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The more I played War for the Overworld, the more I began feeling that its name summed up why it wasn't quite working for me. It sounds like a small point, and it is, but it's one rooted in what people got from Dungeon Keeper in the first place. For me, the appeal was in, well, keeping a dungeon. It was building my little enclave of evil, enjoying the little squabbles and slithers of monsters drawn to my dark heart, and watching them work for my amusement. All of that is, of course, in War for the Overworld too, which is in most ways achingly close to the Dungeon Keeper 3 that we've all been waiting for so damn long. Still, there's something about it that doesn't quite ring right, which stops it - for me - being all I'd hoped for.In most ways, it's a big success. It's certainly a better game than Dungeons, and while EA should always have been ashamed at inflicting Dungeon Keeper Mobile on the world, the fact that an indie team has done more to honour the original's memory than they ever have is cause for seppuku. With a rusty spoon.
Much of why War for the Overworld works though is that it's not afraid to simply be Dungeon Keeper, and recreate what worked before. It replicates the format admirably, even bringing back the original narrator to lubricate entire dungeons with his familiar malevolence, and with a deep love always sparkling away behind its evil facade of spikes and cold stone. That means a few new ideas, including a more flexible tech-tree, but generally design based on an appreciation from the original. Evolutions on themes, generally, which seems fair enough given that nobody else has really sat down and given them a try since Evil Genius. Carving out each dungeon is as satisfying as ever, as is filling them with rooms to recruit and train, traps to pointedly deter invaders, and a library of magic spells that of course includes Possession - the ability to jump into your monsters' heads and both see and fight from their first-person perspective. It's still generally pretty useless as an ability, but it's still fun too, as is watching your minions squirm when you pick them up by the scruff of their necks.
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