Dungeons Preview
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Dungeons harks back to afternoons lost between the pages of Dungeons and Dragons and a stack of graph paper--the joys of creation, with a deliciously sinister twist. From the moment foolish heroes set foot within your dungeon, you want their entire existence accounted for--from what they see to how they'll die. However, construction starts at the end of your dungeon, the heart, and you cannot furnish an area too far from it without first dropping a monster-spawning pentagram. As we furnished rooms, unlocked new items, and dug our way toward one of the hero-spawning gates in the levels we played, we occasionally got the feeling of working in reverse, since we were required to place our weakest items at the mission-critical heart of the dungeon, while the biggest and baddest accouterments became available only when we reached the hero's gate, which acts as an entrance. Then again, Dungeons will not only come with a single-player campaign; it'll also offer a free-form sandbox mode that will hopefully give you a lot more freedom to tinker with your domain as you see fit.
Once a hero gate is open, your attentions are split between monitoring the soul energy levels of your guests and spending all the currency they provide. Heroes are simple creatures and will slowly make their way through your dungeon, stopping to cower at the scenery, fight a monster, or collect a bit of loot. When they encounter a foe, they will slowly enter into battle and finally land the killing blow around the time that the next enemy spawns. If you put too many pentagrams in the same area, your heroes will stay busy--and unhappy--for a long while.
Once they bumble their way through your armories, libraries, and glistening piles of gold, the soul energy of your heroes will be reaching peak capacity. This is the time to strike. If you wait too long, your prey will magically escape from your dungeon--denying you of its spoils. And while your local monsters may be up to the task, chances are when it comes time to harvest the crops, you'll need to call in your avatar--a fiendish-looking rapscallion in red armor--and engage them personally.
