Dungeon Lords Preview

The crackle of the fire provides punctuation to the sounds of the forest. There is an ominous air lingering in the dark shadows. It begins innocently enough – a mission to deliver a letter. But the road is far from safe. From the darkness leaps monsters, undead, vicious beasts and a variety of other vile creatures that will try to see that the letter never makes it to its destination.

Thus begins Dungeon Lords, a PC game that describes itself as an RPG Combat Epic from the mind of noted game designer D.W. Bradley. Essentially, what this boils down to is a combination of third-person (default) fighter action with fantasy role-play elements. Players can create an avatar and explore the fully three-dimensional world, which sparkles with detail.

The build that GameZone received was a pre-beta version and there were some rough elements, as well as missing elements. The game will support multiplayer gaming via GameSpy, Internet or LAN connectivity. Players will embark on a series of quests, level their avatars, battle through bands of mobs, collect loot and progress through the storyline.

Speaking of the latter …

A deadly conspiracy within the Circle of Mages has resulted in the murder of the great wizard. The chief ally of the slain mage, Lord Davenmor, is faced with saving his kingdom from the growing conspiracy and the attack of Lord Barrowgrim’s marauders. In an effort to quell the invasion, Davenmor has promised the hand of his daughter to Barrowgrim, but the maiden is in love with another and after learning of her father’s deal, the girl vanishes. Needless to say, Barrowgrim is a little miffed, and Davenmor is up against it.

The build received contained several pre-loaded scenarios, and the option to start a brand-new character and sally forth on the high road of adventure. There were seven playable races (elf – male and female, human – male and female, and male versions of the urgoth, dwarf and wylvan), and six attribute areas to skill up the avatars. There are four main professions – adept, mage, rogue and fighter.

Players begin by equipping their avatar and adventuring out on the road. The game’s controls are geared to try and allow players to jump in and play as quickly as possible. While not intuitive, the controls do resonant with a logic style once the basics are understood. For example, you could load up a mage-based ranged attack and you jump between the ranged attack and melee by pushing the Q key. But in the version received, the melee options seemed a little static, and had an awkward look – something that will likely be fixed further down the road. Other animations looked amazing. Blocking ranged attacks with the shield while advancing forward, sword at the ready, revealed a stellar vision of the game that easily rivals some of the best fantasy settings in current release.

The sound was a solid adjunct to the visuals.

Dungeon Lords is shaping up to be a terrific adventure. The pre-beta build showed there is work left to do, but revealed an adventure that should be on every RPGer’s list of games to look for when the game releases in April.