Be the Dark Lord that everyone fears. The ruthless tyrant that parents tell their children to stay away from.
In Dungeon Keeper you are... a Dungeon Keeper. The game doesn't pretend to tell an engaging story; instead after starting a new game you are thrown into a dismal tower overlooking a peaceful looking continent. Your goal? Well what does EVERY dark lord want? To conquer and corrupt the world! And that is exactly what you do as you progress through the game's missions turning the peaceful looking realms into dark, dreary death traps.
DK allows you, the player, to craft a dungeon in each of the realms you must conquer. To do this you always start out with a handful of magic based workers called "Imps" who are your dungeon's work force, and the only creatures that won't turn on you. You must also claim a portal so that creatures may join your dungeon's ranks. Of course, you must also support the creatures by building a lair for them to nest in, as well as a hatchery for them to feed from. There are also other rooms that are vital to your success such as training rooms, workshops, etc.
In every realm your primary objective is to slay the Lord of the Realm. Sometimes there may also be other requirements, but you always have to kill the Realm's master. There are of course random adventurers who wander into your dungeon for one reason or another, and fortunately the combat in DK is fairly straight forward. You can pick up creatures in your dungeon using the "Hand of Evil", and drop them in front of an enemy if he is on your dungeon territory. Your creatures will automatically engage the enemy. You have more than do-gooder heroes to worry about, though. Being an evil Keeper, you have evil rivals with the same goal as you. Since there is no honor amongst Keepers, you will often have to crush your rivals. All of the above can be made easier with magic that you can get throughout the game; magic costs gold to use, but with it you can unleash powerful lightning bolts, and possess your creatures and explore your dungeon from ground level.
The graphics in Dungeon Keeper are decent. Characters are all 2D sprites, but the environments in the primary isometric view, and possession view, are 3D and nicely detailed for the most part.
The audio in DK is nothing special, the music is somewhat of a techno-gothicish mix, and there's barely any voice acting save your advisor blurting out random information, and the Lord of the Realm taunting you when he enters your domain.
If you ever wanted to play as the bad guy Dungeon Keeper is perfect. You can craft a dungeon, kill heroes, and take over the world (well, a continent) all in one neat little package.