Most of the game was spent running from one place to another (often a 5-10 minute run, and that without stopping to fight on the way). There are a few “moonbridges”, teleporters dotted around the landscape, but they were too few to be of much use. The dungeons were typical fantasy cliché, from the Sewer to the Witch’s Maze to the requisite Puzzle Dungeon (a particularly frustrating, dimension hopping dungeon.) There were key-and-door puzzles, lever puzzles, and far too many of the dreaded jumping puzzles. This is not a short game, at least by action-RPG standards. Usually I find this a good thing, but with the level of bugs and rough edges, the last half of the game became quite a chore. I cheered when I finished the laughably anticlimactic final battle, but not due to a sense of accomplishment.
Sometimes I really wish I could say, “This game isn’t done yet. Please check back in 6 months.” I think there’s a decent game hiding somewhere in the unfinished code that is Dungeon Lords, but I just can’t be certain. Unfortunately, I must review a game “as is”, and “as is” right now just isn’t very good. Maybe with a lot more polish and time this would have been an entertaining fantasy rehash, but it’s a far cry from that at this point in time. Give this a pass for now.
F
Although released, and action-RPG Dungeon Lords is unfinished. It’s like going a day early to the amusement park. No one’s running the concession stand and the carnies are still bolting together the Tilt-a-Whirl. You can take a ride, but don’t be surprised when it collapses on your head.
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