Joystiq impressions: Dungeon Hero
Dungeon Hero's title is supposed to be a bit ironic. See, the thing in Dungeon Hero is that you're a a human, but you're not actually good, and the dungeon isn't bad. Through a fantastic opening sequence (found after the break) you'll get the premise of what's going on. A dungeon is just another home with various types of creatures trying to live their lives. Although the set-up sounds like developer Firefly is making Stronghold for the Dungeon Keeper fans, it's actually an action RPG title.
The game won't be released until Q1 of 2009 so there is still a long journey to go before we can accurately say anything about this game. The premise is that the dungeon is at war, it's not a place where gold is just laying around and enemies aren't just hanging around for the adventurer to show up. The idea is to twist the conventions of dungeon games like Diablo which have become the norm. Players will level up and choose different easily deployable combat moves, kind of like what Molyneux is talking about for the upcoming Fable 2. The developers have hired an artist to tell the story through Max Payne style cutscenes, but with animation added. If Dungeon Hero keeps its sense of irony, heaps on some solid gameplay, we'll definitely be looking forward to it, despite it sounding originally like another dungeon crawl game. The only thing Dungeon Hero has to worry about is becoming the thing it is struggling against becoming -- the path which the remake of The Bard's Tale stumbled into.
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