Game News Dungeon Lords release date

Spazmo · Jan 25, 2005

Tags: Dungeon Lords; Heuristic Park Inc.

Hot on the heels of the <a href=http://rpgcodex.com/index.php#3204>GameSpot preview</a> comes word in a press release sent to <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a> that D.W. Bradley's "First Combat RPG" has a release date of 20th April 2005.<blockquote>DREAMCATCHER GAMES ANNOUNCES NEW RELEASE DATE FOR DUNGEON LORDS
 
 
The First Combat RPG Will Be Available April 2005
 
 
 
DreamCatcher Games today announced that Dungeon Lords, the world's first combat role-playing game, will ship worldwide for WindowsÂ® on 20th April 2005.
 
 
Gamers have much to look forward to in the coming months as DreamCatcher releases all-new gameplay footage, screenshots and a new trailer, offering an up-close look at a truly unique role-playing experience. Official single and multiplayer demos will also be available around launch.
 
 
Dungeon Lords blends the depth of an epic fantasy RPG with the flexibility of an FPS-style control system. Gamers journey through a land of ancient castles and dungeon lairs to engage in real-time tactical combat with a variety of deadly foes. It's not just about the battles though, as magic spells and hundreds of powerful weapons and artefacts play a huge role in the game.
 
 
The game features an abundance of personal missions and quests along with numerous characters to interact with. Players can customize an extensive variety of skills and special abilities for the hero, including race and class specializations. The simple and intuitive design will suit RPG and action fans alike and supports cooperative multiplayer for up to eight players.</blockquote>
 
Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</A>

Kamaz · Jan 25, 2005

It's not just about the battles though, as magic spells and hundreds of powerful weapons and artefacts play a huge role in the game.

Shouldnt he feel uncomfortable releasing such a shit? I mean, "there is not jjust battles in the game...there are WEAPONS too!!!!!!!" It simpy sounds pathetic. Maybe RPGCodex should declare each year the shittiest cRPG title. Dungeon Lords are definetly runing up for year 2005.

chaedwards · Jan 25, 2005

Gamespy preview as well

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dungeon-lords/582384p1.html

Not that it sheds much light, but there you are.

Digit · Jan 25, 2005

I'm really looking forward to this game, I just wish it would stop getting delayed. It looks like its going to be lots of fun, and I have been dying for something similar since Severance Blade of Darkness.

Digit

Ortchel · Jan 25, 2005

Ugh, they even spelled it 'artefacts'. It's becoming harder to be a supporter of this game.

Country_Gravy · Jan 25, 2005

They're releasing it on 4/20?

Maybe it will be good if you are loaded enough?

Ortchel · Jan 25, 2005

Only a stoner would even notice that. :lol:

Shagnak · Jan 25, 2005

Digit said:
I'm really looking forward to this game, I just wish it would stop getting delayed. It looks like its going to be lots of fun, and I have been dying for something similar since Severance Blade of Darkness.

Aye, me too, but hopefully with a more RPG-esque feel to it.

As the only person in the universe that loved Wizards and Warriors (warts/bugs and all) I hope this DW Bradley effort does well. And I hope it does have BOD-style combat, but I hope its a little less clumsy feeling.

And whats with this "the world's first combat role-playing game"? Is that merely due to the real-time direct-control nature of the combat? Cos if so, what about Morrowind and Gothic and heaps of others?

[Edit] Oh! And it has co-op play! Yippee! :D [/Edit]

Digit · Jan 25, 2005

Exactly! Coop play can make even an arbitrary game fun, and a good game awesome. Coop play owns all, and thats one of the main reasons I am looking forward to it.
I found the BOD combat quite good once you master the controls, also the enemies were all really interesting and unique to fight, it was just a top notch underappreciated game. Pity. Aren't the team who did BOD working on something else, I am sure someone mentioned it to me a while back.

Digit

Shagnak · Jan 25, 2005

Digit said:
Aren't the team who did BOD working on something else, I am sure someone mentioned it to me a while back.

