A DLC pack called Into the Dark has been released for Dungeons:

The first DLC pack for the critically acclaimed evildoer game DUNGEONS delivers new challenges for wannabe dungeon lords. Heart of Into the Dark is the new campaign map Flowerdale, in which you have to deal with with ever new waves of heroes. The pack also includes ten new maps for the game modes survival, soul survival, sandbox and amusement and 20 new prestige items.

• 20 new prestige items such as the “Statue of the Nameless Hero”
• New campaign map Flowerdale
• 10 new maps for sandbox, survival, soul survival and amusement

GameBanshee is having a busy week and they sent over this review of Dungeons. As usual for them, there's no score, so here's the summary:

Overall, I had mixed feelings about Dungeons. It was interesting to see the flip side of the action RPG genre, and I enjoyed the game's humor, but otherwise there just wasn't enough going on (with only three types of rooms and lots of interchangeable creatures and objects) to make it an exciting strategy title. I'm guessing that fans of Dungeon Keeper won't be happy that the game is so simplified (not to mention that the focus is on heroes rather than creatures), and for everybody else, while the game might be a fun enough change of pace, I'd recommend that you wait for the price to drop. Dungeons seems like a $20-30 game to me rather than a $40 game (which is where it is currently priced), and I'm guessing that you won't have to wait very long for it to go on sale.

Kalypso has announced Dungeons is available in NA:

Kalypso USA Releases Dungeons to North American Retail

Kalypso USA Releases Dungeons to North American Retail

Being Evil has Never Felt this Good!

Ridgewood, NJ, February 8, 2011 - Kalypso Media is pleased to announce that their humorous strategy game, Dungeons, has shipped to North American retail and digital distribution today. Dungeons lets players don the boots of a fallen-from-grace Dungeon Lord, who must entice foolish heroes into his deceptively beautiful and equally deadly custom-crafted dungeons. Once an adventurer enters the player’s creation, the fun really begins as players must first entertain, then capture those heroes, stealing the adventurers’ precious soul energy in order to build even more elaborate and sinister dungeons. For more information about Dungeons, please visit http://home.dungeons-game.com.

...and a demo has been released in English - Blue's has a list of mirrors.

...although GameSpot wasn't impressed in their review (5/10):

It's often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In the case of Dungeons, its imitation of Dungeon Keeper doesn't so much flatter as it does take the game out on a date and buy it breakfast in the morning. Nearly everything, from the character you play as to the world map that expands as you spread your reign of evil, is lifted from the Bullfrog classic. There are some new ideas, but more often than not, these make the game worse. These include lifeless hack-and-slash combat, an unrewarding leveling system, and tedious resource gathering. An injection of humor and some good voice acting take some of the pain away, but it's not enough to save Dungeons from being a dated trip down memory lane.

A few readers have been enthused with Dungeons so head over to PC Gamer for a review.  The score is 77% and here's a snip:

Some games wear their inspirations on their sleeves. Dungeons wears a Dungeon Keeper T-shirt, drives a red and black car with a ‘I heart Dungeon Keeper’ sticker on it, and visits a plastic surgeon every Tuesday to ask if he’s ready to give it that Horned Reaper look it so badly wants. Just look at it. If it was any more of a copycat, you’d hear it meow. Except…

Against the odds, Dungeons actually turns out to be its own game too. The biggest difference is that your underground empire is now a dedicated hero farm, built specifically to draw do-gooders into your clutches and harvest Soul Energy from them. When they first enter, they’re worthless. By sprinkling all the gold, treasure and monsters they can handle in their path, their Soul Energy bar gets nice and juicy, and only then do you drop the hammer on them – before they escape home with your treasure. Soul Energy buys Prestige, and Prestige unlocks new toys that help harvest more Soul Energy, helping you upgrade your dungeon to take on tougher heroes and assignments.

Alec Meer has penned some impressions of Dungeons at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.  Although he notes some negatives, he seems impressed the game is more than a Dungeon Keeper clone:

So I guess I’ve written that this is a Dungeon Keeper clone in a whole bunch of places over the last few months.

Whoops.

Quite clearly, Dungeons is so heavily inspired by my beloved monster management sim as to essentially be wearing an “I Heart DK” cap and matching t-shirt at all times, but instead of slavishly recreating it what it’s done is take the concept and apply whole new mechanics to it. That, in itself, is remarkable. Why don’t more game tributes/remakes/sequels do that? All the fan lure, less of the cynicism, more self-pride in the act of creation. Dungeons does this while still remaining a Dungeon Keeper game – as opposed to (oh dear) XCOM reducing concepts to abstracts and thus pissing off a whole mess of people, regardless of how good it might turn out to be. Dungeons is still building and strategy in a beast-filled fantasy underworld, but it’s the other side of the mirror.

