Coming from developer Realmfroge Studios and publisher Kalypso Media, Dungeons 4 invites you back to the throne of the Absolute Evil. It’s time to amass your armies of greedy creatures, slap around some Little Snots and bring chaos to the lush, green, disgustingly bright lands of the Overworld.
One might wonder – but wait a minute, didn’t we already do just that in the previous installment? Well… yes, but due to an unfortunate workplace incident involving a massive gauntlet and some finger snapping, you find yourself in a position that requires you to start it all again.
At least you have your loyal Little Snots, cranky Narrator and trusted follower Thalya to help you along, right? Right?.. As it turns out, you can’t hire competent support even in the depths of the Underworld. And so it falls personally to you, the Immaterial and Very Unamused Evil, to make sure that things get done and do-gooders get a proper kicking in the process.
Continue reading on to see how well it goes! This is our Dungeons 4 review.
The premise of the game repeats its predecessor’s beat for beat: you are the Absolute Evil and you (and yours) have a mighty personal grudge against anything bright, soft, squishy and glittery.
Dungeons 4 offers a lengthy single-player campaign that follows the adventures and shenanigans of Dark Elf Thalya as she (once again) attempts to deal with her goody-two-shoes family with some plot twists and jabs at famous franchises thrown in along the way. You can also dive into a Skirmish or get into co-op.
The unamused Narrator mocks anyone and anything standing in his path: from the Mission-Delaying Evil, to Thalya that won’t know common sense even if it bit her, to your Little Snots and armies, to the general happenings around the game world. No one will leave without their dose of sarcasm, ensuring that any moment of gameplay is filled with dry dad joke-y type of fun.
The very structure of the campaign is presented in such a way as to ruthlessly call out the overused genre tropes, like the bad – or the good, in our case – guy getting away at the last moment, lengthy overblown speeches, and more.
The unapologetic mockery of all things under the sun is one of the best features of Dungeons 4, and the game is not shy of them, either. Whether you are looking for a comedic relief from more serious titles, an RTS to lose a few dozen hours in or casual dungeon sim, Dungeons 4 likely has it all and more.
When it comes to gameplay, the map is split into two levels: you have your idyllic peaceful Overworld and the dark and damp Underworld of your dungeon where you do your dastardly deeds. Let’s start with the latter.
The center of your Evil empire is the Dungeonheart, the structure literally sitting at the heart of your base. Losing it means game over and incessant mockery and finger-pointing, so you better always keep an eye on its status. There will likely be periodic attacks from the Overworld and from the yet-untamed corners of your own Dungeon that will threaten it. Later on you will get something – someone – equally precious to protect.
As the Evil Overlord, you get to boss your Little Snots around and even slap some sense into them with the Hand of Terror. That said, Evil doesn’t discriminate so you can slap your loyal General, your armies and even your enemies as well. We have equal opportunities here!
The Little Snots are something of a Swiss army knife when it comes to your Dungeon-management. They can build a variety of rooms, produce resources, dig tunnels, uncover spider nests and scandalized Dwarves, and create traps.
A lengthy line of various instruments of torture to stand between your Dungeonheart and the various do-gooders and creepy crawlies is a must. Not only is it a passive line of defense between your base and those who wish to bring indiscriminate justice upon it, it is also hilarious to watch while gleefully rubbing your hands together.
Fighting against the forces of Good and completing various objectives provides you with a currency: Evilness. Unlike Dungeons 3, you can no longer simply capture a few Islands of Evilness and enjoy a trickle. It can only be acquired manually, forcing you to get out there and explore, fight and interact with the world more. You can spend your hard-earning Evilness points for a number of Research options, including those that will make your Little Snots faster, Treasure Room more roomy, Traps more dangerous, and so on.
Of course, no Self-Respecting Evil overlord can go without a raving army of cranky creatures. Yours are represented by three types: the Horde, the Demons and the Undead. They all have certain strengths, weaknesses and desires.
For example, your Orcs, Goblins, and other Horde creatures require sustenance that comes in the form of tasty gobblers produced on the farm. They also die for good when killed by the Overworld’s do-gooders.
Meanwhile, the Undead do not require food and get resurrected back in the Graveyard when killed, but the process can be quite lengthy. Talking about early game, it might be faster and easier to have a dead unit immediately replaced by a newly hired one than to wait like this.
The faction and creature Research unlock more abilities and ways of team work for your creatures. Additionally, once your loyal subjects reach level 3, they will start to have wants in addition to needs. The nerve!
