(no subject)
I've been playing a fair amount of Dungeon Keeper 2, because I enjoy it. Obviously. Also, I've been priming myself for understanding my experiences with Dungeon Keeper, the mobile app. As the app has been critically and universally panned, I am compelled to defend it because... that's who I am, I guess.
Dungeon Keeper 2 has a strong emphasis on exploration. Digging around the level can uncover new minions, new resources, treasures, secrets, etc. and costs very little time. It is understood to be part of most winning strategies, and is even explicitly called out in a few of the campaign levels. This emphasis on exploration is totally lacking from the mobile app, due to the emphasis on a controlled dungeon-building experience. This led the developers to what I consider a ruinous pair of decisions, namely limiting the size of dungeons, and by extension imposing constraints on attempts to explore. So, resources are immediately and regularly available, and digging in the mobile app triggers a downtime. This exorcism of the spirit of exploration that animated so much of Dungeon Keeper 2 left me feeling queasy, once I was able to put a name to it.
Let's talk about play modes.
Dungeon Keeper 2's two play modes (the Campaign and the Freestyle Dungeon) do not perfectly align with the game's two play styles, though they are similar. There is, what I would call a Passive style and an Active one. The Passive style is leisurely, with objectives and gameplay that do not directly harm your Dungeon Heart. The player is given free reign to think out their dungeon, mine resources and dive into the dungeon creation experience. This style is what the Freestyle Dungeon mode is all about, clearly, but it also scoops up the first two thirds of the Campaign, where the threats against one's Dungeon Heart are laughable, unrealistic. It is an extended tutorial, it is a Freestyle Dungeon On Rails.
It's only in the later levels where there is a realistic expectation of invasion or attack that Things Get Real, and the game's real-time strategy pedigree emerges.
The mobile app emphasizes the Passive elements of the series, which represent an impressive portion of the original games. The raids, be they campaign or user, are sectioned off from the main gameplay, as they only impact your creatures, and the buildings all grow back instantly. There is no plot and there is nothing that qualitatively changes one raid experience from another. For a game looking to promote the dungeon-creation experience, this makes sense. The core of the game play is unambiguous, and the elements of Dungeon Keeper 2 most likely to "hamper" that experience have been cut out.
So, no exploration and no actual real-time strategy. Is the dungeon-building side of the equation enough to carry the game? Like some critics, I think that this question depends on the age of the interlocutor. This kind of cynical money-grab, and the glaring laziness of the cold, mathematical framework that accompanies it (upgrade Dungeon Heart 4 to get Training Room 4 to Upgrade Skeletons to Level 4) makes me feel ill. Being made to wait for contrived reasons, to serve the most transparent mercantilism, angers me in a way that does not seem to get to those who have accustomed themselves to this business model. My type mercantilism requires up-front money used to purchase a clearly-defined good. It is the only one I find palatable for now, it seems.
Of more import, this game to me illustrates a failure of sort, one that I would call a Capitalistic Failure. The game is very good at what it does. It really is. Its decisions are internally consistent and logical, given its end goal. And yet, the product is soulless, in a way that is different from big blockbuster movies (like Transformers) and games (like CoD). The commercial element gives games free range to create the simplest Skinner Boxes, and profit off them in a way that seems ground-breaking to me. That makes me sad.
Dungeon Keeper 2 has a strong emphasis on exploration. Digging around the level can uncover new minions, new resources, treasures, secrets, etc. and costs very little time. It is understood to be part of most winning strategies, and is even explicitly called out in a few of the campaign levels. This emphasis on exploration is totally lacking from the mobile app, due to the emphasis on a controlled dungeon-building experience. This led the developers to what I consider a ruinous pair of decisions, namely limiting the size of dungeons, and by extension imposing constraints on attempts to explore. So, resources are immediately and regularly available, and digging in the mobile app triggers a downtime. This exorcism of the spirit of exploration that animated so much of Dungeon Keeper 2 left me feeling queasy, once I was able to put a name to it.
Let's talk about play modes.
Dungeon Keeper 2's two play modes (the Campaign and the Freestyle Dungeon) do not perfectly align with the game's two play styles, though they are similar. There is, what I would call a Passive style and an Active one. The Passive style is leisurely, with objectives and gameplay that do not directly harm your Dungeon Heart. The player is given free reign to think out their dungeon, mine resources and dive into the dungeon creation experience. This style is what the Freestyle Dungeon mode is all about, clearly, but it also scoops up the first two thirds of the Campaign, where the threats against one's Dungeon Heart are laughable, unrealistic. It is an extended tutorial, it is a Freestyle Dungeon On Rails.
It's only in the later levels where there is a realistic expectation of invasion or attack that Things Get Real, and the game's real-time strategy pedigree emerges.
The mobile app emphasizes the Passive elements of the series, which represent an impressive portion of the original games. The raids, be they campaign or user, are sectioned off from the main gameplay, as they only impact your creatures, and the buildings all grow back instantly. There is no plot and there is nothing that qualitatively changes one raid experience from another. For a game looking to promote the dungeon-creation experience, this makes sense. The core of the game play is unambiguous, and the elements of Dungeon Keeper 2 most likely to "hamper" that experience have been cut out.
So, no exploration and no actual real-time strategy. Is the dungeon-building side of the equation enough to carry the game? Like some critics, I think that this question depends on the age of the interlocutor. This kind of cynical money-grab, and the glaring laziness of the cold, mathematical framework that accompanies it (upgrade Dungeon Heart 4 to get Training Room 4 to Upgrade Skeletons to Level 4) makes me feel ill. Being made to wait for contrived reasons, to serve the most transparent mercantilism, angers me in a way that does not seem to get to those who have accustomed themselves to this business model. My type mercantilism requires up-front money used to purchase a clearly-defined good. It is the only one I find palatable for now, it seems.
Of more import, this game to me illustrates a failure of sort, one that I would call a Capitalistic Failure. The game is very good at what it does. It really is. Its decisions are internally consistent and logical, given its end goal. And yet, the product is soulless, in a way that is different from big blockbuster movies (like Transformers) and games (like CoD). The commercial element gives games free range to create the simplest Skinner Boxes, and profit off them in a way that seems ground-breaking to me. That makes me sad.