Dungeons - The Dark Lord

Kalypso account required out of ten. ♥♥♥♥ off I should not need an account on your ♥♥♥♥♥♥ launcher in order to play a single player game. This is enough to make me never buy another game made my this publisher.

10/10 not recommended. Game cannot run for me due to Kalypso launcher having issues connecting to the DRM server. Steam and Kalypso support have not been helpful. I bought this game in a bundle several years ago, worked just fine back then. Recent reinstall however does not work anymore.

I had a surprisingly great time with Dungeons: The Dark Lord. I really enjoyed being on the other side for once and actually playing as the villain, building up my dungeon and dealing with the heroes trying to invade it. There’s something really satisfying about setting up your dungeon, getting your creatures ready and watching your plans come together. The game also has a good sense of humour, which made the experience even more enjoyable. It’s an older game, but I honestly think it still holds up really well. I had a lot of fun with this one and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys strategy and management games with a bit of a twist.

Had potential but is neglected. Avoid

I picked this up in a bundle hoping for a fun dungeon management sim, and while the core concept — building rooms to attract heroes, satisfying their needs, then incapacitating them for soul energy — is genuinely clever and different from what most people expect, the execution drags it down hard. The Kalypso launcher DRM is a frustrating barrier just to play a singleplayer game, and once you're actually in, the pacing is painfully slow with autosaves that can strand you hours back. Managing three Dungeon Lords with a hotbar that doesn't swap between them is a UI nightmare, and as heroes level up they snowball into unkillable deathballs that make every level feel like a desperate race you're destined to lose. There are moments where building and decorating your dungeon clicks and feels satisfying, but the game constantly undercuts that with unclear objectives, micromanagement hell, and a difficulty curve that punishes patience rather than rewarding it. Unless you're grabbing it for nearly free in a bundle, skip it.

Crashes all the time, and even without that, the game is far from being as good and funny as the subsequent games.