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Game Summary
Summary Written By James Wilkinson
Nick Goldsworthy undertook a RealAudio interview with The Game Time, speaking from a phone in San Francisco he sent a lot of new information our way.
Spells
Firstly, each spell has three different levels. For instance, the lightning spell at mark 1 can stun creatures, but at mark 3 it can kill them and travel through water to kill others. This increase in power unfortunately comes at a cost. The higher level of spell you use, the more mana it will set you back. Nick also spoke about the new options available to you when you possess a creature. When you are under control of a creature you can do more things with it, than if it was just left alone. An example of this is that if you possessed a rogue, you can use him to pick locks and steel money, which he would not do without your control.
Levels
There are to be twenty campaign levels, like in DK1, with five hidden realms for you to discover. There is a strong storyline. There will be about twenty skirmish maps, and about the same of multiplayer maps. You will be able to make your own maps (see editing) and The Secret Dungeon will have them in the Downloads section as soon as the game comes out. There will also be an option which allows you to create a dungeon and then drop heroes to test your dungeons defenses. This will be called 'My Pet Dungeon' and I haven't a clue why. The Secret Dungeon will have a section on Dungeon Design when the game is realeased.
Combat
The new combat engine that is used by Dungeon Keeper Two took Bullfrog a whole year to perfect, so it must be good. Creatures with a low fear level will now be able to take on bigger creatures if there are a lot of them together in a group. If one of your creatures happens to come across some invading enemies then they will quickly fetch some backup and all of them will intercept the enemy. You can no longer drop all of your creatures onto one square, you have to give them their own square each. This is where the strategic side of combat is encorporated into the game. For instance, you obviosly want the double hard bastards who fight hand to hand in the front line, whilst the creatures with a long range attack take a more back seat role and just bombard the crap out of the enemy :-) Also, when a creature is stunned they obtain double the damage than usual when attacked, and the bigger they are, the longer they are KO'd for.
Multiplayer
The Internet play option will allow up to 8 players in a single game and in several different modes of play. There isteam play or co-op against the computer. Games can be played over the Internet via Bullfrog's Lobby server which will organise matches. As creatures all require different things to attract them to the dungeon, rushes are much harder, though a rush of Goblins is feasible, but it just ruins the entire point of the game. One thing that Bullfrog are currently looking into is allowing you to make a Dungeon which gets put online and your friends are able to take the role of Heroes and attack it, pitting themselves against your traps, which I think is a brilliant idea, although I wouldn't want to be you if you were trying to attack my dungeon :-)
Editing
As you may know an editor will be released with Dungeon Keeper Two, which will allow people to not only edit levels with it, but change creatures stats and create new meshes and textures for creatures. Effectively it is a level editor and a skin editor. It is even possible to put your own face onto a Hero (or someone elses face and watch it get beaten shitless, I can see a use for those pictures of ex girlfirends here). The editor will also be used by Bullfrog to make the free web downloads that will be released after the game ships, these include Multiplayer Maps, Skirmish Maps, new Creatures, new Traps and new Spells. All of these will be made immeadiately available here as soon as they are on the Bullfrog site.
And The Rest...
There has been a lot of work gone into the finishing touches of DK2. For instance if you have an over crowded hatchery, then a few renegade chickens will leave and wonder around your dungeon pissing off your mionions - untill they get stamped on. The character of the Mistress is also haveing a lot of work put into it. Bullfrog are currently interviewing actresses for the voice (and to get the voice right, these actresses have to dress up in skimpy leather outfits). Around three quarters of the creatures in the game will have special abilities that can only be used when they are possessed, for instance the Bile Demon's ability of throwing Imps can be used to get them on across obstacles such as chasms. Some of the rooms also contain more touches than before, there are now different ways of torturing people, electrecution and the water torture. Also creatures can be seen dancing, drinking and gambling on the roulette in the new Casino. This could cause a problem however, have you ever been in a fight whilst you are pissed out of your head. I have.....the scars to show it.
The release date has been set back till July - But the demo will be out in may
