I own and have beaten both the Collector's Edition and remixed versions.
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Have you ever sat cross-legged with your left hand on your cheek, searching for that hidden gem RPG among the crowd? Congratulations, you may have just found that. If you're a fan of Bioware's old RPGs and older games such as Summoner, Severance, Enclave, Deathtrap Dungeon, Die by the Sword and the Elder Scrolls games there is a high chance you're going to really enjoy this one. Dungeon Lords is an old, but obscure, aged yet playable third person CRPG. The game supports unlocked framerate and fps in-game (unfortunately the menus are 23fps locked), which already puts half of modern PC ports to shame. For a 2005 remastered port, this is impressive. Now, what differs this game from other RPGs even ones considered masterpieces is what the game offers and how it presents itself.

Those games I listed? Combine them together, imagine they poly morphed as one game and grew up with just one parent. That's this game in a nutshell. The game offers real time combat with hotkeys, status screens, doll-like inventory, real-time changing portraits, and much more, which would take me beyond the word limit to list. Dungeon Lords also offers a point and click mode, which brings the cursor on-screen so you can play it like a traditional MMO, or you can just stick with the default action control system. The bog standard difficulty mode is there but in addition to a random encounter chance slider. No, that doesn't mean your world transitions into a "battle mode" ala Final Fantasy, it just means the chance of random mob spawns. There's options for view distance, individual audio sliders, camera smoothness, mouse sensitivity + inversion... it goes on.

Now, the meat of the game. It's a 2005 game so it will lack modern polish and care, hence the single parent bad joke I made. Some animations, sound effects, the voice acting and the general ware and tare feel of the game is quirky and aged, HOWEVER, I actually think this compliments the vibrant art scheme of the graphics in a strange and twisted way. The graphic fidelity isn't high as you'd expect, but they remind me of Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights 2, to compare. Just don't expect lots of NPCs and text boxes on screen all at one time.

The game features a class system, m/f, different races and starting kits kind of like Dragon Age. If you're aware of Bethesda games they offer freedom, go anywhere, do what you want. Well... this game has that, too. You can completely ignore the main quest and go do your own thing and now with up to eight player co-op, this will be immensely fun. Yes, eight players with this Steam version. Modern RPGs struggle with just two. Cool isn't it?

Back to gameplay, there's your typical cooldowns for spells and skills, you attack spam with clicks and opposite click for shield blocking. This is where it reminds me of the Summoner and even the Dark Souls games. It has that sort of "personalisation" feel to it, the roleplaying has emphasis and it feels like you're going on a medieval adventure. The game's atmosphere in certain dungeons really has that Dark Souls and Severance aesthetic and eeriness. Speaking of, since this is an old CRPG with some Dungeons and Dragons rulesets, the game feels traditional and does nothing more to innovate beyond that. Which can be seen as good or bad to you. The game has your main quest, side quests, towns to barter and learn rumours from, and dungeons to go explore for loot. There's orcs, skeletons, crows, atypical mythical beasts to fight, the sort of stuff that's commonplace in fantasy lore.

Don't get me wrong here, this isn't the best CRPG out there and PERSONALLY I do think it can match Bioware's old material and hell even beat older CRPGs like those wave of DOS ones from the 90s. BUT. And I mean BUT. Dungeon Lords feels very unpolished, as said, mixed in with a lack of hand-holding and a truly investing story, you might find yourself becoming bored quickly if you're looking for that "different and unqiue" RPG experience. Although, the game does differentiate itself amongst other CRPGs of the same genre. However, Dungeon Lords is your traditional and tried-and-true from start to finish. There's no forced romance, no deep epic companions or dialogue and quotes that will eventually end up as memes, dialogue wheels that don't actually effect anything and a voiced protagonist. But what you're getting is a quirky yet enjoyable CRPG that is built around:
-Customisation
-Roleplaying
-Freedom
-Old school feel

If any, or all, of those concepts interest you I urge you to check this one out. I've beaten both versions of this game, alone, and I love it. However, I'm aware that it won't appeal to everybody DESPITE the game having tuns of options to mess with like a girl and her make-up. So please, if you enjoyed this review, check the game out and have fun! Give a friend a call, try the co-op and thanks for reading! Now, you may uncross your legs and place your left hand on the desk. :)

This is gonna sound all kinds of strange, but I'm recommending the game. Is the game good? Not at all! Is it fun? Yes. Yes it is.

