Preview Dungeon Lords hands-on preview at IGN

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Dungeon Lords; Heuristic Park Inc.

<a href=http://www.ign.com>IGN</a> has posted a 2-page <a href=http://pc.ign.com/articles/582/582322p1.html>preview</a> of the combat RPG of 2004, <a href=http://www.dungeonlords.com>Dungeon Lords</a>, praising gameplay but noting that combat is "still a little loose", whatever it is.
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<blockquote>Combat isn't exactly a complicated affair. Once you get a hang of using different attacks to hit in combination and for different reasons, it's mainly about positioning your body to the best effect and upgrading your character as experience is gained. One of the cool things about Dungeon Lords is that while your character does gain in level, experience points can be immediately spent at any time in a ton of different areas. So if you have some experience saved up and you run across a chest that requires a higher "disarm traps" skill than you currently have, you can go into the character screen and spend some points in that area.</blockquote>That's very cool indeed. Another cool thing about Dungeon Lords is that it has itamz like swords and axes. Far out, huh?
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[Fez]

Last year was not the best year for single player RPGs on the PC. In fact, recent years have been blatantly sucked.

Looks like IGN is aiming for the flip-flop world cup.

In order to help gamers settle into their role as hero and really sink their teeth into Dungeon Lords, the party system that had been popular in many RPGs of the past has gone away in favor of the lone wolf hero that becomes powerful enough to defeat whole armies of enemies.

Oh, how original.

Before too long, the responsibility of finding the girl, along with a myriad of other problems, was resting on my dwarven shoulders.

Sorry Mario; the Princess is in another castle.

Role-playing at its finest! I can't wait.

 

[Screaming_life]

Assuming he has reported in the same way as he plays: "straightforward and to the point" then it seems this game is gonna be quite shallow and a bit of a hack and slash level up fest.

...Quests need to be rounded and filled,

What quests? what were they like? were they pure combat? TELL ME!!!!

when new enemies appear in the game world (it seems to be empty until the game decides to add some enemies near you)

i hate respawning

Every few meters a new pack of bad guys or monsters came from the woods to attack. It makes the journeys between towns and areas more interesting and allows the quick gain of experience for the tougher dungeon areas.

yeah thats what we what! loads of bad guys every few yards! yeah yeah kill kill, more experience, more power, more enemies! more action! ...... oh but wait... won't that become very boring very quickly? and thinking about it, isn't this just to compensate for the dumb asses who spent their experience unwisely? or perhaps they are too lazy to think about balancing?

I'm only a few hours into the game at this point, but I've already managed to come across goblins, wolves, rats, giant spiders, zombies, and bandits.

Well thats ok then, maybe i'll be fooled by the variety of badies i have to kill... maybe that will make it less repetative?!

I decided to stick with beating enemies senseless

I hope this preview sounds shit because of the person writing it and not because of the game.... i can still dream!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Every few meters a new pack of bad guys or monsters came from the woods to attack. It makes the journeys between towns and areas more interesting and allows the quick gain of experience for the tougher dungeon areas.

yeah thats what we what! loads of bad guys every few yards! yeah yeah kill kill, more experience, more power, more enemies! more action! ...... oh but wait... won't that become very boring very quickly? and thinking about it, isn't this just to compensate for the dumb asses who spent their experience unwisely? or perhaps they are too lazy to think about balancing?

Here's to hoping developers re-figure out that walking through hordes of monsters to get from Town A to Town B sucks and they re-introduce world map travel. It will probably be called INNOVATION when it happens.

 

[Circuitbreaker]

I'm especially disappointed that you'll have only one character and not a party. What's the use then of all those fluffy, furry beast races we have been promised earlier on, are they gone as well ??

 

[Digit]

Gah! I just read that pitiful excuse of a preview.

You can still play the beastmen from what I understand, "Seven different races and two genders begin the picking. Everything from the beastly Urgoth and Wylvan to the graceful Elves and exceedingly normal humans are available."

To be honest I don't know why you guys are all so worried, A) It was billed as a combat(action) RPG, so if you were expecting anything other than -surprise!- combat, then you have been barking up the wrong tree, and B) The preview is from IGN, a site that no self respecting gamer would ever take seriously. You all know that to warrant the use of an RPG tag, people just need some sort of levelling. Skill levelling will do fine.

They start off badly already, "Father PC has been largely forgotten leaving us weeping for the deep story-based gaming experiences that were once so common. Thankfully, there are still a few developers out there that have a soft spot for the best platform of all." If you believe that Dungeon Lords is going to have an epic story that will move you whilst you play you are setting yourself up for a fall. Read the site and check the screenshots of the inventory/skills. Its all combat focused.

Ok its D W Bradley, so maybe the story won't be terrible, if may even be good. I am just saying that I don't think this was the focus of the game when they made it. Personally I am looking forward to it, I think a good hackemup will be fun and it will probably have a few nice twists.

Digit

 

[Screaming_life]

Here's to hoping developers re-figure out that walking through hordes of monsters to get from Town A to Town B sucks and they re-introduce world map travel. It will probably be called INNOVATION when it happens.

I'd actually prefer to travel between destinations - i find it more immersive, but whats happened to the subtleties and rewards of exploration?! I just think it's lazy design to just spawn enemies everywhere, not to mention boring!