Dungeons 4 - Tales from the Campfire

I keep a mental spreadsheet of every dungeon-builder released since Bullfrog went dark, and Dungeons 4 slots in as the most mechanically complete entry in that column. Realmforge have been iterating on this formula since 2011, and the fourth outing shows genuine accumulated craft: bigger maps, a creature roster split across three distinct factions, and a dual-layer loop that asks you to micromanage your underground base while simultaneously pushing a war front through the Overworld above. That context matters when you are deciding whether to spend money on it. The core structure is a constant back-and-forth between two separate maps. Below ground, you are directing a workforce of Snots to excavate tunnels, construct specialised rooms for your creatures, and manage a web of needs covering food, wages, sleep, and training. Skip the wages and your minions go on strike; let the food supply lapse and your combat readiness evaporates before the next hero raid. Above ground, you are using Thalya, the series' sardonic Dark Elf protagonist, as a field commander to capture territory, trigger optional objectives like hunting mini-bosses for bonus Evilness currency, and contest Dwarf-held underground sectors that push in from a third angle. That Dwarf pressure in particular adds a genuine second front that forces you to think defensively underground while your main army is committing topside. The campaign runs across 20 missions with a Skirmish mode sitting alongside it, and the two-player co-op extends to both, meaning the whole package has a reasonable replay surface. The three creature factions, Horde, Undead, and Demons, each occupy different tactical niches, and you can split your Evilness budget across all three or go deep into one tree. Early-game Evilness scarcity means you will realistically commit to one faction before diversifying, which is fine as a constraint but does mean the first half of most missions plays similarly until the economy opens up. Units gain experience and level up persistently within a session, so there is a real cost to losing your veteran Demons to a sloppy overworld push. Traps, reinforced walls, and your dungeon Heart all need attention as the hero raids scale up. The resource management layer is where the strategic depth actually lives; the real-time combat is competent but secondary. The honest weaknesses: the overworld RTS layer is noticeably shallower than the dungeon half, the slapstick narration will grate on some players by the midpoint of the campaign (the voice acting is hit-or-miss past the excellent English narrator), and critics who played Dungeons 3 closely enough noted that the room variety in the dungeon is somewhat reduced from that predecessor. Visual clutter is a real issue in busy late-mission fights. There are no DLSS or FSR options. None of these are campaign-killers, but they are the reasons this sits at a solid middle of the review range rather than pushing higher. On the other hand, launch performance patches landed quickly, and the Steam player reception settled at a very positive rating across thousands of reviews, which for a niche genre title says something meaningful. For newcomers: prior series knowledge is genuinely not required. The campaign tutorials are patient, and the loop is intuitive enough that a strategy player who has never touched a Dungeons title will be operational within the first two missions. If you have a tolerance for light comedy framing around your build orders, and you want something that rewards careful logistics over pure mechanical execution, the 20-mission campaign gives you plenty of hours to find your optimal creature composition and dungeon layout before the credits roll.

Alex · Scout Team

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