Dungeon Lords review... first thoughts, possible spoilers

[Bungleau]

I installed DL and immediately got the patch before trying to play. After the things I'd heard, I really didn't want to run without it, frankly.

That being said, it was quite a pleasant surprise! You start off in the same place as the demo, only with far fewer monsters than the demo. Quite handy, really. The interface was roughly the same (as you might expect), and things like gamma are now properly implemented. I have to say I bumped up my gamma from the default of 1 to around 2. I just like to be able to see what's going on, in all honesty. I know they're the sewers, but... c'mon, I don't need *that* much realism!

The User's Manual can be called the First Tome of Misinformation. It addresses things that apparently didn't make the cutoff to the release (like character portraits and such) and also skips things that did (like the Fool heraldic trait for new characters). So take what it says with a grain of salt...

First thing I noticed: skills cost a LOT more than in the demo! There, everything started at 500 points. Only my primary skills started there; Int was almost five times higher! Makes deciding what you're going to learn more important, really.

Second thing: I had some minor graphics glitches with a flickering mouse box and lots of black screen time while waiting for things to load. Fortunately, the flicker still works when lockpicking...

One big bummer: I didn't start with a bow. Man, was I excited when I finally found one! They are still worth it

One minor change to skills: there are still prerequisites (like light armor 3 before you can get medium armor). However, your skill can't exceed your prerequisite. So you can't get medium armor 4 until you've got light armor 4. That will certainly delay leveling up...

Critters can drop the nether katals now... things like rat tails and bat wings have come around so far. Originally attached to rats and bats, of course. We'll see what other things show up.

I did discover a hidden passage that may have been there in the demo. It led to a treasure room with a sewer key, which unlocked many doors. Quite a handy critter, actually.

So far, I'm enjoying the game. Skill development, like W&W, will be a major part of gameplay. I haven't determined what the good path is yet... I'm still a little scatterbrained.

Oh, and the lockpicking skill is still very, very important

I'm tired. It's late. More after I get a chance to play later.

[Wyvern]

Thanks for the early review, Bungleau!!

Still no copy here. I preordered mine ages ago so it will arrive when it arrives. I'll remember to go out and get the patch.

[Bungleau]

No worries, Wyv [img]smile.gif[/img]

If you get a chance on the demo, you might check to see if if you can find that passage. I don't know if I can describe it well, but towards the end of the sewer part (before you get into the buildings), there's a room you go into with a stream of water between you and a ledge on the other side. There are several slimes in there who wait for you quite happily, and there's a treasure chest (maybe two) on the opposite side (where the slimes are).

In that room, there's a passage under the water that leads to another similar room. This room has a treasure chest (or two) with a sewer key, which opens all the other locked doors in the sewer and also opens a door (in this second room) to the hallway where you flipped the lever in the beginning part of the sewers.

Note that where I said "doors" here, I probably meant "gates" or "portcullises"... but I'm lazy [img]smile.gif[/img]

I don't remember if this existed in the demo or not. It's not in a place where I typically would have noticed it (because of the combat with the slimes).

Oh, I forgot one other thing in the sewers: piranha, much like the various fish in W&W. Only smaller, and harder to see... Nothing like wading along when suddenly you start taking damage

I've also got a cool screen capture of my warrior walking around with an arrow sticking out of his backside. Some things just happen... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Too Darkpark]

Any progress, Bungleau?

[Bungleau]

Stay tuned for more after tonight's gaming session... I'm almost ready for the "house" part of the sewers.

[WSBoaBoa]

Been playing for the past few hours here and I can say the game is not as bad as I first thought. Though I still am no fan of twitch based games like this it does however get easier if you spend alot of points on your weapon skills.

Combat in itself is very fast and no where near W&W where you can pause and go turn based. Monsters will swarm you and without a party system you are totaly on your own for defence. Not to mention some of the critters seem out of place.

Healing potions are a dime a dozen, there is no real need for healing spells as I found out every second monster seems to drop one.

Items seem to be interesting so far, but I dislike how there is no real inventory in the sence you can only have ONE item of any equpment type. That is, one dagger one sword etc. If you happen to see another on the ground and pick it up it is destroyed. I am a pack rat when it comes to playing adventure games and this bugs me alot as i like to manage my inventory.

I know its been hashed to bits but not being able to customize your character kinda sucks. I tend to play off the wall characters, like female lizords or drakes when I can but you cant select anything but male zord here and no facial features to boot. A patch is coming they said though in 1.2 for this, I just hope they add female zords in.

Story seems ok so far, though the dialog is rather bland. And many more NPCs would have been nice not to mention more furnishings in the game as everything seems to look the same.

