CVG - The 15 Finest Dungeon Games

Dhruin

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
CVG chooses their 15 Finest Dungeon Games. It's a bit of an odd assortment of RPGs like Dark Souls, Skyrim and Diablo along with games like Darksiders. Occasionally they hit the "dungeon" theme perfectly (Ultima Underworld) and, with others, it might be a good game but not particularly dungeon-focused (Baldur's Gate).
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
I get the impression the review was written by somone who started playing games in 2006 and asked around on a few forums for the older stuff.

Anyone who praises Oblivion's dungeons is highly suspect.
 
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
615
Ultima Underworld and Dungeon Master were spot on, and I like the Skyrim dungeons, but some of the others were questionable. I enjoyed the Morrowind dungeons more than Oblivion, and the Eye of the Beholder, Wizardry, and Might and Magic, dungeons more than many of the others on the list.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
586
Location
Tennessee, United States
CrazyIrish said:
I get the impression the review was written by somone who started playing games in 2006 and asked around on a few forums for the older stuff.

Anyone who praises Oblivion's dungeons is highly suspect.
Click to expand...

I agree this list is terrible. He also put all recent releases at the top of the list. I think this was blatant pandering.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
172
Like said above they forgot World of Xeen but also Migt and Magic 3 and Arx Fatalis which all had much better dungeons then most of that list. Only a couple on that list actually deserve to be there so the list is mostly worthless.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
Bleh. Being a dungeon crawler fanatic, I got excited by the headline. And it was downhill from there.

God, this list is all over the place... Darksiders, BG, WoW, Dungeon Master? What's the common theme? Games the guy heard mentioned at one time or another?
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,980
Location
Florida, USA
Speaking of Dark souls. Just got me demon's souls, and I'm having a blast crawling through its dungeons. Danger around every corner, secret stuff in the narrowest places (world 2 is not for the claustrophobic). Of the newer games I have played, this is on the top of my list.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2009
Messages
1,502
Ultima Underworld and Dungeon Master take the last spots? Really?

This person has no business talking about this genre.

Also, where's Black Crypt and Eye of the Beholder 2?

Bah!
 
Yep EOB2 should have certainly been on that list. Wiz6 was an awesome dungeon as well, I remember mapping the entire castle by hand. The bards tale (originals) had some pretty crazy dungeons as well.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,121
Location
Sigil
I'm currently replaying Ultima Underworld as I recently bought both UUs from GoG and it has not lost any of its charm or greatness. Not even the slightly clunky controls can get in the way of pure dungeon crawling bliss. It is fan-freaking-tastic!

I had forgotten so much about it, as it's been quite long since I last played it, that it is almost as if I was now playing it for the first time. Oh, sure there are places that I remember, some quite well even, but it still feels like a breath of fresh air among many of these contemporary, so called, dungeon crawlers. The whole experience is such an absolute joy that it's kind of hard to comprehend how old it actually is (20 years!) and how so few similar games (first person dungeon crawlers) have gotten even close to it with oodles of more processing power and memory. And this is NOT just nostalgia speaking! I am absolutely, positively having a blast. (Has the game cast QUAS REL WIS on me? ;))

At level 6 now and already I'm feeling sad that I'm nearing the end. Well, thankfully there's UU2 still. Yes!
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
564
Location
I come from the land of ice and snow
Drithius said:
Bleh. Being a dungeon crawler fanatic, I got excited by the headline. And it was downhill from there.

God, this list is all over the place… Darksiders, BG, WoW, Dungeon Master? What's the common theme? Games the guy heard mentioned at one time or another?
Click to expand...

Darksiders is based on the Zelda model of trekking through dungeon after dungeon so it makes sense. Of course, the main theme is very.. loose. Zelda and dungeon crawlers have completely different interpretation of what the dungeon is in the context of their games. Defining what makes a dungeon good (or a dungeon game good) for CVG would also have helped.

Haven't played Demon's Souls yet btw, but I would agree that Dark Souls has some fantastic dungeons (Sen's Fortress, the Painted World.. pretty much all the world is a dungeon all things considered, with the exception of maybe the Firelink Shrine since it's the central hub).
 
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
250
Of course, the main theme is very.. loose.
Click to expand...

Given he went and claimed Dante's Inferno to be a dungeon game and that he seems to believe Oblivion's dungeons, Dragon Age Origin's dungeons, and Baldur's Gate's dungeons to be well designed enough for them to qualify as some of the finest dungeon games ever I would say the theme is something along the lines Steve Boxer is kind of stupid.

I does ring true to me, so I'll stick to dat theory.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
153
Location
Tartarus. Grinding the bleep out off Arqa 17-24.
As Bee-chan would say, the best are Dark Heart of Uukrul and the whole Wizardry series with its infinite Japanese clones.
Shin Megami Tensei in almost all of its incarnations too.
But probably that guy doesn't even know what a dungeon Crawler is.
He cites Ultima Underworld and not its spiritual successor, Arx Fatalis.
Puts Zelda in there but not Metroid, and so on and so forth, pandering at its worst and problems with the English language too, considering that is evident that he meant Finest Games' Dungeons, referring to a feature and not the whole genre.
PS:
And no Dark Messiah mentioned anywhere, he probably cited Ultima because is EA.
 
Joined
Dec 16, 2010
Messages
70
I don't think the author actually played any of these games.

Dungeon Siege - Gas Powered Games' PC RPG put the emphasis on action, drawing comparisons with both Diablo and Ultima.
Click to expand...

The only reason anyone associates Ultima with DS is due to U5:Lazarus and U6: Project.

And BG doesn't not belong on that list. Sans TotSC it had two mines and a bunch of caves, not a single ral dungeon. Even with TotSC it only adds one (A great one, but just one).
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,354
Location
Austin, TX
MM6 had lots of good dungeons, one of them being completely overkill - the Tomb of VARN. I don't think I ever completely cleared that pyramid, it's just so bloody huge. Castle Darkmoor was pretty intense too if I recall correctly.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,586
Location
Bergen
Great post Lurking Grue. I couldn't agree more and are definitely feeling the Ultima Underworld love and itch just from reading your post. :)
I only ever finished the second game the one time, so whenever I see a sentiment as you expressed, the themes from both games come flooding back with great memories. If I've said it once, I'll say it again…we so need to see a new spiritual successor made with today's technology. (Arx was also amazing, but I've already been through it with all three builds) :)

Also agree with both Drithius on the nature of IWD and Maylander on the greatness of MM6+7's expansive dungeons. Kudos to Thrasher too, for mentioning World of Xeen.

I have to concur with the viewpoint largely expressed here that the article is a disjointed mess and lacking in depth and detail. It's just too limited in scope and doesn't go back far enough.

The dungeon design for instance in the Bard's Tale series (especially the third for me) puts many modern games to shame with its puzzles, atmosphere, encounters and writing.
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
1,975
Location
Australia
Mmm. Thank goodness we all have such great tastes here. ;) :)

I still have UU1 and 2 on my "to play list". Floppies are sitting on the shelf. ;)

I will need to get a good Dosbox config setup for them.

I do need a change from open world after Skyrim. :)
 
Joined
Aug 18, 2008
Messages
15,682
Location
Studio City, CA
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom