Dungeon Lords - MMXII Review @ GameBanshee

Myrthos

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GameBanshee reviews the latest Dungeon Lords installment. After the buggy original and the imroved CE version, here is MMXII.
Let me start with the good news here. The original versions of Dungeon Lords had bugs in them that could prevent you from completing the game. In the original Dungeon Lords, sometimes the gate leading out of the starting city wouldn't open, preventing you from seeing about 90% of the game, and even in the CE, the Shadow Ruins were broken, and if you left that area before collecting the Relic of Power, then there wasn't any way to get back inside, and your game was broken. As far as I'm aware, no bugs like that exist in MMXII. The MMXII bugs are just irritations.

So what's currently wrong? None of the skills or spells have descriptions, making it difficult to tell what they do. Weapons along with armor can be damaged, but weapons lose durability so fast that there isn't any way to keep them repaired (there's a repair skill, but for some reason repair kits are rare drops, and so the skill is almost worthless). Once you pick up a Crystal of Life (which happens early in the game) death no longer has a penalty. There isn't any way to advance time, so sometimes you're forced to explore in the dark. It's possible for high level characters to lose the ability to learn new spells. The game is sloppy with quest items, and you can lose half of your inventory space to them. The game automatically decides whether you should use a ranged or melee weapon, but this process is a disaster, and it probably means you won't equip a ranged weapon. The manual wasn't updated properly, and half of its information refers to the original game and is no longer relevant.
More information.
 
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Next thing we'll see about this game - 10$ DLC with ingame spell descriptions!
 
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If it falls under $10 I might grab it despite being very vocal about despising the game, particularly due to respawns. Since I never left Fargrove I feel compelled to see what lies beyond.

I must be metally ill....

At least it supports widescreen. The game does look pretty decent visually now.

Gameplay vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDkXYTJIRJ8
 
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I played about 10 hours of the CE edition. i really didn't think it was a bad game up to that point but I know that 10 hours with a CRPG game is not enough time to make a final judgement. I might load up my CE edition again and give it another go.
 
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I played MMXII for 10-12 hours, and that was more than enough time to see that it's a mediocre product.

It wasn't OMG! terrible to me, but it's a waste of time (imo) when there are so many better games out there to play.
 
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This is one of the only games, however, where you can play the whole non-random campaign in coop.

And its not scaled to your level like Sacred2 or something awful like that. I like how you can take 20 minutes to fight a way higher level monster for a massive xp bomb.

What we need is dungeon lords 2 made with help from the Dark Souls guys. :)
 
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Best ARPG for me. I have finished it four times so far.
Btw, I very dislike the action rpg genre, may be that is the problem :D
 
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Sad, sad, sad. And I even thought I'd be buying this version right away. :-(

If it falls under $10 I might grab it despite being very vocal about despising the game, particularly due to respawns. Since I never left Fargrove I feel compelled to see what lies beyond.

I must be metally ill….
Based on what I've read about MMXII and what I experienced playing the CE, I'd say if you're going to make the leap to try it again, stay with the CE and don't waste your money/time on the MMXII. IMHO, the lion's share of what made this game compelling was its various quirky game systems, and it sounds like this version his flattened those out to be pretty boring and typical or has screwed them up to the point of no longer being fun.
 
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This is one of the only games, however, where you can play the whole non-random campaign in coop.

And its not scaled to your level like Sacred2 or something awful like that. I like how you can take 20 minutes to fight a way higher level monster for a massive xp bomb.

What we need is dungeon lords 2 made with help from the Dark Souls guys. :)

Pretty much summarizes what I feel about and to have no information at all on items and no health bar of monsters would be perfect, as for description I liked when I was able to type the biography of my character in nwn that was special and connected me more,I don't see why to not be able to on items and spells to let you describe as you wish and how you aquired it.
Mechanic in DEMISE: Ascension was interesting that it was keeping track how you found the items.
 
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Does boxed version released by Nordic Games contain printed manual? Just received a second hand used copy from ebay and there is no printed manual included. Only on disc pdf manual. I remember old version used to have proper printed documentation.


Already found the answer. There is no printed manual or map in boxed version of Dungeon Lords - MMXII. Just case and disc. What else would you expect these days.:(
 
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