Many video games over the decades have tried to revived the exceedingly popular Dungeon Keeper franchise but none have come as close as War for the Overworld, a fan driven game that was born from the realm of Kickstarter. With Richard Ridings providing his familiar dungeon overseeing voice acting for the game it is already half way there to replicated the formula.
Offering campaign, sandbox and multiplayer War For The Overworld is set in a similar dark setting to that of its spiritual predecessor while offering the array of gameplay choices players have come to expect from the strategic management genre. Primarily though players will find themselves playing as an underlord who has finally awakened to lay claim to the world you’ll pillage both underlords and Heroes alike across a varied campaign. Playing the underlord known as Oberon you’ll have the mad god known as Mendechaus in your ear pushing you through the lands of Kairos on your way to claim the Kenos artefact for yourself.
To achieve this objective players will construct their own dungeons filled with traps and dark creatures that are attracted to your dungeon based on the buildings you provide to them. With this core gameplay loop in place you’ll find the gameplay is comparable to the original Dungeon Keeper with players digging out their desired dungeon and then building one of the many rooms to build out their army of creatures. These creatures need a healthy dosage of both food and gold to stay satisfied which requires players to keep progressing outward to locate new sources of gold and potentially find one of the rare infinite gold sources. War For The Overworld is a little stricter here though with most maps involving large spreads of indestructible rock, that limit your dungeon customisation and force you to fight over narrower pathways or shrines that provide various buffs.
To ensure players feel that sense of progression you’ll find your array of rooms and in turn creatures slowly expands with each campaign level but also within each level through a veins of evil mechanic. This mechanic splits your rooms and other dungeon powers into progression trees of sloth, greed and wrath that need to be built upon so you can’t instantly access the most powerful options. Rooms are in line with what you would expect from training rooms to increase your enemy levels to the Archive that allows various methods of research and everything in between which each have a dark theme.
War For The Overworld offers impressive visual designs across the more than a dozen rooms with some also offering unique mechanics. Most notably the Beast Pen that spawns relatively disposable minions so you don’t need to put your primary ones at risk in battle who may have other important roles within your dungeon. Just like rooms you’ll find over a dozen intelligence minions and beasts that have similarly dark designs and a role to play from the basic gnarling fighter, the magical witch doctor or the research focused cultist. Heroes you’ll fight are similarly diverse with mostly human designs in stark contrast to your foul demons.
A master dungeon keeper will utilise everything available to them in these battles which goes beyond creatures to include constructible defences and a diverse set of spells that can support your creatures who only have limited means of direct control.
Summary:
- Spiritual successor to the much loved Dungeon Keeper franchise from decades ago that brings Richard Ridings back as a voice actor.
- Design the ideal dungeon across sandbox, multiplayer and campaign content that combine for hours of gameplay.
- Dig out the underground areas to locate gold, shrines and other mysteries of the underworld.
- Build over a dozen rooms that encourage creatures to join your dungeon and unlock new mechanics to boost your power.
- Command intelligent creatures and demons as you lead your dark army against fellow underlords and good heroes.
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Review Platform: PC
