New Game: Empires And Dungeons
Wednesday night I discovered "Empires and Dungeons," a new game by Niels Bauer. I was curious about this game because, like Styrateg, it's a hybrid Roleplaying / Strategy Game.

While technically both are strategy / RPG hybrids, the two games are very, very different. Styrateg plays more like a wargame, and Empires & Dungeons plays more like a board game. If you've ever played board games with RPG elements, you'll know what I'm talking about. Talisman, Dungeon, Arkham Horror, Warlock on Firetop Mountain, The Chill Boardgame, and Munchkin - yeah so it's a card game - are ones that I have played that come to mind.

What I enjoyed about Empires and Dungeons is that a big part of the game is going dungeon-delving. You leave your army behind, and it's your hero alone in a randomly generated dungeon. Dungeons are the best source of treasure in the game, which you need to buy expansions to your castle and additional troops. In addition, it's the only way to gain experience levels. Your hero's experience levels give your entire army a combat bonus in battle. It's also important when taking on an enemy castle, as you will have to face your rival lord on top of the castle walls in single combat. The magic items you find in the dungeons will also help in this respect. Dungeons are also a great source of "honor," an extra resource that you'll need to recruit knights and do other actions in the game. Finally, quest items (such as the dragon eggs in the demo mission) may only be found in dungeons.

Outside of the dungeons, you may be chasing resources around the landscape, visiting special "event" sites (such as a wizard who will cast a curse on your enemies if you will provide him with lots of gold and a voodoo doll that you found in a dungeon - but it also comes with a major hit to your honor). There are merchants to deal with, cities to be conquered and taxed (or burned to the ground, if you are feeling particularly malicious), and quests to be completed.

The strategy element isn't particularly challenging - in true RPG fashion, you can always just level up and accumulate more STUFF to take on the bigger challenges. But your rivals lords are doing the same.

An entire campaign (the full game comes with twelve) can be played in well under an hour, once you know what you are doing. It's very replayable. The easiest difficulty level (the only one available in the demo) is perhaps a little bit more challenging than I'd expect, though it was still easy enough for me to win my first game. Barely.

Anyway, it's a fun little game. You can download the free demo here:
Empires and Dungeons

Labels: Game Announcements, Roleplaying Games

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