Brief history lesson: Heuristic Park released version 1.0 of Dungeon Lords in 2005. It received patches in the classic sense - update files that you download, execute, point toward your install folder and let it to the work. These patches, however, didn't do much as far as I'm aware.

My history with it was that I got the Collector's Edition, a special rerelease which fixed several bugs and had a new character class and a tonne of new content! I found it when I was rather young at a dollar store. I didn't know why an RPG of such scale was in a dollar store, but lo and behold! I get back home, pop it into my Windows XP computer and give it a launch. The game was buggy, with spells like Freezing Touch and Burning Hands not working, and all sorts of great stuff.

I originally wrote off the acrobatics system as faulty, however it didn't tell me that you needed certain ranks in the Acrobatics skill to use certain dodge rolls and flips. This was pretty nice, albeit unexplained. Perhaps the Freezing Touch and Burning Hands problem was a matter of the skill system too? I don't know.

The matter at hand here is that the game was rereleased in 2012 in the form you see now. It was entirely reworked: An engine overhaul, new systems, fancy effects, a point-and-click mode, etc.

The original version of the game always had co-op, through LAN or internet play. Now, we have Steam for eight-player co-op.

I'm going to highlight some of the main differences between the versions here:

The spell system: In the original, you could usually find spells out in the wilderness as loot, and depending on your starting class you may have started with one or two. As far as I know you may have been able to put ranks in any type of magic skill and use it, but I may be wrong. In this Steam Edition, you get one spell per level, and each class seems to have a certain type of magic they use, that they learn each level.

The skill system: In the original, there were many types of skills, and you could rank up in any one you pleased using a skill point. In this version of the game, your skills gain experience in a similar way to how you level up in The Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy II: You use something, it gains experience. You gain skill points every level, but if you use one on a skill, it just gives it an experience boost, and will not guarantee a level up. I'm personally not much a fan of this.

The graphics: The game now has fancy bloom and fog, and WORKING particle effects! The UI is a little less polished than it originally was, but I still find it enjoyable.

The multiplayer: Hoo boy, is this game a hoot to play online. The bugs or simple obscurity of practically EVERYTHING in this game makes this game a laugh to play with others. The Collector's Edition is absolutely riddled with bugs or quirks, while the netcode works well. Saves are confusing, but the bugs and problems make the game hilarious! I have yet to test the game in this Steam Edition, but various skills now apply to your allies as well as yourself. It creates a new dynamic that wasn't present in the original.

The verdict: Not mentioned above: The physics of this version aren't as... Tight, so to say, as the original/Collector's Edition, and the old spell system was quite nice. This version's difficulty seems much easier than the original's, and in the first dungeon alone I leveled up five times more than I usually did in the original! This isn't so much a problem, but it's interesting to say the least.

If you want a solid RPG and don't mind the price tag, get this version! If you want a laugh and a more solid system (WHEN it works) then play the original or the Collector's Edition. Either way, it's an RPG on the PC with cooperative multiplayer. A+ From me!

'Dungeon Lords Steam Edition' - maybe another way to call it would be:
'Okay boys, Dungeon Lords Take #4: Let's try not to screw it up this time. Lights, camera, action!'
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First the good part': This time it seems the developers care for the game as they released their first patch after the release. This one adressed several problems in MP - unfortunately the SP seems mostly untouched. So now it's important to see if they release more patches to fix bugs and glitches or if it was a one-time wonder.

'Fans' of the old Dungeon Lords:

This version is better than 'MMXII' but if there was a bug or glitch in the original version it's quite possible that it is still there and wasn't fixed. However the game is more accessible (there are e.g. finally tool tips for skills and spells), a quest log gives you some hints where to go and the randomized loot is quite interesting - so there are several positive changes. However maybe it would be better to wait some more weeks and see if the developers now actually care for their game and support SP and MP it or if it will be abandonned once more.