For those interested in a German demo of Dungeons, Worthplaying has you covered (a tiny 350Mb).

There's a new Dungeons website for those following Kalypso's Dungeon Keeper-esque game.  I can't tell you much more because I failed to get through the age gate - either it doesn't like my browser or perhaps 42 is too old...

Filipe writes in with the preorder offers for Dungeon.  Steam has a free game called M.U.D. TV plus a handful of in-game items. Impulse and Gamersgate are offering the point-and-click adventure Ceville for free.

When I visited GameBanshee I see I missed a few previews for Dungeons. When I searched further I noticed that I missed more than a few. Here are all that I could find. Some are quite old while others were posted this past week:

GameDynamo 

In Dungeons, players are tasked with creating insurmountable underground labyrinths as the Dungeon Lord. Using a variety of objects, powers, and enticing features, players create irresistible death traps for adventurers to explore and die in. With every adventurer you harvest, the more your gold and ‘Soul Energy’ tallies increase. Gold and Soul Energy accumulation is imperative for increasing your prestige through ‘Prestige Gimmicks’ (interesting arcane objects and elements heroes crave). The object of Dungeons is to be the envy of all other evildoers by becoming the ultimate dark lord of the dank and dingy through clever construction of cavernous confines.

Hooked Gamers

Once you have your gold and energy, you set about adding to your dungeon. You can tunnel through and unlock more minions or make a beeline for your various objectives. You can hang back and spruce up your dungeon, or you can concentrate on “harvesting” heroes. While in the main campaign you’re pretty set on your objectives, luckily there is a sandbox mode where you can mess about and be evil whatever way you choose.

Strategy Informer

The monsters you can acquire are again quite the mix of old school Dungeon Keeper and new ideas. Early missions see you playing host to spiders and imps, while later on you'll find wererats and huge fire angels. Part of Dungeon Keepers excitement was bringing new creatures into your realm, and it appears that Dungeons will follow suit. However, rather than fulfilling objectives to make creatures appear, in Dungeons you instead go hunting for them by digging around and finding nests and graveyards.

 

Our stint with Dungeons has made us hungry for more, and we'll definitely be checking it out in full once the game lands sometime early this year. Online multiplayer is promised, along with a full customizable skirmish mode. If you enjoyed Dungeon Keeper, then this is definitely shaping up to be something you'll want to partake in.

Gaminglives

With heroes taking centre stage in your management affections, minions are very much consigned to the background. They don’t need fed, trained or faffed with and, while they are used to fight, Realmforge have made it clear that they aren’t the stars of the show and, instead, are more cannon fodder for the heroes than anything. Indeed, rather than a disembodied presence, the player can actually control their Dungeon Lord who has been described by Realmforge as ‘the most effective combat unit the player has’, so expect to get your own hands dirty when it comes time for a scrap.

Game Revolution (This one was posted in November)

The gameplay is a mashup of RTS, RPG, tower defense, and even a little bit of Sims thrown in for good measure. On each level you’ll start with a basic dungeon layout and expand it from there. Then you’ll populate it with monsters, treasure, books, all the things a young growing hero needs. The heroes themselves trickle into your dungeon as NPCs, poking around at the cool demon pad you’ve set up.

I haven't really been following the Dungeon Keeper-esque Dungeons but Blue's news has Kalypso's strategy title has gone Gold and will be released on Feb 4th in the UK.

Dungeons has a second trailer out. You can view it at gametrailers or click the one from youtube below. This one shows a little of the gameplay which looks a lot like Dungeon Keeper.

Mana Pool has interviewed Realmforge about their upcoming game Dungeons. Here are a few snippets from the interview:

Are there any RPG-like elements across the main campaign part of the game, e.g. will your Dungeon Lord become more powerful throughout or only through each level’s acquisition of Prestige/Soul Energy?

 

Your dungeon lord has attributes and skill points which he can raise during the campaign. So yes, you will become stronger and learn new spells as the game progresses.

 

Can you explain a bit more about Soul Energy, the items that can be created using it and how the whole system works?

 

The vision of Dungeons was to create a game that explains why Dungeons look the way they do in typical (Action-)RPG’s. Why is there loot lying around, why are the monsters only tough enough to be challenging, and so on.

 

In Dungeons the player tries to make a typical RPG dungeon and entertain the heroes. The happier the heroes are, the more beneficial it is for the player. This is represented by Soul Energy. With Soul Energy the player can buy prestige items. These have different positive aspects.

 

Prestige items increase the player’s prestige and prestige gives a bonus to his attributes. Also, heroes are impressed by those items and tend to stroll around in your dungeon and admire them. So you can use prestige items to have limited control about hero movement in the dungeon. Last but not least, they make your dungeon look much more impressive! ;-)