I am looking forward to seeing how the class advancement works out as I want to make a Lizard Samurai in all the trimmings.

As for the rating on this game so far? I would give it 3/5 over all, but I got it for $29 Canadian so I am rather happy with it all things considered. This may change if I run into bugs others are on the fourms hit. And no I would not consider this a classic RPG such as the ones found here on Ironworks, that would have taken alot more work on D.W's part to hit it just right.

[Bungleau]

Tonight's feedback... and then I've got to get to bed [img]smile.gif[/img]

Made it into the town of Fargrove. Couple of minor glitches along the way.

1. The Theatre Door on the bottom floor doesn't work, though it shows the label. Only the one on the upper floor seems to. Annoying, that was...

2. It sure would be nice to have a timer bar or something when changing scenes. When you move between them, the game freezes (at least on my machine, an Athlon 2600+ with 1GB of memory).

3. Many of those swarming critters can be confused if you jump onto a treasure chest. It's amazing how effective that is... they forget how to attack you.

4. That war troll is harder than he was in the demo... primarily because there are so few fireballs and such. However, he's kind of dumb as far as trolls go... he can't figure out how to go through a doorway to get you. I peppered him with arrows and the occasional magic missile from one of the side doors.

5. Just ran into my first real glitch in the Arms of Argus armory (recognize that? ). After selling a bunch of the junk I was carrying around (as a fellow pack rat), I suddenly turned invisible when I left the trade dialog. Some of the furnishings also turned invisible too... I may update my graphics drivers just to be sure I'm current.

6. Boy, could I use an automap... hope it shows up in the next patch

7. They made advanced lockpicking easier. With a higher skill, fewer tumblers show up. So a level 4 lock with no skill has four tumblers, but with skill three it has only three tumblers. Unfortunately, those 99% level 1 locks now crawl by at the speed of molasses on a cold January morning...

8. Random encounters in town... nice [img]smile.gif[/img] And the guards help, if they're around. For my game, though, they just piped up that they had to take care of the townspeople, leaving me to attack the critters... [img]smile.gif[/img]

9. Guild membership quests... what a concept! No more "Pay 500GP to become a member", it's now "Do something for us first". Looking forward to that, frankly.

10. Did I mention I'd kill for a map? I would...

That's all for now. I'm sitting on some 40,000 skill points on the off chance that they may be more useful in certain skills, and that I can train some things (instead of buying them with skill points).

[Too Darkpark]

it was either on the dreamcatcher forum or the typhoon games one where someone hinted at that the mapping feature was dependent on a skill.

Arms of Argus, that's from Crusaders of the Dark Savant (Wiz 7) hehe that shop was located in New City which is the first town you come to when you start the game.

Welps, that's a terriffic review from both you guys.
Hope to read more on it.

[Bungleau]

It was also a trait in Wizards and Warriors... or was it just the sword of Argus? it's been so long...

I'm interested in finding out what skill it is for mapping. I'd really, really like it...

I mapped out the sewers in the demo. I'm going to have to map out Fargrove as well, along with the other surrounding things. Otherwise, I *will* get lost

I may not get a chance to play any more until next weekend. We've got company staying over tonight, and I'm in Washington DC until Thursday. I'll still check the boards periodically, though... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[WSBoaBoa]

After finnish up in the city I am getting kind of tired of the constant mindless clicking in battles. It wouldn't be so bad if they tossed half a dozen monsters at a time, however getting swarmed CONSTANTLY by 20+ wolves, goblin casters or even giant poison spiders at once is not ammusing in the least!

The only way to stay alive is run in big cicles constantly blocking and clicking to attack. Even combos are almost useless in these battles, and you can't seem to use the terrain to any advantage ether out side of town.

Monster spawn levels are insane, even compared to W&W monster spawn, I am playing on normal, but never though it would be one battle right after the other!

Lets talk about quests, the main quest so far is still holding up ok. Nice to chat with people about what the hell is going on. However there are a few issues in general with the quest system. Many of the quests dont update properly to reflect the steps you are on. Nor do you have a real log to keep track of conversations, break out your pad and pen or you will be screwed beyond repair unless you have photographic memory or love to hunt down walk throughs, which I hate doing.

The few placed encounters are so far, well done. I liked the guardian in the catacombs and its special attacks, lich puzzle was ok but it was way to vauge. The headless guys (2) are a good battle. Maybe I just prefer the one on one type battles as you get to concentrate instead of getting gang banged but dozens at once...

All in all at the moment I had to stop playing and take a breather, because the game is annoying the hell out of me at present. Maybe I will drop the encounter frequency down a notch or two...