'Newcomers' who have never heard of or played the original game:

It's probably better to skip this game, there are better RPGs out there. It has its own charm (quite trashy and retro) but to find the positive things you have to dig deep in a game full of bulky and weird systems and design decisions.
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Oh Lord, that game is like an undead, It was a bit rotten the first time it was released in 2005 (and full of bugs), afterwards it came back in an 'improved' version (still a buggy mess) and some years after it returned from its grave with the 'MMXII' version (did I mention the bugs?) that had 'improved systems' (official claim) and some nice function additions - however at the same time they also screwed up the once good leveling and magic system and removed interesting features like identification, the whole exploring aspect or the penalty systems. I regretted buying this game quite fast.

Well so now here's the Steam Edition that is based on an improved 'MMXII' version and should finally act as a 'complete and finished' version. So do all good things come in... fours?

First there is to say that the original game was neither very good nor very polished but it had its own charm. 'Dungeon Lords' provided some very interesting concepts (e.g. the nice character and class system that I still remember in very good ways), challenging dungeons with good puzzles, interesting secrets (like the 'Demon Key' from 'Naga Temple') and had a great 'retro' feel. It wasn't very special but back then it entertained me quite good despite the many flaws.
Seriously there was a ton of bugs, terrible game design decisions and glitches: awful animations, missing loading screens, absolutely empty cities and buildings, nearly everything was unfunctional, figuring out stuff was made in hell (tutorial or explanations of the items/spells/skills... what's that?) and it felt like a bulky mess overall.
However I enjoyed it for quite some time back then and I still remember my badass Ninjutsu-Nethermagic character (Rogue + Mage class combination) in a good way.

Unfortunately they changed the game a lot back in the 'MMXII' version: they e.g. swaped the skill system for a cookie-cutter version, the new magic system was 'boring' and much stuff was still not working as intended. Anyway the worst thing was that they abandoned the 'new' game very fast and didn't care for updates or fixes for the problems.
Together with some others I voluntereed as tester and translator for the german version and spent many hours with translating the tool tips and looking for glitches and bugs (trust me, that list was long) but in the end it didn't even matter (many hours were wasted back then).

So now there's this 'new' version and I've been looking at it with a lot of critical thoughts in mind. However I thought 'Can't be worse than the last version' and started another 'adventure'. That was some hours ago...

... and I can say it's better. Way better than the MMXII version and in most parts better than the original version. I didn't encounter any huge bugs or crashes (the small ones they belong to the game like heat to fire), they finally added necessary options and higher difficulties, changing your weapon manually is possible once again and the map's hidden again.
Besides there is also the good stuff from 'MMXII' like the way better interface, hotkeys for spells and items, randomized loot and tool tips. They improved the weird systems to make them kind of okay (I'd still kill for the old character and class system) and overall it's running quite smoothly (in comparison to the 'whole time stuttering' and the awful loading times of the earlier versions'...).
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So... can I recommend the game? Well that's a difficult question.

The 'Steam Edition' version is definitely 'okay' and way better than the last one but it's necessary to see what the developers will do with all the feedback and the information they are now able to get from the players. Will they fix stuff (e.g. the problem with the lines/voice of NPCs: if you click at a person several times he will repeat his whole dialogue that many times. That's absolutely awful ingame) or abandon the game like the last version? They released one patch that adressed the MP but I would prefer improvements to the SP.

In addition it's 'Dungeon Lords' - that game was a special kind of trashy RPG and will stay that way no matter what you'll do. The animations are awful, the world's empty, the story has more clichés than an 80's movie, the technical aspects are totally outdated, it feels horrible in so many ways...
... but damned, I still kind of like it. It's such a special game. In a way somebody would say 'Oh he's such a special boy'. I'd rate it a 6 out of 10 (maybe only because the original version was one of the first RPGs I've ever played and there are some good memories besides bugs and glitches...)

I trend towards a recommendation, but mostly for players of the original 'Dungeon Lords' who didn't already hate it back then. However the recommendation depends totally on the question if the developers are willing to continue the support for the game. Else it will fail the same way as its 'parents'. There's much stuff to fix but deep down there's potential for a nice entertaining oldschool RPG. Maybe you should wait grabbing it until the developers show that they now care for their game and support it with fixes and patches...

