![]() ![]() The best looking parts of the game are some of the characters and monsters. There wasn't enough time to create content to fill out the world, even with all of the delays. I don't know how big the art team working on the game was, but it clearly wasn't big enough. It's absolutely bizarre that someone would see this and think it looked good in any way shape or form. But somehow Dungeon Lords has you swimming uphill and downhill in the middle of a lake. Water in large bodies like lakes, as a general physical rule, tends to lay flat across a surface aside from waves. All you need to do is look at the water for the heartiest laugh the game wasn't supposed to provide. The draw distance is one of the shortest I've seen lately (which can compound the "get lost in the forest" routine) and environmental detail isn't the spectacular. The absence of art could also stem from the lack of technology to support it. When you can't make an elven city or dragon roosting ground exciting or recognizable compared to the rest of the world, there's something seriously wrong with the creative process being used. There was just no attention given to designing the world to make it fun, interesting, or real. The mighty city of the elves is only four or five buildings strong, each of which is a big blocky blight on the landscape, with no pathways or signs leading from place to place and a population of around nine elves. Once outside of the decent starting city, the journey immediately turns depressing. The paper map that ships with the games helps a little, but only so that you can find a boundary and follow it in a direction to the "road" or one of the horrifically bad bodies of water to get some real bearing. Exploring the environment is as unrewarding as can be, especially considering the lack of an automap (which makes me want to punch things) to help navigate confusing areas. There need to be points of interest scattered along the way, close enough to the road to attract some interest. Running from place to place (until you can teleport using the abnormally nifty looking Moon Gates) is tedious as can be. The outdoor world is a pretty big environment, but when it's filled with nothing of real interest, it's hard to care. Perhaps more amazing are the long load times to get into one of these boxy and bare bones interiors. In an herbalist shop, you'd expect a cramped room with stacks of stuff on the shelves, not a giant room with one bare counter and dully textured walls. Huge halls that should be decorated with statues, items, candles, and banners are completely empty of the stuff that makes worlds come alive as are most other inhabited areas. Rooms are filled with next to nothing ( actually nothing in the case of inn rooms that don't even have beds for crying out loud) giving the impression that some thief just scurried out with a gigantic bag of goodies without anyone noticing. ![]() The absence of polish and attention to detail is a big reason for Dungeon Lords' failing. The lack of wit, humor, or real drama in the writing and voice-overs simply helps waning interest levels fall faster than they would have otherwise. But the fact that there are no memorable characters to interact with makes the progression wholly uninspiring. ![]() The story itself isn't terrible and I've certainly heard worse. An evil wizard is conspiring with a malevolent entity in order to grow in power, but like most evil wizards, this particular one can't see the $#!*storm brewing on the horizon. There's an evil threatening to wrap the land in its oh so gloomy embrace and only one man, woman, and/or monster can stop it. The game is set in a fantasy world of dragons, goblins, elves (half of whom seem to be Asian), and wizards. ![]()
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