Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[McDoomhammer]

I never played DK1, but I didn't like how goofy DK2 was.  If I'm a lurking underground evil, I don't want my minions to look like they were designed by the Aaah Real Monsters people, and I don't want the rest of the world to be big happy funland.  That's not fun.

I don't think the outside world was ever really glimpsed in DK2?  DK1 had each mission preceded by your advisor telling you in hilariously dry mode what a wonderful sparkly place each land was before each mission, and debriefing you by describing all the atrocities committed there in your name.  The tongue-in-cheek take on moral absolutism is integral to the game, and also the reason the censors didn't stop it ever hitting the shelves.

Not that you have to like that.  Just saying.

[Cthulhu]

The description is what I meant with the happy funland thing.

[Rhodan]

Dungeon Keeper I is still superior to Dungeon Keeper II in almost every aspect.  Although DK2 had sexier Mistresses.

Unlike DK2, DK1 had a much more subtle sense of humor.  Each creature just had it's own funny animations for certain actions, like Warlocks zapping their chicken into a dish, and Wizards tortured by being turned into a toad and back.
DK1 also had amazing music, and dungeons had this warm, glowy glow about them.  I don't think all the bloom effects in the world could simulate the radiant splendor of a treasure room in DK1. All this with silly sprites that turn to face you as you walk around.

To me, DK2 just looked cold and drippy.

[Servant Corps]

Trashing Happy Fun Land is fun!

But I don't actually see it as some sort of satire. Just a form of low humor.

[McDoomhammer]

Trashing Happy Fun Land is fun!

But I don't actually see it as some sort of satire. Just a form of low humor.

No, I wouldn't go that far either.  Definitely some parody going on in DK1, though, even to the point of the protagonist of a certain series of well-known fantasy RPGs actually showing up as an enemy in the final level.

I spent many hours enjoying both, whatever their shortcomings.  I will concede that DK1's humour was more subtle and refined, though.  There was a definite shift in 2 towards the lower end of the scale, with silly cutscenes, fart jokes, slapstick and zany humour- not that I don't greatly enjoy watching my creatures dance to Disco Inferno when one hits the casino jackpot.  There was also a certain shift away from the dry wit of the Advisor, though not entirely.  I don't know, they would both be very different games if the focus was on being the black in a world of greys, rather than on wiping the self-satisfied smiles off those heroic jerk's faces.

[Pnx]

If you think that's bad, you should hear what EA was going to do to DK 3. They were effectively going to turn it into a fairly generic strategy game... TOPSIDE!

[Neonivek]

What were the actual improvements of Dungeon Keeper 2 over 1?

[Torak]

What were the actual improvements of Dungeon Keeper 2 over 1?

Nothing? Except that the game was in 3d, everything else was worse/gutted.

[Captain Hat]

Well, I got Operation Flashpoint, played in the single player campaign. I had the time of my life, and wondered just how great multiplayer would be.

I was not prepared to find ghost town servers populated with maps that held only the repetitive capture the flag game mode. And even when there was a co-op map to be found, our team was small and my comrades were ignorant of flanking maneuvers.

Why? Why? Captain Hat shouted "from top of lung" WHY!

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Um...  Yeah, OpFlash is great, but Multiplayer games are hard to find.  Especially since Armed Assault/ArmA came out.

[Keiseth]

What were the actual improvements of Dungeon Keeper 2 over 1?

Nothing? Except that the game was in 3d, everything else was worse/gutted.

Gold is now Gold + Mana, meaning your spells don't cost your valuable gold, and mana recharges. I'm aware of that much at least.

[Rhodan]

The possession of creatures got improved a bit, I think.  It was a lot easier to round up a squad, and some possession-only skills were quite useful. (Sniping with a Dark Elf, for example)

Making the game fully 3D made it look worse, though.  DK1 looked amazing.
I also don't like the Mana thing.  It seemed spells were less powerful in DK2, not to mention less awesome.

Still a fun game though, just doesn't live up to it's predecessor.

[McDoomhammer]

Better trap/door system, cool quasi-sandbox mode, much shinier graphics, new rooms and removed one or two that didn't work, same for creatures.  More creatures were taken out but there was still enough variety.  Also more variation in missions.

Edit:  Oh, and they added a stealth element in thieves/rogues.  And added a stunning mechanic so battle didn't come down to who drops more creatures in.

[Puck]

Don't know if it's been mentioned already, and if I got the facts straight, but this service is not only something to be happy about;

it was completely legal and non-complicated to download some of the games they offer. it probably isnt anymore. I remember downloading jagged alliance from the original developers site, for instance.

all in all its probably more good than bad, however 

[Philosophical Gamer]

I thought jagged alliance is abandonware........

It's still being sold.  Also the source code has been open for tinkering since 2004 or so, and it's been updated and is even better (much better, if you can believe it) than it was when it was originally released.  Check out my blog post from a month ago with the skinny on where it's at now with development and where to get it.