Dungeon

A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette is a form of dungeon which is accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling.

Etymology

The word dungeon comes from Old French donjon (also spelled dongeon), which in its earliest usage meant a "keep", the main tower of a castle. The first recorded instance of the word in English was near the beginning of the 14th century when it held the same meaning as donjon. Though it is uncertain, both dungeon and donjon are thought to derive from the Middle Latin word dominio, meaning "lord" or "master".

In French, the term donjon still refers to a "keep", and the term oubliette is a more appropriate translation of English dungeon. Donjon is therefore a false friend to dungeon (for instance, the game Dungeons & Dragons is titled Donjons et Dragons in its French editions).

Dungeons (video game)

Dungeons is a strategy/simulation video game developed by Realmforge Studios and published by Kalypso Media. It was officially announced August 12, 2010 and was released on January 27, 2011 in Germany and February 10, 2011 in North America.

Gameplay

Dungeons differs from Dungeon Keeper in that the purpose is to care for heroes and not monsters. In order to gain the Soul Energy needed to purchase high-end equipment for the dungeon, heroes need to be killed only after they are fully satisfied. Heroes are pleased if they, for example, find treasure or fight challenging, but not overpowering opponents. Unlike Dungeon Keeper, the player also has an on screen avatar, the Dungeon Lord, who can teleport bodies to the prison room to have their Soul Energy harvested or roam the dungeon defeating heroes. He will re-spawn at the dungeon heart if he is slain, at the cost of the dungeon heart's health points.

Reception

Prior to release, review aggregator Metacritic showed a mixed score from critics with an average review of 67%. Critics noted that the game was more about taking care of the heroes rather than your own creatures, in contrast to the Dungeon Keeper series. However, GameSpot panned the game as having "mind-numbing, repetitive gameplay."

Dungeons 2

Dungeons 2 is a strategy/simulation video game developed by Realmforge Studios and published by Kalypso Media. It has been released on DVD and on the Steam digital distributor April 24, 2015. It is the sequel to Dungeons.

Gameplay

Unlike its predecessor, Dungeons 2 is a more direct homage to Dungeon Keeper. You still play as the Ultimate Evil, but now as a disembodied spirit after his defeat by heroes of the Overworld, you are forced to rely on controlling your minions with the Hand of Terror. You hire minions from a portal up to a population limit, who have names, and can gain levels in both production and combat, and be trained into upgraded versions. Minions have specific needs that have to be met, such as pay, thirst, admiration or boredom - if they don't get what they want, they will go on strike and refuse to obey your commands. The game now allows you to slap your workers, grab minions and drop them where you wish, or drop resources such as gold, mana, barrels or boxes. The greatest change is how you can now enter the Overworld through specific cave exits - the same that heroes use to raid your dungeon. On the Overworld the game controls switches to a more direct Real Time Strategy, with direct mouse-click control of your units, multiple selections and hotkeys to abilities. As you destroy the holdings of the heroes, you not only stop their raids on your dungeon, but transform the land into evil landscape. Your ultimate goal is usually the destruction of a castle, but there are other separate dungeons holding quests too.