Dungeons 2 is one of those games that have tried to be sort of spiritual successors to Dungeon Keeper 2. In doing so, the devs also managed to make the game its own separate and slightly silly thing, which is good. Much of the silliness of Dungeons 2 comes through the narrator voice, which you can actually control the amount of chattiness from. As for the rest of the game, a fair amount of its separation from being just another DK2 clone comes from the two (three with the main expansion) playable factions, each with its own set of rooms, traps, and units. It's also relatively bug-free.
To start out with, I'll go over some gameplay basics. Most maps, both in campaign and skirmish mode, have at least two actual maps to them: One is the Dungeon Map, where you do your building, managing, and other base-building style work. Certain features will always be present on the Dungeon Map: Your Throne Room, which is the core of the dungeon, Gates that lead to the surface, and tunnels connecting at least one of the Gates to the Throne Room. There will also be large amounts of mineable sections for adding rooms. Sprinkled around the Dungeon map are resources, such as Gold seams (Gold being useful for most things, including paying wages), Rich Gold Seams (Which take a LONG time to tap out), Gem Seams (Which provide an infinite amount of Gold), and Mana Crystals. On occasion while digging, you'll either uncover the occasional hostile critter nest, or more likely, you'll have some enemies enter the dungeon from the other main map, the Surface. While on the Dungeon Map, you have no direct control over your creatures, but most of the time, they'll automatically start fighting any enemies they encounter, unless the creature in question is a worker. Those little derps run away most of the time. If the enemies get to the Throne Room and start attacking though... It's all-hands-to-the-pump.
The second major map type is the Surface. This map is usually populated at the start by nothing but Heroes, and Hero Generating Structures. This is the map where you've got more "traditional" control over your creatures, when they're sent there, which is done by picking them up on the Dungeon Map and dropping them on one of the Gates. It's also broken up into regions with invisible borders. Clear out all of the hostiles in the region (not always Heroes) and then the region gets "Evilified". More on that later. Occasionally, there will be little side-area underground maps. These don't get their own mini-maps, unfortunately. There are a few campaign missions that have only the Surface section. Those are special cases.
The Dungeon itself has three levels, and to go up between levels (which unlocks better things for research/use) you need to gather Evilness. This is done by corrupting the Surface. Each Surface map has its own way of going about granting Evilness: Either each region will give a periodic trickle of Evilness, or you'll get a lump-sum. Either way, at 500 and later 2000 total Evilness (and an amount of Gold), you get to upgrade your Dungeon for badder things.
"I do hope no one has arachnophobia, as a spider's nest was just uncovered."
Now to back up a bit and cover some of the silliness. As I said, most of it comes from the Narrator, who's lines often contain references to other series' events, or fourth-wall breaks, often times containing both. Many of the idle commentary also contains fourth-wall breaks. As stated before, in the Options Menu there is an option for changing what kind of comments you get from the Narrator: All comment types, Only Admonishments, Only Idle Comments, or Nothing. The Idle Comments are mostly jokes, and the Admonishments are pestering you to make progress towards your objectives. Of further note: The Hand of Terror, your in-game cursor, has some random-ish idle animations of its own. (I've personally seen it start "hand-banging" while throwing the horns.)
Aside from the main game itself, it has four DLCs, which are mostly just map packs for skirmish mode. The main one, however, is titled "A Game of Winter" and includes a small expansion campaign and a new faction for Skirmish/MP modes.
On to the actual playable factions and units...
Most of the core mechanics are the same for each playable Faction (just with different names and aesthetics), so I'll be focusing on specific things, like units and unique mechanics. The playable factions are Horde (Orcs and whatnot) and Demons, with the Undead being playable with the main expansion. Each faction can only recruit basic units, but have somewhere to send their derps for unit upgrades. Now for a run-down of each...
Horde - This faction is probably the easiest to learn, especially if you're the type of player who learns how to play a faction in a strategy game by playing the campaign. They're the feature faction of the main campaign. For builders, you've got your Little Snots... And they actually have a use beyond just mining out space, dragging the dead to a reviver, or getting punted. THEY MAKE BEER! Which is good, as the Horde units require beer on top of the other creature requirements in the game. Each of the Horde units have two options for upgraded forms, choose one per unit. Not unit type, individual unit. Now, your available guys and their upgrades are as follows:
Orcs, the Horde's basic combat unit. These guys spend most of their non-fighting time either shouting at other Horde units to motivate them, or "prettying up" your Dungeon by reinforcing the walls. The other factions get those wall reinforcements, which can actually improve a room's effectiveness, automatically, but the Orcs gotta get around to doing it for the Horde. They can improve into either Chieftains which can break certain status effects on others, or Ironskins who have better defense.
