Dungeons 3

1. Summary

Players treat Dungeons 3 as the closest modern thing to Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper, and they like it a lot. 19% of all reviews (1,380) name Dungeon Keeper or Bullfrog, often to say this game finally scratched that itch. Underground you dig out and run a dungeon; on the surface you lead a small army in a light RTS in the style of Warcraft 3, and reviewers like that each half feeds the other. Much of the praise goes to the jokes and to the narrator, whom players recognize as Kevan Brighting from The Stanley Parable. Co-op, where two players share one dungeon, comes up in a smaller group of reviews, several of them from couples. Some series fans call this the best Dungeons game and point to a smoother interface than Dungeons 2.

Players who stay with the campaign complain that every map makes you dig out the same dungeon and research the same tree again, and some found one army build that wins everything. The camera cannot zoom out far enough to see more than a room, units in the dungeon can only be picked up and dropped, and the slide-out menu gets in the way. The humor splits the audience: the meme-heavy, fourth-wall-breaking script that fills so many happy reviews is what made a few players refund within the first hour. Later reviews add technical problems, among them a Kalypso launcher that stopped the game starting for some players, crashes, a broken Mac version and a multiplayer mode some reviewers call dead.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The narrator and voice castHigh

12% of reviews (841) mention the narrator. Players recognize Kevan Brighting from The Stanley Parable and Dungeons 2, and some say he alone is worth the price: "Kevan Brighting is the Morgan Freeman of video games." His back-and-forth with Thalya, the dark elf protagonist, and his jabs at the player and at the genre draw laugh-out-loud comments. Criticism of the writing goes after the jokes more than the voice work, and some reviewers who hated the script still credit the voice actors.

The closest thing to a new Dungeon KeeperHigh

Reviewers who grew up on Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2 describe digging tunnels, building rooms, slapping minions and torturing heroes as the return of a genre they thought was gone. Short reviews like "Closest we'll get to Dungeon Keeper 2." appear from launch week to 2026. Several pick it over War for the Overworld because it has a real overworld to conquer. The purist objections (no possession spell, a cartoon tone instead of a dark one, creatures bought rather than attracted) are covered under the split topics.

Dungeon management plus an overworld RTSHigh

"Dungeon Keeper meets Warcraft 3" is a one-line description that keeps turning up. You build and run the dungeon underground, then march an army to the surface to capture villages and shrines for Evilness, the currency that unlocks research. Players like that the two halves feed each other, that the three evil factions (Horde, Undead, Demons) now share one roster with different roles, and that converted heroes change color and fight for you. Critics of this design say the surface RTS is shallow, that fights turn into one deathball walking over everything, and that the overworld steals time from the dungeon they came for.

A cozy, relaxed pace and cheerful artMedium

Relaxing and chill are common words in the reviews, from players glad that the game never demands fast reflexes. One reviewer said it suits a "just going to play a game for an hour after work" lifestyle, and another wrote: "I love strategy games that let you take your time and you aren't rushed into the highest possible APM (hello Starcraft)." The bright, storybook art in a Warcraft style is praised for its detail and for how the land darkens as evil spreads. A minority found the look too childish or the graphics dated, and some note that the options menu has almost no graphics settings.

A long campaign with varied missionsMedium

Reviewers report 20 to 40 hours for the 20-mission campaign, with each map adding a twist: starving out a town by raiding food carts, a day and night cycle, a level built around fire. Three achievements per map, shown before you start, give completionists a reason to replay, and Hellish difficulty is there for people who want more challenge. Some found the later maps overlong, and a few disliked the handful of missions with no dungeon at all.

Co-op with a partner or friendMedium

4% of reviews (315) mention co-op. Two people can play the whole campaign, the tutorials and skirmish while sharing one dungeon, and couples describe splitting the work: "I play above-ground and my wife runs the dungeon. She doesn't know I secretly help her." A reviewer who plays with a girlfriend called it "the best double purchase ever." The complaints are about setup: launch-era network errors, no server browser, and no option to give each player a separate dungeon.

Improvements over Dungeons 2Medium

Reviews that compare it with Dungeons 2 mostly call this one better. They point to the combined factions, a research tree that lets you choose upgrades, the F2 key that picks up every creature at once, a cursor that is no longer hidden under the giant hand, infinite gold tiles, randomized skirmish maps and a longer campaign. Several said the developers listened to the Dungeons 2 complaints. The dissenters are covered under the split topics.

Skirmish, sandbox and platform extrasLow

A smaller group praises the randomly generated skirmish maps, the endless and survival modes and the later sandbox mode for long play after the story. Linux players thank the developers for a native build and fast fixes, one reviewer called the gamepad controls excellent, and launch-era players praised quick patches for crashes and missing features such as control groups.