And for most of the others ones, who have never played or even heard of 'Dungeon Lords' (probably 85%): Skip it, there's better stuff out there. Way better stuff. There are too many bad design decisions and bulky systems to bother with until you may see some positive aspects. However the RPG has definitely potential for some hilarious and funny times - and if it only be due to bugs, glitches or weird things happening and you raging about everything.

Basically my dream game. I find it sad that no one has made a modern game that compares to this. What I mean is, you have deep RPG progression systems akin to D&D, but with action combat and MULTIPLAYER! This is almost like an offline MMO, but leaps and bounds better than any modern MMO because it's actually challenging and doesn't hold your hand. It has old school sensibilities. If you ever wanted to play a PC RPG like Gothic with coop in an open world, this is basically it. It's like EQ offline but with more compelling progression/story. Thank you Nordic for keeping games like this alive and giving them modern support. You folks are doing a great service to PC gaming.

Also for those on the fence because of multiplayer issues, I can say I've had zero issues over LAN so far.

If you have not played the Collectors Edition this might be a fun game for you. However having played the CE the revamp on Dungeon Lords just absolutely destroyed the best parts of the game. What made CE great was the simplicity of the training system, the simplicity of the equipment and magic systems. The ability to use spells on the run etc... The revamp has made all this unwieldy and for lack of a better term a clusterfrick. The training system sucks. This new system for damaged weapons and armor sucks. You can't kill a group of wolves without having to repair your sword or axe. How is it supposed to be fun when you do nothing but repair every time you have to kill a bat or rat...

The old version definitely had it's quircks and draw backs. But they tried to revamp to much with the new release.

The Negatives: New magic system, constant equipmant repairs, new item storage system, combat system (who decided to make you run when you move to the left instead of side stepping?) new training system sucks.

The Positives: It appears some of the old crash bugs are fixed. Graphics are better. Fewer compatibility issues with new OS and screen resolutions.

May look scary bad at first sight but it manages to surprise you if you live in 2018 and don't want to buy a graphics card. Extra points if you played this more than 10 years ago.

Dungeon Lords is a classic. I wasted countless hours as a kid playing Dungeon Lords CE and I'd do it again in another lifetime. It was a hell of a buggy and incomplete mess, yes, but it was extremely fun. However, this Steam version isn't the same guy, not quite. In fact, I feel like this game got updated to be more streamlined, to appeal to more people and get more income out of this game, and it's visible in several aspects.

First off, they changed the character creation screen and I think it looks worse. Less detail and information, and looks a lot more streamlined. I wouldn't mind this if the original gave more info on the creation screen itself and if they didn't make another mistake, that being changing how the skills and stats work. In the original, there wasn't much to go off of because it wasn't a thorough game and you mostly figured everything out for yourself, so stuff like speed and damage wasn't explained further than "I kill X enemy in Y amount of time so that means I do Z amount of damage". However, the original had you level up stats and skills via spending XP points, in that you could have 500K XP points at some point in the game, and a single skill point could cost 50K to level up. You had full autonomy over your own growth. In this update, some skills go up with use(defense skills don't) and you can spend skills to partially level up skills(e.g. 1 skill point = 50% to next level), and you also get individual points for stats. This completely changes how growth works in the game as you only really need to use your points on SOME skills and you can upgrade the others via usage. The individual points for stats is a good idea but you get 3 per level and it seems like their effects have been drastically reduced for balancing reasons.

In terms of gameplay, it just feels off. The original felt like it had a lot more oomph to its gameplay, and I always played as a fighter. My strength is currently at 36 and I'm using a weapon with 4-12 damage, yet my damage stat is 4-12 and I constantly hit 2-4 while occasionally hitting higher depending on the enemy I'm fighting. It's very confusing and they've managed to make the combat feel worse, as it not only feels like it takes longer to kill enemies, it feels like enemies are a lot stronger despite me being many levels over them, and even simple enemies like snakes that would die very quickly in the original, are actually pretty beefy. It's really weird. The AI also seems to be very evasive, and I say this specifically about spirits because they used to slowly float down to the ground(because they would bounce upwards when hit) but now they just kinda do their own thing and maybe float down very very slowly. There's also more emphasis on strike stat it seems, as enemies over your level will either be hit very rarely or just not at all (I'm looking at you, troll giant spawns in areas with enemies half its level). Also, items no longer have a stat requirement on their descriptions so I'm unsure if stat requirements are still a thing. This could be contributing to my low damage as the Giant Battle Axe has a 46 str requirement.

