The Dungeons series from developer Realmforge Studios has carved out a unique niche in the dungeon management simulator genre. Inspired by classic games like Dungeon Keeper, the Dungeons games blend real-time strategy with deep dungeon building mechanics. Now 12 years after the original, Dungeons 4 marks the triumphant return of the tongue-in-cheek franchise.
This time, we step into the shoes of the dastardly Thalya on her quest to eradicate all good in the world. Does Dungeons 4 offer a delightfully wicked experience worthy of its lineage? Let’s descend into the depths to find out.
Wreaking Havoc Across the Overworld
Dungeons 4 picks up right where the previous game left off – with the forces of evil reigning supreme after defeating the legendary hero king. However, one small village of do-gooders remains, led by Thalya’s insufferable stepbrother Tristan. As Thalya, your goal is to finally wipe out the last remnants of good from the world. The developers clearly had fun with the story and characters. The plot frequently breaks the fourth wall with jokes and references. Yet it’s all done with a playful spirit true to the series.
Gameplay is split into two main phases. In the overhead RTS view, you’ll guide Thalya and your minions across sprawling maps to accomplish objectives. This usually involves raiding enemy camps, burning down idyllic hamlets, and other wholesome activities. The RTS sections offer a great sense of power and scale as you spread your corrupting influence further.
After softening up targets, the game flips to the underground dungeon view. Here you’ll expand your subterranean lair by mining for gold, constructing new rooms, researching upgrades, and micromanaging your creatures. There’s a constant loop of balancing resource gathering with pushing your forces back to the surface. The huge dungeons with twisting passages also let you build elaborate defenses to thwart would-be heroes.
Customize Your Reign of Terror
Half the fun comes from developing your dungeon and minions to match your playstyle. There are four unit upgrade paths – Dungeon, Horde, Demons, and Undead – each with unique strengths. Dungeon upgrades focus on your snotling workers and infrastructure. Horde provides general purpose fighters. Demons offer ranged attacks and respawn infinitely. Undead overwhelm with sheer numbers.
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In addition, there is an extensive tech tree to unlock new rooms, traps, and abilities. You can also collect magic tomes to unleash devastating spells that can quickly turn the tide of battle. The variety of options lets you build anything from an impenetrable underground fortress to an unstoppable swarm of the undead.
When raiding above ground as Thalya, you can customize her skills and gear however you want to complement your forces. The RPG progression and numerous viable strategies keep the experience feeling fresh across repeated playthroughs.
Adding to the replay value is the 2 player co-op mode allowing you to team up with a friend. You can also easily replay campaign missions to try new approaches. There’s plenty of post-game content available for honing your preferred playstyle.
Evil Never Looked So Good
Presentation-wise, Dungeons 4 delivers detailed graphics with a vibrant, exaggerated art style fitting the light-hearted tone. The visuals can feel a bit visually busy at times, but overall the aesthetic works well. Despite the cartoony look, the haunting ambient soundtrack and ghoulish sound effects still evoke a creepy dungeon atmosphere.
In terms of performance, the game offers surprisingly limited graphics options. However, it runs well even on max settings. The lack of DLSS and FSR support is disappointing for those chasing higher frame rates, but it’s still highly playable.
Dungeons 4 executes the dungeon sim formula nearly flawlessly. The addictive loop of construction, troop management, and conquering maps never gets old. Both the building and combat systems have incredible depth without being overwhelming. The humor and charm elevate the experience beyond just a mechanical resource management game.
12 years later, Realmforge Studios has perfected their craft and delivered the best entry in the series. While it doesn’t reinvent the dungeon, Dungeons 4 is a must-play for any fan of tactical base building and evil-doers alike.
A Vibrant and Chaotic Art Style
The moment you dive into Dungeons 4, the vibrant and exaggerated art style grabs your attention. The graphics have a distinctly cartoony look, with characters and environments featuring bold outlines and bright colors. This aesthetic pairs nicely with the chaotic and irreverent tone of the gameplay.
Compared to the muted and gloomy visuals found in some other dungeon games, Dungeons 4 is a lively assault on the senses. The expressive character designs are full of personality, from your maniacal Dungeon Master ranting about revenge to the bumbling hero NPCs. Even the snotling workers scampering around have their own unique charm despite being somewhat grotesque.
The environments also showcase an impressive attention to detail. Crumbling ruins, warped forests, and settlements begging to be pillaged are all brought to life. Lava flows, magical barriers, and other effects add to the supernatural feel once you venture deeper underground. While the scenery can sometimes look a bit busy and muddy, the art team did an amazing job realizing this twisted fantasy realm.
In terms of camera options, the default locked perspective generally works fine for both dungeon building and commanding troops above ground. Veterans of the genre may miss being able to freely pan and rotate the camera. But the locked camera helps keep things simple to manage and reduces the chance of getting disoriented.
