Dungeons 3 – Complete Collection Review
Fast Facts
Dungeons 3 – Complete Collection
Developer: Realmforge Studios
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Website: http://www.dungeons-game.com/us/
Genre: Simulation & Strategy
Platform: Xbox One
Age Rating: PEGI 16
Release Date: 26/06/2020
Price: £34.99
A code was provided for review purposes.
“In Dungeons 3 we will embody absolute evil, who, after getting bored of the mastery achieved in the previous game, embarks towards new territories.”
A Genre that Never Goes Out of Style
Videogames, like any creative work, are liable to age, or instead to age poorly. Not only from a technical point of view but also from a playable point of view. There are mechanics, and even game concepts that have gone down in history, or at least have gone out of style. However, there are also immortal works, and forms of play that are always fresh, modern, or at least don’t taste old. One of these classics is Dungeon Keeper, which explored the strategy in real-time in such a personal and original way, that in their day, they didn’t even dare to imitate it.
However, many years later the Dungeons franchise comes to us, clearly inspired, not to say clear gravel from the original. Dungeons 3, the game we’ll discuss here, features some innovations from the original, which don’t always work and rarely improve on their spiritual father. The third part of Dungeons is also an oddly technical and even playable game, with very awkward design choices in some cases. However, the original concept, which for the most part they successfully replicate, was so bombproof, that the game ended up being a lot of fun despite all its glitches.
A Rare Technical Section for a Console
When I started playing Dungeons 3, I had to immediately search for a gameplay on YouTube, to confirm if what I was seeing was widespread, or was it just the Xbox One version. I only found videos of the game running on PC, but from what I could see, it performed much better than my beloved Xbox One X. The game, unless a few units accumulate on the screen, begins to work in jerks, totally unjustified jerks, because we aren’t facing a game, much less technically ambitious. Dungeons 3 is a game that doesn’t aspire to great graphics, and unfortunately not artistic, visually it is a medium game, and a bit impersonal.
The thing improves in the sound section, melodies and sound effects are much more inspired, although they are not outstanding either. Dungeon Keeper was a very dark humour game, which gave him a lot of his personality, but he never tried to shove it down your throat, it was never obvious, and above all, it always worked well. With Dungeons 3, we are in a diametrically opposite case, the script is limited to being an accumulator of jokes, and winks to movies, or classics of the RTS genre, which squeak almost always, and can become quite irritating. Fortunately, in the game options, we have the option of reducing, or cancelling, the “funny” obstacles of the narrator. However, including the option to disable much of the game guide, it’s itself a failure, or perhaps that sea another of its bad jokes.
A Rather Forced Adaptation to the Console
Dungeons 3 starts from a very solid playable concept, and from there builds its variations and tries to give its own personality. Dungeon Keeper was something of a dark version of another classic, as was Settlers, a pioneer of the RTS. That is to say, in the Bullfrog game, the main thing was the management of resources, exploration of the territory, and expansion of your base.
From the comfort of your dungeon, the space of the rooms, the abundance of food, or money, it depended that the undesirable creatures that would form your army came to your lair, and were willing to fight and die for you. In Dungeons 3 it isn’t exactly like that, but we will play in two completely different action planes. While resource management occurs underground, combat against heroes will be direct, and outdoors.
Nor should we seduce creatures with the benefits of our lair, but simply “buy”, a perhaps more direct mechanic, but much less juicy than that of its predecessor. In the division into two different planes of action, Dungeons 3 has one of its most significant flaws, since while resource management works perfectly, and is undoubtedly the most fun of each phase, the combat suffers from many design errors.
In addition to being in battles where the performance of the game suffers the most, the combat is confusing, it’s difficult to manage our units, and we end up limiting ourselves to directing the mob of monsters from one objective to another. A positive point is that thanks to the variety of creatures and the tree of improvements, it’s quite fun to choose the composition of our army, which will be decisive for our success in the different phases.
A Game with Many Errors but Which Has an Approval
If we stick to the strictly playable, Dungeons 3 is a success, a weird success. It’s a fun game, with many errors. However, the problem with this game is that none of its achievements corresponds to it, but they are all inherited from its spiritual father, a Dungeon Keeper who, as Fred Astaire said, made his feats seem simple.
Dungeons 3 works despite the changes, instead of working better because of them. If its creators had better tested the game and edited or cut the superfluous mechanics, and design errors, they would have achieved a much more efficient game than the one in question.
Rapid Reviews Rating
You can purchase Dungeons 3 for Xbox One at the following link: Microsoft Store
