Dungeon Keeper this is most certainly not. Good game? This is most certainly not
Sound wasn't too bad. The voices reminded me a lot of the Overlord series. That said, I eventually just found it grating.
Graphics aren't the world to me, but the graphics don't really work in the games favor. They aren't terrible, but they're pretty average. The frame-rate seemed to take random dips even when nothing was happening. However, this isn't the main problem.
The main problem is the gameplay. It tries to be innovative; luring heroes in, fulfilling their desires, then having them wiped out after they're pleased to gather their soul. However, the gameplay turns out to be absolutely no fun at all. In order to build stuff that satisfies heroes and increases your powers, you need to spend gold and souls. However, in order to get these in a significant sum - particularly souls- you need to satisfy heroes. So until you get a decent set up, you're waiting for heroes to slowly come into your dungeon, waiting, then moving your dungeon lord to finish the hero off, which boils down to extremely basic hack and slash with pretty bad animations. This proves to be not only basic, but extremely boring, especially when accompanying all the waiting you'll be doing in between the drawn out hero arrivals. It's just no fun, and I play a game because I WANT to have fun.
Another thing, buying creature dens. Most creatures don't seem to do much moving at all. At the lower levels and earlier levels of the game, they're also absolutely useless. A hero will take out two - three dens, take your gold, and try to leave the dungeon, while you're forced to dart your slow-ass Dungeon Lord all over the place to have them killed.
On that note, the scenario designs aren't always well thought out. The first two levels of the game are surprisingly good examples. The first level, meant to be a tutorial or introduction, was just a pointless 'walk around the map and pan a camera' - really basic stuff, and definitely not a good introduction to the game.
The second level, more tutorial stuff, was bland, dull and uninteresting. Because of how pathetically weak your monsters are, you HAVE to keep moving your overlord around from gate to gate, and back to your Dungeon Heart to stop the pointless hordes of skeletons spawning near it simply because your creatures are so pathetic they can't do much about stopping them. When you're doing this is usually when the heroes poke around so you have to keep running back and forth. It's not fun. It's dull, repetitive, and boring.
The scenarios continue to be uninteresting and boring, although some of the levels do improve. However the core gameplay just simply isn't fun at all, and I couldn't fathom putting myself through any more of it.
If you want a good game that pits you as a Dungeon master, get any of the Dungeon Keeper games. They're three-million times better. And even if Dungeon Keeper didn't exist, Dungeons would still be exactly what it is; a boring, repetitive, and remarkably dull game.
~ M Ravenhall