One area for improvement is the user interface. The UI seems tailored for gamepads and televisions rather than keyboard and mouse setups. Critical information can feel cramped and hard to read at times. Some UI scaling options would be welcome, especially when managing a sprawling dungeon on a monitor. Still, these are relatively minor complaints for what is visually an excellent realization of the Dungeons universe.
Overall, the vibrant art style and detailed environments create a perfect stage for you to carry out your dastardly deeds. It convincingly brings to life this caricature of a high fantasy world begging for a sinister overlord to oppress it. The visual presentation marries gameplay, narrative and tone together into one cohesive and compelling package.
Smooth Performance Lets You Focus on Destruction
Given the complex simulations running behind the scenes in Dungeons 4, you would expect performance to suffer, especially in large dungeons. Thankfully, that’s not the case – the game runs remarkably well even on max settings. In testing, it easily achieved over 100 FPS at 1080p on a mid-range gaming PC.
The graphics options menu is quite sparse, with only basic toggles for things like resolution, Vsync, and antialiasing. Advanced options like adjustable level of detail, texture quality, and shadow quality are notably absent. Support for performance-boosting technologies like DLSS and FSR is also missing.
However, the game appears well optimized out of the box. Turning settings up to max barely put a dent in frame rates. The performance remained smooth and stable whether building underground or commanding large armies above.
The lack of customization is disappointing for fine tuning, but won’t hamper most players. Only those with high refresh rate monitors may want more tweaking available to push FPS higher. But for the majority of gamers, you can jump right in with max graphics and not worry about performance issues disrupting your delicious demonic deeds.
This level of optimization is critical for an immersive real-time strategy and base building hybrid like this. You want to focus on doing dastardly things, not wrestling with technical problems. The game really delivers in this regard. Dungeons 4 sidesteps the performance pitfalls that often plague games with procedural generation and physics-based simulations. This lets you concentrate on having fun demolishing the virtuous and constructing your diabolical empire.
So while more graphics settings would be welcome, the out of the box performance means you can simply start expanding your dark dominion. Any fiendish overlord appreciates when technical details don’t get in the way of subjugating the world.
Endless Ways to Rule Your Underground Kingdom
While the core gameplay loop is highly addictive on its own, Dungeons 4 packs in a staggering amount of supplemental content and options. The mission-based structure provides better pacing and variety compared to a more freeform sandbox mode. Objectives and new mechanics are steadily introduced across over 25 hours of campaign gameplay.
Once you complete a level, you can return to master it on higher difficulties or try new strategies. The demanding AI will ruthlessly punish any mistakes in your dungeon design or troop management. Rather than restart an entire run from scratch, you can iterate and improve a specific level until perfecting your approach.
Eager to start sowing chaos right away? The Skirmish mode lets you bypass the campaign and jump into custom matches. Here you can select playable heroes with different abilities, adjust starting conditions, and enable or disable certain rules. It’s a great way to learn the ropes before diving into the story.
Long-term motivation is provided by the deep progression systems. You’ll gradually unlock new rooms, traps, units, and abilities on the technology tree as you play. Mixing and matching these options lets you develop a signature style. Will you overwhelm enemies with sheer numbers of undead? Or devastate lands with high-level demons and spells? There are hundreds of paths for customizing your dungeon.
An Essential Pick for Fans of Dungeon Building and Strategy
Dungeons 4 stands out as a meticulously crafted and content rich entry in the dungeon management simulator genre. The addictive cycle of building your underground empire while developing an unstoppable force to conquer the surface is incredibly rewarding. A seemingly bottomless well of progression systems and customization options will keep you refining your dark domain. The irreverent humor and lively presentation perfectly complement the strategic gameplay.
12 years later, this franchise continues to evolve and improve upon its already rock-solid foundations. Both veterans and newcomers to dungeon sims will find their malevolent whims indulged and amplified by Dungeons 4. If you have even a passing interest in strategy games or construction toolsets, be sure to add this exemplar to your collection.
The Review
Dungeons 4
Dungeons 4 is a fiendishly addictive dungeon builder that improves upon its predecessors in almost every way. The two-pronged gameplay of conducting raids in the overworld then developing your underground lair offers immense strategic depth. Customizing your playstyle through deep progression systems and advanced unit compositions is immensely rewarding. Although the story is silly, it fits the overall irreverent tone. Some limited graphics options and UI issues hold the experience back slightly. However, with superb core gameplay, endless content, and a charming personality, Dungeons 4 is easy to recommend for fans of the genre or newcomers looking for a accessible entry point.
PROS
- Addictive gameplay loop between building dungeon and commanding forces
- Tons of depth in dungeon management systems
- Excellent blend of strategy and management sim genres
- Great progression and customization of units and abilities
- Humorous tone and self-aware writing
- Smooth performance and stability
- Lots of content between campaign, side missions, etc.
CONS
- Story is a bit silly and nonsensical
- Visuals can feel cluttered and busy
- UI obviously designed for controllers
- Lack of graphics options for PC
- No support for DLSS/FSR