For the Horde creatures, it is the urge to throw hands in the Arena. The demons need their relaxing Mana baths while the Undead spend their afterlife in solemn meditation at the Temple. The inability to meet these wants would turn your Dungeon into the worst nightmare of a manager where a bunch of overpowered mopey peons refuse to do what they are told or do it in such a half-assed way that it will need to be redone later anyway.
The one thing that unites all of your armies together, however, is their love for kicking some paladins around and raiding your Treasure Room for their salaries. Woe be upon those who would threaten your Treasure Room and its contents!
For any Controlling Evil Overlord there comes a time when you go “Fine, I’ll just do it myself”, especially when you are faced with a stubborn refusal to follow your evil plans. Or sheer incompetence, pick your poison. Chances are you will likely encounter both.
In Dungeons 4 your direct intervention is represented by various Spells, Potions and Thalya’s abilities that can be manually cast. Of course, it also requires certain conditions to be met: Thalya’s overall level, Research, a certain amount of Evilness in your pocket, and enough Mana to drown your Demons in their relaxing baths.
Of course there were spells in Dungeons 3, but (much like Thalya) the Great Evil has leveled up and got some extra points of Intellect since then, opening the way for more terrific and terrifying Spells. From resource-production, to teleports, to swarms of bats to assault your enemies, to summoning, and more, there are many ways to announce your presence and attention to both worlds.
The Little Snots have not been sitting idle either and have since learned and mastered the art of Potion Brewing. The vile concoctions produced by these shifty creatures can greatly speed-up your army, heal all living creatures in the area of effect, and much more.
Speaking of Assuming Direct Control, that brings us – and the Absolute Evil – to the Overworld. While in the Dungeon you mostly give out orders with your Hand of Terror and carelessly toss your creatures into a great pile near something that requires their attention, the Overworld is a whole different matter.
This part of the game plays like a classic RTS where you have units under your manual guidance. It is up to you to decide where they will go, who they will attack, and when to fall back to the safety of the Dungeon.
With two whole maps to tackle at once with a variety of events happening both below and above the ground, you will get to appreciate the Narrator a whole lot more. In addition to verbally jabbing at anyone in sight, he will also notify you when something requires your attention. Be it enemies entering the Dungeon, the Dungeonheart being under attack or something else entirely occurring in the Overworld. Which, in turn, gives you ample time to react and turn things to your advantage.
In addition to solid gameplay that offers both Dungeon management and RTS-like conquest of the Overworld, Dungeons 4 has many other strong sides. The developers paid loving attention to details, like the animations of various buildings and creatures, be it Little Snots waving as your Hand of Terror hovers over them or the Undead bowing politely, or even your Demons soaking in Mana in their spa.
Once all the leadership stuff is taken care of, it can be extremely fun to simply zoom in and follow the life of your Dungeon for a while. Of course, there is also the delight of Thalya and the Narrator taking jabs at each other and various famous franchises like Warcraft or the Lord of the Rings.
Last but not least is the aesthetics: the game features a colorful art style that is easily recognizable at a glance. You might think of a dungeon as something dark, gloomy and murky, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Dungeons 4 has an amazing palette, be it Underworld or the Overworld, and each creature type has their specific aesthetic and colors that will soon split your Dungeon into sections.
The Horde creatures prefer browns and greens, with the walls of their rooms being covered with iron, spikes and torches. Meanwhile, the Demons settled for arcane-like purple with magical lights and occult decorations. The Undead aesthetics include the turquoise lanterns, fog and various elements associated with death, such as the gravestones, skulls, and more.
The Overworld does not fall behind, the lands under the sun are lush, green and accompanied by idyllic peaceful music. Disgusting! When your creatures are done with them, a tide of Evilness goes over the land, changing that into a darkened land with twisted buildings. The music swaps appropriately.
True, by the end of the campaign you might feel like the game has grown repetitive. After all, with each new mission you have to go largely through the same scenario: build and upgrade the Dungeon, hire creatures, and fight through the Overworld. But this problem is not new to the managers or the strategies alike.
While the game does offer certain touch-ups and significant refinement compared to Dungeons 3, it still feels lacking when it comes to some kind of major new feature that would span the entirety of the game and add something to the progression of every mission. Perhaps something like gear for your armies that might change their looks a bit – think of Overlord 2 with the silly minion equipment like frying pans and chef’s hats and the like.
- Similar to: Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius
- Note: the Steam key was provided for free for the purpose of this review.