Dunno. Can't find much either, even the RebelAct website is dead. (Though the codemaster's BOD site still exists)
Last I heard was that they did (or were planning to do?) "Ultimate Blade of Darkness" or something for the XBOX.

Even more giblets and severings? :shock:

Sol Invictus · Jan 26, 2005

They're celebrating Hitler's birthday by releasing Dungeon Lords on that very date, because D.W.W. Bradley is a Neo Nazi.

Saint_Proverbius · Jan 26, 2005

Shagnak said:
And whats with this "the world's first combat role-playing game"? Is that merely due to the real-time direct-control nature of the combat? Cos if so, what about Morrowind and Gothic and heaps of others?

Yeah, there's a whole list that can be named. Revenant, which was released back in the 1990s, had actiony special move combo combat for example.

Otaku_Hanzo · Jan 26, 2005

You know, I really liked Revenant. I wanted so much to see better support for that game. They had a hot item on their hands and it got completely fucked over in no time. There hasn't even been any unofficial patches to fix the myriad of bugs that thing had. I did manage to beat the game. I'm happy about that. I know many others who kept getting CTDs until they were so fed up with it that they broke their game CDs. I actually still own my original copy. Hmmm... maybe I should see how well it runs on XP.

Elwro · Jan 26, 2005

And tell us if it does. I also have fond memories of that game :D

Sol Invictus · Jan 26, 2005

Ion Storm's Daikatana indirectly resulted in the demise of Revenant. The game was forced out the door by Eidos, being only 30% complete. Eidos spent too much money on Daikatana and had to recoup their losses fast, so they rushed out most of the titles they had at the time in order to create revenue. It would have looked bad to the investors to see them squander 30 million dollars on a piece of shit like Daikatana.

Reklar · Jan 26, 2005

Otaku_Hanzo said:
You know, I really liked Revenant. I wanted so much to see better support for that game. They had a hot item on their hands and it got completely fucked over in no time. There hasn't even been any unofficial patches to fix the myriad of bugs that thing had. I did manage to beat the game. I'm happy about that. I know many others who kept getting CTDs until they were so fed up with it that they broke their game CDs. I actually still own my original copy. Hmmm... maybe I should see how well it runs on XP.

I recall seeing it for sale a few years ago and I almost picked it up, but everyone I had talked to said it was less than stellar gameplay-wise. The story sounded kinda cool to me and what I'd read of the characters seemed fun, but at the time it didn't seem like a worthwhile purchase. I wonder if I could still find it on the web somewhere?

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

Sol Invictus · Jan 26, 2005

Try Home of the Underdogs.

Digit · Jan 27, 2005

Just look at these screens. I mean, stats, weapons, monsters. Cmon, how can you not be even a little tempted.

*cough*Coop!*cough*

Digit

Otaku_Hanzo · Jan 27, 2005

Yeah, the game had serious potential. And, despite the bugs and flaws, it's a fun game. The combat system is one of the best for an action RPG. It's a game you either love or hate. There's not really any middle ground. There's still a dedicated fanbase for it, albeit not that big.

Funny thing about the Daikatana fiasco: I didn't even want the damn game. I want a better Revenant, dammit!

Sol Invictus · Jan 27, 2005

It may have co-op, but so do Guild Wars and Dungeon Siege 2. Guild Wars offers PVP, a gigantic variety of class/subclass/skill selection combinations, phat lewt, wide exploreable areas and much more. Dungeon Siege 2 offers a skill tree, phat lewt, cool implementation of pack mules, and best of all: multiplayer coop consists of each player in control of an entire party. No phat lewt goes unused!

What's Dungeon Lords offer? Likely a crappy control scheme and a GUI with the worst feedback indicators ever. D.W. Bradley once said: health bars on enemies 'detract' from 'immersion'. Unless there's graphical health indicators, it's going to be really fucking hard to strategize.

