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Thread: Have Camapaign levels been tested

  
  1. #21
    Awakening Game Master Metal Gear Rex's Avatar
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    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    Having bought and played through the whole campaign as well as a bit in Skirmish and Sandbox, I can say that there are a lot more problems beneath the surface of bugs, performance issues, and bad AI. The game and level design are both overall quite poor or at least significantly inferior to that of either Dk1 / DK2. It's an overall fairly shallow experience because both the dungeon management and combat side of things have been greatly crippled.

    Simply put, there is little to no actual management that needs to take place as everything is automatically done, including critical things like converting in the Torture Chamber. There is no danger of making a mistake because of the ability to rebuild walls and gain infinite gold through one of three methods. Mana is capped low, instead regenerating very quickly, eliminating any real need to watch carefully how much mana you spend or have left. There's even a potion that grants experience, as well as many other ways to expand your army without even leaving the dungeon.

    Combat is a complete mess and it's virtually impossible to tell what is going on or who is even winning sometimes. Creatures can clutter up on the same tile so it's sometimes not even possible to tell how many units each army has left. Due to the inability to pick up creatures off your own land, the balance between defensive and offensive play has been completely skewed in favor of the defensive player; this is to say nothing of all the new ways to gain an edge while fighting defensively that are denied offensively. Competitive multiplayer will never be able to exist because of how dull it will end up being as a result of this very obvious imbalance.

    There's a lot of new features, sure, but there's also a great deal of fluff. There are many things that do exactly the same thing. There's a Construct (think offensive trap) that destroys walls and a potion that does the same thing. There's a Volcanic Bridge spell which builds a bridge over water or lava, just like the Wooden or Stone Bridge. There's even a spell to mine a wall or claim a tile, but it's restricted to land adjacent to yours and it can't be cast on enemy land; it's basically a more expensive and limited form of Create Imp. The list goes on. Defenses (Traps / Doors) are all basically useless because of the double means to tear down walls and completely bypass them unless they're built around the Dungeon Heart.

    The Campaign is just outright terrible. There's a short 13 levels that litterally look like they were made in a week or two. There's no real pacing and almost all forms of difficulty are artificial, where you're set up to face off against an overwhelming force but the solution is to just sit around in your dungeon and grind up your army for at least half an hour. The levels themselves don't even look pretty, instead appearing to be incredibly uninspired; level 10 has a massive hero fort that appears to be three large room designs copied and pasted all over it.

    The plot is simple and predictable while also being poorly presented. Characters and vitally important artifacts just pop up out of nowhere for convenience. The player randomly speaks at two points in the campaign, which is confusing in and of itself as it's not obvious who is speaking. Aside from Richard Riding's voice, voice acting ranges between "acceptable" to just outright awful. Richard Ridings only makes it much more apparent by comparison. The writing only makes things worse, appearing to have been done by a teenager; this goes for both plot and random mentor messages you get every 5 to 10 minutes.

    Overall the game just has no charm or any real redeeming factor. It's completely riddled with poor game design choices, which has absolutely destroyed any concept of balance while also making the game basically a watered down version of either DK1 or DK2. It's just a massive disappointment.

    tl;dr:
    Game sucks, even if you remove all the bugs. Do not recommend.
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  2. #22

    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    I agree that this game needs a lot more work.

    I can tell just by getting the feel and impression of this game that the developers have rushed this project.

    Skirmish and multiplayer mode have problems, and there're only thirteen levels in the campaign whilst Dungeon keeper has twenty. Strangely enough I actually enjoyed playing it. But a lot more work is needed.

    I give this game a rating of 7/10. It's still worth playing.

  3. #23

    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    "Rushed" is a bit much.
    Mismanaged or poor focus, maybe.

    Unless you're talking about the campaign alone, and not the game itself. The campaign certainly seems rushed.

    - - -
    MGR beats up on this game hard enough alone, we don't all need to dogpile it.

  4. #24
    Mapmaker Skarok's Avatar
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    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    Releasing an unfinished, bug-riddled game with a lot of its promised content missing or outright not working, with the developers knowing about a lot of problems does definitely fit my description of "rushed". Mismanagement of the resources certainly helped in that aspect. Additionally the developers themselves said that they were running out of cash and had to get the game out. WftO was certainly rushed and released in an unfinished state.

    Rex might make his points somewhat harshly, but they are nontheless justified and have merrit to them. Critizing something is certainly not "dogpiling" it.
    There is absoluetly nothing wrong with DK Mobile, whatsoever.

  5. #25
    Awakening Game Master Metal Gear Rex's Avatar
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    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    I just struggle to find anything good to say about the game because of the overwhelming amount of bad. Just about anything good the game has to offer is undone by several bad things that damage the overall experience.

    The sad part about it all is that most of WftO's problems seem to stem from one part of the game as a result of a single individual.
    Dungeon Keeper 2 Patch: With More Balance and Pie [Hiatus]
    Forever Hiatus. Probably. Latest Version: 3.5 w/Levels 1-11 Revised.

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    Tesonu is napping!

  6. #26

    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    Quote Originally Posted by Woudo View Post
    "Rushed" is a bit much.
    Mismanaged or poor focus, maybe.

    Unless you're talking about the campaign alone, and not the game itself. The campaign certainly seems rushed.
    Many people seem to enjoy the game, so I see no problem in arguing it is fun, but how is it not rushed? Not even the people who made the game argue it is not rushed, they have several blog posts stating how many long hours they worked to try and meet the deadline, and still had no time to finish the majority of it. Beyond all the obvious bugs, also all the placeholders, missing game modes, lack of maps. They ran out of time and tried to make the best of it at the eleventh hour.

  7. #27

    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    I just don't think rushed is the right word. Rushed implies they intentionally threw it out the door as quickly as possible regardless of the state it was in. The full story seems like they set themselves a deadline they perceived to be reasonable and as a result of their inexperience (and presumably many other issues) failed to reach it.

    It's like comparing a student who throws together something on the last night of the deadline to a student who is "a few knights short of a crusade" but spent the entire month working on an assignment.
    One is a little more deserving of scorn than the other.

  8. #28

    Default Re: Have Camapaign levels been tested

    Sure, they didn't start too late. But nobody is implying that. They worked hard not smart and released before they were finished.

    When I did software releases I made it lay completely finished - manuals, installers, software, everything - for an entire week before sending it out, simply to get a relaxing attitude and give people the chance to do proper release communication.
    So the exact opposite from coding until the night of release and hoping for the best.

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