Good game but something is missing...
User Rating: 7.8 | Dungeon Keeper 2 (Classic) PC
Having played this game two times, back in 1999 and now, 2005, probably this game had more of my time than it should.But i played the first game and loved it, a lot! One of my favorite games ever, but the sequel while better in some areas, lacks severely in others. Creatures In this game you are evil, in these days that´s kinda common but back then there was not much of it. You´re a dungeon master trying to pet your creatures while fending off the good guys. You can do this, using spells and by using your creatures to fight them off. There´s a litle RPG here since you can level your creatures up to level 10, you level them by fighting the good guys or by training, here is where i find one of the problems of this game, at least in comparison to the first game, there are two rooms you can train them one levels the creatures to level 4 and the other up to level 8,the second, Combat pit, is where there´s a litle problem, you drop your creatures into the pit, two or more of them, and they fight to near death, this is where there´s a litle micromanagement involved that wasn´t on the first game, since most of the time you have to tell your workers to go get the injured, while it does´nt seem much, near the end of the game, when you need fully leveled creatures it becomes quite annoying since you have to monitor the training and it becomes kinda boring, good thing the creatures level fast, or you could take hours to finish a level. But here comes another problem. You dont want to train your creatures to level 8? Fine, just train them to level 4 and summon Horny (by far the most powerfull creature in the game) every time you need fighting.That´s all you need right up there to the last level. Traps There are quite a lot of traps and doors on this game, while it seems nice and probably adds a litle depht to the game, they are really not needed (with the noble exception of the doors). Since traps use mana and Horny uses it too to stay longer in the dungeon it´s really a no brainer since even half a dozen traps have trouble killing enemy heroes but Horny easily kills a few. Rooms The rooms are used to attract creatures to your dungeon, there are quite a bunch in this game but after you figure out wich creatures are best you just build a few. Graphics and sound This is where the game shines. Really! It´s 2005 and i can really find these grafics appealing, they stand really well the test of time. The sound is top notch, with screaming heroes and nice effects, you wont have the need for your MP3 collection! Gameplay and final thoughts This game plays good has no control issues and killing heroes is really fun. Why am i bashing it? Simply put it: the first game was much better!! Why? Level design. In the first game you fought heroes, enemy keepers and the map itself. In DK2 you just dig everything, find the good guys and summon Horny. In the first you had to expand, to train your creatures, build traps to defend yourself and when your creatures where leveled attack. Other very important issue, while fighting heroes is nice, fighting enemy keepers is a lot more fun, and while the first game put aside the good guys killing in the name of fun, the second doesnt. After all this i can still easily recommend this game. In six years still there´s nothing like it and in the end: Evil is good. 