Of course, I could be wrong and the game could be somewhat decent, but I'm not holding out for it. The delay certainly helped.

The screenshots of the character interface look semi-interesting. I wonder if all the phat lewt looks different on you.

Shagnak · Jan 27, 2005

Exitium said:
Dungeon Siege 2 offers a skill tree, phat lewt, cool implementation of pack mules, and best of all: multiplayer coop consists of each player in control of an entire party. No phat lewt goes unused!

And lots of automatic doo-dads to ensure a truly nifty and customisable screensaver. :wink:

Nah, fuck it...even though I am assuming a certain amount of buggy weirdness (as per W&W), Im still looking forward to DL.
As for "likely a crappy control system", you could be right; but the footage I've seen so far makes it look like reasonably fast and fluent combat to me. And its gotta be better than other RT combat attempts (like Gothic) in that respect (but I admit I still liked that game too, for other reasons).

And Guild Wars is a MMORPG, so I couldnt give a damn about it. :lol:

Sol Invictus · Jan 27, 2005

It's not an MMORPG.

Shagnak · Jan 27, 2005

Exitium said:
It's not an MMORPG.

Really? I haven't played the beta or anything (and I assume you have), but I was just going by the snippets I've read on various game news sites.

For example, from Guild Wars Online Warcry:

Nearly 3 years ago, NCSoft showed me a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) in production that was to have no monthly fees. Blasphemy! Quests were to be repeatable but would change each time you did them. Impossible! And it was beautiful to look at. What are they thinking?! The game was Guild Wars and (at that time) was not yet a blip on the radar.

And from GameSpy (yes, I know they're dicks):

In the massively multiplayer scene nothing looks quite so promising as Guild Wars, which should really shake up the way that people look at persistent online worlds.

(Actually spotted at http://guildwars.ogaming.com/)

Or are you referring to the fact that the developers are trying to make some point of difference by referring to it as a "Competitive Online Role-Playing Game" instead of a MMORPG?

Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)?

Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences...blah blah...

Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game).

So, surely, it is an MMORPG? As in a type of MMORPG?
[thwack!]Sound of hairs being split gratuitously[/thwack!]

Sol Invictus · Jan 27, 2005

Just think of it as Diablo 2 with instanced missions, graphical lobbies, PVP arenas, guilds, capture the flag, siege/hold the fort and a variety of wilderness areas.

There's no camping. No "LFG Lvl 25 Warrior looking for Dungeon blah blah" crap. No "OMG KILL STEALER!" or anything like that.

There's cities, wilderness areas and mission areas. I am not splitting hairs here, the game really isn't an MMORPG. Everything is instanced. Cities and mission areas have lobbies, where you can find people to party with. When you press "Enter Mission" you enter the mission with the party you grouped up with.

There's no gigantic area with 500 people killing thousands of respawning monsters. There's none of that trash. Even the wilderness areas are instanced, so you can wander around at your own pace and do out-of-mission wilderness quests. The game is soloable, as you can recruit NPC Henchmen to escort you on missions as well as wilderness areas.

There's no grinding - you cap at level 20. You hunt for materials (dont worry, its not hard) for your equipment and you upgrade your preexisting gear with it. There's TONS more after you hit the cap, such as PVP, arenas, and so forth.

It's also free to play after you purchase it. There's no monthly fee.

It's absolutely nothing like EQ, WOW, AO, Shadowbane, the rest of the crap MMORPG crowd.

That's a good enough reason to buy the game.

Shagnak · Jan 27, 2005

Exitium said:
When you press "Enter Mission" you enter the mission with the party you grouped up with.

It's also free to play after you purchase it. There's no monthly fee.

Ah, I see.
The two quotes I've singled out above really stick out for me as being massive positives in a sea of MMORPG crap.
I admit it, it does sound good after all. Especially the "no monthly fee" thing. (Yeah, I'm cheap :roll:

)

Hmmm...I wonder of there will be an Aus/NZ based server for it?

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