That being said, this game is the epitome of classic fantasy, from the enemies you fight to the classes and story. The lead designer of this game was David W. Bradley, who also worked on Wizardry 5-7 and Wizards & Warriors. This was a game that was, to a certain extent, destined to succeed. It didn't succeed as much as it should have, but this is a really good game. Its areas were well designed, the story was well thought out, and the gameplay was great. I just feel like this version ruined what was good and replaced it without something mediocre.

One of the most disappointing changes though is magic. I understand putting in MP for any RPG, but it was fine how it was before. Originally, all magic books and runes collected stacked, so if you picked up 5 fireball books, you'd have 5 fireballs casts, and all magic naturally regenerated up to maximum uses overtime. In this game, you get one use but it drains magic. It's jarring to not play it as it was in the original because in the original it was a great idea, magic regenerated very slowly and magic wasn't incredibly overpowered even if you were playing as a mage. They added a hotbar too, but it just serves to make this game feel more streamlined, more towards being an MMO or akin to how dragon age 1 tends to be played(very slowly and very meticulously on min-maxing stats). You also can only cast skills/spells if you have the proper skills to accommodate them, in other words you can't cast fireball or shrieking star over and over as a warrior, despite how much fun it was. This works in the game's favour as it, y'know, makes sense. However, part of the fun of the original, in my opinion, was the ability to cast spells because even if you could cast spells, they did very little damage without mage skills so I don't see what change this has made aside from theme and mechanics, realistically, because even warriors still have their own magic : runic magic.

I've just reached arindale before making this review, but I'm not really impressed. I feel like this newly updated version is more enjoyable with other players but I got a lot of enjoyment out of the single player and don't really have anyone to play it with. A lot of it is nostalgia but the original CE version was really the best I think this game will ever get. This version still has its share of problems but I don't know, it just feels off and it feels broken compared to the previous version that is far more impressive than this version. I'm still going to complete the game because, honestly, I've never beaten it before. I always get to the very end and then stop because the demons in the very end are pretty tough.

EDIT: Oh yeah, also, you used to have unlimited inventory and now you don't, so... Inventory is a huge issue. You'll quickly run out of inventory space. Same issue with equipment durability, actually. Items break a lot quicker.

How could you ruin a beloved game from my childhood? Dungeon Lords The Kingdom Cracked, the collectors edition release from 2006, was a GREAT game, even though it received horrible criticism for being "unfinished." But in truth, it was a well composed ballad with great story, and interesting character development. HOWEVER. THIS STEAM EDITION IS TERRIBLE. YOU RUINED THE GAME. You basically put it on god mode by giving most of the lategame spells such as the Guardian Angel Healing and other Celestial Magic Crystal Spells available as early as lvl 5, for free. The Steam version also ruined experience system, because now you are forced to spend experience only on abilities within your current class. It is supposed to be a value system. You can spend experience on ANY skill from ANY class in the Original game, and then your class simply gives you a BETTER rate, say, 2 times cheaper to buy x skill with y experience points. It may not sound like much, but changing the game this way absolutely ruined the playing system. Now, in this bad Steam edition of Dungeon Lords, you get free spells, free lategame equipment, a poorly managed skill and experience system, a badly implemented combat system, and it is unplayable. Horrible. I am having to look for and buy the collectors edition game hard copy for $10 online from Thrift Books website, in order to play the real game I remember from 2006 and my childhood. Do not buy this bad rendition! Steam edition of Dungeon Lords is a travesty.

Sometimes what we want in life is a 6/10 janky game that we can't help but like. Dungeon Lords is such a game. Is it good? Not really. Is it fun? Kinda. Largely I was interested from nostalgia but I'm glad I have finally finished it and can put this game mostly out of my mind. Just like B-movies or so bad it's good, this game does scratch that itch. Also: If you put lots of points in agility and armor you can move super fast and kind of break the game.

