, new spells gradually become available. These range from the basic imp creator and a simple thunderbolt to zap enemies, through to Possession and the Tremor spell, which causes an massive earthquake wherever you use it. Each time you use a spell it costs mana, so keep an eye on how much you have left or you might run out of juice at a critical moment. Once all the spells on a level have been researched, the Warlocks will study to upgrade them, creating more powerful attacks.

One of the best spells is Possession, which lets you take control of one of your creatures and see the world through their eyes. Every type moves at a different speed, and has different powers so if you need to you can get stuck into some first-person fighting or mining. There are some cool effects in this view too, such as the Firefly's compound eyes or the Vampire's infra-red vision.



Unless you take control of a creature with the Possession spell, you donit have much input into the battles in Dungeon Keeper 2. Therefore itis important that you make sure your minions are getting enough training, and that you place traps and guard rooms wisely so that your forces will be alerted as soon as anyone tries to attack. In the heat of battle you can help out with your spells, but be careful as some of the more violent ones can affect your own side.



Also included for those in need of a little practice is My Pet Dungeon. Here you are free to develop your stronghold without an objective or fear of attack from goodly forces. Once you're up and running, you can also choose to test your defensive systems with a random incursion by a band of Heroes.



Itis pretty clear that Dungeon Keeper 2 is going to be a brilliant game. The first one suffered in the shops because by the time it was released it looked a little outdated. No problems in that department here, because DK2 has some of the most… lovely PC graphics weive seen for a long time. It goes to show that Bullfrog have still egot iti post-Peter Molyneux, and if this isnit a huge success Iill personally come round your house and beat you up, okay?

Alex C