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Empires & Dungeons |
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Developer: Niels Bauer Software Design Publisher: Niels Bauer Software Design Genre: RPG > General Released: May 24, 2006 Players: 1 |
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When you break down any game to its core game play rules, its underlying mechanics, what you end up with is a surprisingly simple skeleton. What's actually going on in a first person shooter? Aren't you just lining up a mouse cursor on a moving image? What does it mean to have different weapons and ammo? Isn't this just managing a restricted number of items and working out which one can be used most efficiently with each target. What, exactly, is the difference between Id's 1992 hit Wolfenstien and Monolith's 2005 game Fear. Why did I bother paying $150 for a graphics card!!
There is a genre of gaming that eschews realism and 3D graphics and attempts to make a game based solely on core rules. Such games feature lots of menu screens, stats, buttons and simple 2d artwork, either in the form of static portraits that help set the scene or simple maps and icons. They actually require the player to use his imagination. When done badly, which is sadly all too often, they are unappealing and complex, more like spreadsheets than games. When done well they can offer a fun, abstract experience similar in many ways to good board games. Thankfully, Empires & Dungeons falls into the latter category.
From the map screen the player can survey the kingdom with icons showing all the competing lords, castles and the available towns. Each lord leads an army and takes turns moving. Occasionally resources appear and each lord will race to be the first to grab them. Sometimes a dungeon icon will pop up and if you can reach it in time you can explore it. Using gathered resources and plundered gold from the dungeons your lord's castle can be expanded with a variety of upgrades to enhance army formation and defense. With a correctly equipped castle the lord can funnel resources and gold into hiring soldiers, knights, archers and catapults. Wielding such a powerful army the lord can liberate or destroy towns belonging to other lords or even attack an enemy castle and wipe out a competing lord. Elimination of all enemies enables access to the next map.
In a dungeon the game switches to solitary exploration with the lord pitting his skills and equipment against the many monsters innocently crawling around the dark corners. Why giant scorpions are carrying bags of gold and jewelry is beyond me, but they seem reticent to part with it. Luckily it won't take you long to find a big stick with nails in to help convince them. Combat is in real time so you'll need to bang away on those attack buttons. Even cut back to a minimum there is something addictive about exploring a dungeon, managing your equipment slots and
leveling up. When you can see so clearly behind the curtain it's unnerving to
realize just how little is required to make an activity addictive and compelling.
When all you have are bear game mechanics then they'd better be absolutely perfect. Although E&D does an excellent job of capturing the feel of empire building and dungeon exploring it does make a few mistakes. We are used to games with immersive stories, flashy graphics and the satisfying crunch of axe blades biting into goblin flesh. With those visceral visual forms of feedback people will overlook clichéd, limited or slightly broken game play. When the rules are all there is, any error or limitation is amplified.
The dungeon section of the game seems initially a little easy, but certainly an enjoyable romp through the darkness vanquishing all manner of beasties. At some point during your exploration you will meet the "boss" and once defeated the dungeon is over and you are forcibly evicted which means missing out on loot. Each randomly generated dungeon appears to get harder sequentially. So if you discover the boss too quickly or make a mistake and die, the dungeons get harder faster than you can level up. There are weapons, health potions and magic rings to pick up. The problem is you can only carry five pieces of equipment so you have to sell most items as soon as you get them.
The map part of the game is the source of long-term strategic play, it is the engine driving the player to ravage dungeon after dungeon in search of ever-greater wealth to fuel his conquests. It is here that the most frustrating problems emerge. Conquering the map is extremely difficult. When two lords meet or a town or castle is attacked, combat ensues and it's a very simple affair involving basic decisions over the type of attack to initiate. Failure can mean the loss of a friendly town and its taxes or the loss of your army. This is an extremely expensive punishment requiring multiple dungeon crawls and many turns picking up resources to recover. One vital lesson that was beaten into me by hours of combat is to never engage anyone unless you have overwhelmingly superior forces. The second lesson was to save often, if you accidentally engage an enemy lord or misjudge the strength of an enemy town you can lose hours of work spent building up an army.
Graphics
Considering the type of game it is, the monster portraits, icons and maps are very well presented. It's tempting to mark the game down here, but it is a specifically abstract design and therefore has no need of 3D models and sparkly particle effects.
Sound
The music is excellent, consisting of atmospheric classical pieces. The sound effects are also very well done with appropriately guttural shouts of pain and clangs of weapons.
Gameplay
E&D manages to avoid the needless complexity so common in these button-bashing games. There is also a full tutorial that goes to great lengths to help you navigate the maze of menus and buttons, a welcome surprise.
Value
I'm reminded of playing Rogue until the wee hours of the morning and then wondering how something so simple could engage me so deeply. There are 7 difficulty levels to master. Completing a map can take anything up to three hours and there are 12 of them. Each map introduces something new in an attempt to keep play interesting, such as goblin mercenaries to hire or dwarven allies. The game mentions a map editor is available on the developers website (I couldn't seem to locate the download however).
Concept
A stripped down dungeon crawler with a simple strategic map to conquer is a great idea that many have tried, but few have succeeded as well as E&D.
Fun
The games minor deficiencies are not initially obvious and I had many hours of fun with this title. Over time frustrations built until I just couldn't stomach starting all over again on a new map. Bear in mind though that it took about 10 hours to get to this point.