This game is just fantastic. Have you ever wanted to scrach that classic fantasy itch for some grand wizards with epic names pronouncing "Evil" in a silly way? Or huge monsters smashing everything around them with wooden clubs? Or maybe giant red dragons spitting fireballs at you? Then this game is exactly what you're looking for.

You are either a Human, Elf, Dwarf, Lizard or one of the creatures of the forests called "demigoths" (Furry things), who is either a Warrior, Priest (of sorts), Mage or Rogue, each having various different abilities and mulitple ways to build his character. Like for example as a Rogue, you can either use a bow, axes, daggers or throwing weapons, and may only pick 2 at a time all while you get to level things like summoning power, lockingpicking skills, sneak skill, etc. making 1 class feel more like 3. On top of that your character has the usual stats like Agility, Strenght, Intellect, etc. which you get to increase every level.

Once you know what you want to be, you just jump into the world. It's a visible 2005 game, the best way I could describe the graphics is that they look like Vanilla WoW but better in every way. I really doubt you will have any problems with them, for 2005, they look amazing. And some of the really well made models and enemy facial animations made it age well.

There are some other things that make the game look like an MMO. The action bar (where your abilities are placed) looks 1 to 1 like an MMO action bar, the way you level and gain experience and the way you get new loot and equip it are also identical to an MMO. The similarities really end there however. There aren't any quest markers, or tab-target combat or pointless mobs or grindy quests.

Infact, the combat and the overall gameplay experience you will have really makes me love this game. There is just something about how the arrows fly, how the throwing weapons get stuck in the creature until it dies, how powerful spells feel really powerful. That something is something rare and amazing, something that you could play hundreds of really popular RPGs and never find, something that makes every hit you deal in this game feel great. KNOCKBACK! Yes, this game has knockback. You know how in Elder Scroll games like Skyrim, you just take up your sword and slash at the opponent while he is slashing at you, making it a dull cut or smash fight until one of you suddenly falls down? Or how shooting fire at them will cause them to just stand there until they fall down dead? There is none of that here.

If you have 2 daggers and you are stabbing someone your size with them, they will get knockbacked with every single hit, making it look like you are actually doing some damage, same goes with arrows, spells, axes, maces, whatever! Every single hit feels like it counts. I know it seems like a small thing, but it makes the combat much, much better. Combine that with crazy monster abilities, like Trolls killing you in one massive blow or goblins on huge stake launchers. And you will find that combat will often be great fun.

The quests include great puzzles, nice storylines, and they will never hold your hand. Most of the time you are given very little actual information and have to figure it out yourself. Like early on in the game where you told to find this Elven village, yet were never told where it is and just have to randomly walk off into the forest. Probably getting attacked by wolves and all kinds of beasts instead.

There are of course bad things, which, I might add, are often completely overblown by some people, bugs were common and would often prevent progression, I haven't run into any so far, and the hope is that they removed them all, but you can never be sure. On top of that, quests provide TOO little information in certain cases, like this Vampire who will tell you you should meet her behind a mansion on the south side of a town, I've been running around for hours and couldn't find anything, that is a case where a quest lacking information didn't lead to more attention or immersion, but just confusion and a waste of time. The quests can be very badly written sometimes and just feel awkward, but that might be likable to some. The game was unfinished when it was released, and you can certainly see it some areas.

Good:
-Combat is really good because of knockback and aiming.
-Classic fantasy theme
-Plenty of ways to play and build your character
-Great graphics for the time
-Good quests that never hold your hand
-65~ hours worth of gameplay
-Large amounts of different enemies
-Plenty of loot and abilities

Bad:
-Sometimes badly written quests
-The possibility of bugs remaining
-Certain quests that provide TOO little information, leading to waste of time doing the wrong thing.
-A few unfinished areas in certain places.

Make of it what you want:
-Mobs seem to endlessly respawn in certain dungeons
-MMO-like action bar that you need to press

Overall, buy it if you want an amazing old-school kind of Fantasy RPG experience. It could have been better, but by the end of the day it's a great game that is simply fun to play.