Goblins, the Horde's combat engineer unit. In the field, they can disable enemy traps...On the rare occasions you actually encounter some. These guys spend their non-combat time in the Workshop, cranking out toolboxes or developing Room Improvements, Doors, and Traps. Their upgrades are into the sneaky Assassin or the torch-happy Gob-o-Bot.
Nagas, the Horde's ranged detector unit. In the field, they have the ability to spot invisible enemies, like Elven Archers. They spend their dungeon time mining Mana from crystals, or researching spells and population improvements. They can upgrade either into a Naga Queen or a Medusa.
Trolls, the Horde's massive combat unit. They get to spend their dungeon time in the Forge, researching unit upgrades. They can be upgraded into either a Rockthrower or a Juggernaut.
Now as stated before, the Horde is the only playable faction that makes use of the two-option upgrades. The other two factions have a three-tier upgrade set up.
Demons - Only really showcased for like two missions in the singleplayer campaign. You'll need to spend time in Skirmish mode to really learn them. Also, expect to go through a lot of their worker unit, the Servants. For each tier-up you want to do for your other Demon faction units, you've got to sacrifice a Servant. Also, your Demons thrive on Admiration, which your Servants perform.
Lust Demons, the main fighting unit for the Demons. When not out in the field, they spend their time motivating your other Demons to work harder... Usually by way of whip. The tiers for them are: Mistress, Succubus, Dark Empress.
Fright Demons, the detector unit for the Demons. In the field, they've got the invis-spotting ability. Down in the dungeon, they produce spider eggs in the Nest, and perform the room-based research. Their tiers are: Infested, Chaos Weaver, and Brood Queen.
Shadow Demons, the sneaky unit for the Demons. In the field, they've got the sneaky-sneak ability. In the dungeon, they spend their time gathering mana and doing spell/population research. Their tiers are: Shadow Lurker, Mindflayer (completely different design from the D&D ones), and Abysmal.
Fire Demons, the heavy-hitter unit for the Demons. When not out bashing things, they perform all of the unit improving research. Their tiers are: Infernal, Gargoyle, and Pit Fiend.
Finally, I come to the last faction... The Undead. They have no special resource for healing, only rest. After each rest, one of their workers, the Forgotten, clean up the mess. While all three factions have a means of restoring the fallen, the Undead do so automatically without worker input, as long as the facility is built.
Blood Drinkers, the basic Undead fighter-turned-specialist. The Blood Drinkers start out as dungeon-jobless fighters on recruit, but upon the tier-ups, begins working in the Cemetary to speed up the revival of fallen Undead. Notable for the random individual names being puns on Pokémon names. Their tiers are: Bloodsucker, Grimlin (not a typo, that's how it's spelled in game), and Nosferatu.
Ghosts, the detectors for the Undead. In the fight, they spot the hiders. In the dungeon, though, they gather Mana and do the spell and population research. Their tiers are: Fright, Banshee, and Black Death.
Skeletons are the ranged specialist for the Undead. While in the Dungeon, they perform alchemy to produce Clay Pots of...stuff, and research Room-related improvements. Their tiers are: Bone Warrior, Deadbolt, and Lich.
Brain Biters, the heavies for the Undead. When not in the field, they work in the Labratory, researching to improve the Undead units' capabilities. Fun note... The Labratory workstation has the model of a basic-tier Brain Biter strapped in as the test subject. Their tiers are: Zombie, Ghoul, and the Thing.
Now that all of that's out of the way, I'll finish up here with a few more notes. The main game's campaign mode is eleven missions long, which gets upgraded with an eight mission second campaign with the addition of A Game of Winter. With all of the map packs, the game has 16 skirmish mode maps, each of which could be set to an "Endless Mode". And finally, it's got multiplayer, which I can not describe due to lack of experience with it.
Still in all, a decent purchase, at least for those who like strategy games to have a bit of humor with it. Of course, if you're not into strategy games, or don't care for silliness, you might want to look elsewhere.