Overall:
Initially I was very skeptical that such a stripped out game could be engaging but I was wrong, the feelings you get playing Diablo or Civilization are still here, diluted but undeniable. If the developer could perfect the game mechanics I think they'd have a hit. In the meantime, give E&D a try. Yes, I know it's just buttons and icons. Just go through the tutorial carefully and you'll be amazed how much fun this is, for a while anyway.
There is a genre of gaming that eschews realism and 3D graphics and attempts to make a game based solely on core rules. Such games feature lots of menu screens, stats, buttons and simple 2d artwork, either in the form of static portraits that help set the scene or simple maps and icons. They actually require the player to use his imagination
From the map screen the player can survey the kingdom with icons showing all the competing lords, castles and the available towns. Each lord leads an army and takes turns moving. Occasionally resources appear and each lord will race to be the first to grab them. Sometimes a dungeon icon will pop up and if you can reach it in time you can explore it. Using gathered resources and plundered gold from the dungeons your lord's castle can be expanded with a variety of upgrades to enhance army formation and defense. With a correctly equipped castle the lord can funnel resources and gold into hiring soldiers, knights, archers and catapults. Wielding such a powerful army the lord can liberate or destroy towns belonging to other lords or even attack an enemy castle and wipe out a competing lord. Elimination of all enemies enables access to the next map.
In a dungeon the game switches to solitary exploration with the lord pitting his skills and equipment against the many monsters innocently crawling around the dark corners. Why giant scorpions are carrying bags of gold and jewelry is beyond me, but they seem reticent to part with it. Luckily it won't take you long to find a big stick with nails in to help convince them. Combat is in real time so you'll need to bang away on those attack buttons. Even cut back to a minimum there is something addictive about exploring a dungeon, managing your equipment slots and
leveling up. When you can see so clearly behind the curtain it's unnerving to
realize just how little is required to make an activity addictive and compelling.
When all you have are bear game mechanics then they'd better be absolutely perfect. Although E&D does an excellent job of capturing the feel of empire building and dungeon exploring it does make a few mistakes. We are used to games with immersive stories, flashy graphics and the satisfying crunch of axe blades biting into goblin flesh. With those visceral visual forms of feedback people will overlook clichéd, limited or slightly broken game play. When the rules are all there is, any error or limitation is amplified.
The dungeon section of the game seems initially a little easy, but certainly an enjoyable romp through the darkness vanquishing all manner of beasties. At some point during your exploration you will meet the "boss" and once defeated the dungeon is over and you are forcibly evicted which means missing out on loot. Each randomly generated dungeon appears to get harder sequentially. So if you discover the boss too quickly or make a mistake and die, the dungeons get harder faster than you can level up. There are weapons, health potions and magic rings to pick up. The problem is you can only carry five pieces of equipment so you have to sell most items as soon as you get them.
The map part of the game is the source of long-term strategic play, it is the engine driving the player to ravage dungeon after dungeon in search of ever-greater wealth to fuel his conquests. It is here that the most frustrating problems emerge. Conquering the map is extremely difficult. When two lords meet or a town or castle is attacked, combat ensues and it's a very simple affair involving basic decisions over the type of attack to initiate. Failure can mean the loss of a friendly town and its taxes or the loss of your army. This is an extremely expensive punishment requiring multiple dungeon crawls and many turns picking up resources to recover. One vital lesson that was beaten into me by hours of combat is to never engage anyone unless you have overwhelmingly superior forces. The second lesson was to save often, if you accidentally engage an enemy lord or misjudge the strength of an enemy town you can lose hours of work spent building up an army.
Graphics
Considering the type of game it is, the monster portraits, icons and maps are very well presented. It's tempting to mark the game down here, but it is a specifically abstract design and therefore has no need of 3D models and sparkly particle effects.
Sound
The music is excellent, consisting of atmospheric classical pieces. The sound effects are also very well done with appropriately guttural shouts of pain and clangs of weapons.
Gameplay
E&D manages to avoid the needless complexity so common in these button-bashing games. There is also a full tutorial that goes to great lengths to help you navigate the maze of menus and buttons, a welcome surprise.
Value I'm reminded of playing Rogue until the wee hours of the morning and then wondering how something so simple could engage me so deeply. There are 7 difficulty levels to master. Completing a map can take anything up to three hours and there are 12 of them. Each map introduces something new in an attempt to keep play interesting, such as goblin mercenaries to hire or dwarven allies. The game mentions a map editor is available on the developers website (I couldn't seem to locate the download however).
Concept
A stripped down dungeon crawler with a simple strategic map to conquer is a great idea that many have tried, but few have succeeded as well as E&D.
Fun
The games minor deficiencies are not initially obvious and I had many hours of fun with this title. Over time frustrations built until I just couldn't stomach starting all over again on a new map. Bear in mind though that it took about 10 hours to get to this point.
Overall:
Initially I was very skeptical that such a stripped out game could be engaging but I was wrong, the feelings you get playing Diablo or Civilization are still here, diluted but undeniable. If the developer could perfect the game mechanics I think they'd have a hit. In the meantime, give E&D a try. Yes, I know it's just buttons and icons. Just go through the tutorial carefully and you'll be amazed how much fun this is, for a while anyway.
By: Mark Featherstone
Posted: Saturday September 09, 2006
Posted: Saturday September 09, 2006
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