Where players are split

The meme-heavy humorHigh

Reviews that call the jokes funny or hilarious far outnumber those that call them cringe or unfunny. Fans enjoy the constant references to Lord of the Rings, Warcraft, Game of Thrones and internet memes, and parody names like Yaina Overproud and Stormbreeze. A smaller group finds it exhausting, and a few of them refunded within the first hour, sometimes before reaching the gameplay. One wrote that "Before the tutorial was finished the game had made a over 9000 joke, a 1337 joke and had a couple rageface comics." Another: "The narration in this game tries way too hard to be funny, removing any notion that a story is actually taking place." Some positive reviews also call the jokes cringe-worthy and recommend the game anyway, and a few reviewers suggest muting the dialogue or switching off subtitles if the jokes grate.

Dungeon Keeper purists against the cartoon toneMedium

The players who came for Dungeon Keeper do not all agree they got it. Some call it the spiritual successor; others say it lacks the dark atmosphere, the possession spell, creatures that arrive on their own and fight each other, and the gory pit fights of the originals. One veteran gave it an "almost positive" thumbs up while calling it a "silly evil bed time story for small kids". Some of these reviewers recommend War for the Overworld or the original Dungeon Keeper on GOG instead.

Dungeons 2 and Dungeons 4 comparisonsMedium

Most reviewers who compare it with Dungeons 2 prefer this one. A vocal minority says the opposite because the merged factions lost their identity, most units lost their upgrade tiers, trolls and other creatures are gone, and multiplayer no longer lets you invade an opponent's dungeon: "Worse than Dungeons 2. Starts off nice, but turns shallow quickly." Once Dungeons 4 came out, a new comparison appeared. Several reviewers who played both prefer this one ("I found 3 to be significantly more enjoyable than 4, primarily in gameplay."), while others treat 4 as the more polished option.

Difficulty, too easy or badly spikedMedium

Some reviewers found the campaign easy on Normal and said even Hellish rarely challenged them once they had a working build. Others hit sharp spikes: early missions that flood the dungeon with hero waves, timed objectives, the Crowley mission, skirmish waves of top-tier heroes and escort-style surface levels where sluggish units die in fire. A few asked for more difficulty settings, such as a level between Normal and Hellish.

Traps, useless or overpoweredMedium

The two trap complaints point in opposite directions, and they mostly describe different stages of a map. Early on, traps are expensive, some must be triggered by hand, and an army plus the portal spell is cheaper: "traps and spells are almost useless compared to the sheer cost-effectiveness of combat units." Later, a row of boulders or magical crushers kills every raid without help, which several players said made dungeon defense trivial and the whole mode less interesting.

The DLCLow

Some early reviewers looked forward to expansions, and some later players call the story DLC good value on sale. Others warn about it: "the DLC is not in any way worth it due to a massive difficulty jump in just about every single entry." Several criticize the number of small DLC packs needed for the full game, and 2 reviewers warn people off the pirate-themed pack.

ThalyaLow

Fans like Thalya and her arguments with her own split personality. Others find those arguments predictable, her voice grating, and her scream when you drop her painful: "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD let us turn Thalya down. She's so obnoxiously loud compared to everything else in the game." One reviewer also disliked that she resets to level 1 on every map.

What frustrates players

Every map is the same rebuildHigh

Players who got deep into the campaign complain that each mission starts from an empty dungeon, so you dig the same rooms and redo the same research every time: "To have to repeat the same researches at every level of the campaign becomes quite bad." Several found that one composition wins everything, usually orcs with naga healers and goblins, and stopped experimenting: "to win most missions you just have to go orc naga goblin in mass". Others report a long, slow build phase followed by a steamroll, low replay value once the campaign ends, and few skirmish maps at launch. One long review argues that the dungeon barely matters in the campaign, since its defense is never tested: "As far as the campaign is concerned, building a dungeon is... useless."

Camera, controls and interfaceHigh

The camera cannot zoom out far enough, and one reviewer who found that unacceptable in a strategy game wrote: "You can never have more than 1 room in its entirety on your screen". Inside the dungeon you cannot box-select or order units to attack; you pick them up and drop them, which briefly stuns them. Reviewers also list no attack-move or patrol, no pause, no game speed setting, no camera rotation, spells hidden in a slide-out menu on the left that covers part of the screen, a research button that looks greyed out, and a tutorial that skips features like F2 and group selection. One player put it in a line: "A good, funny game spoiled by terrible controls."

Crashes, the launcher and the Mac versionMedium

Technical complaints are a small share of reviews, but they often describe a game that would not run at all. At launch, reviewers reported crashes during combat and on loading screens, audio that cut out until a reload, and music tracks playing over each other. In 2022 several reviewers reported startup crashes tied to a graphics driver update. Later, the added Kalypso launcher locked some players out: "I would have recommended this game, except some time ago they added a stupid kalypso launcher that has broken my game." Mac players describe cursor offset bugs and a version that stopped working on newer macOS.

Price and the sale questionMedium

At the launch price reviewers mention, about $40 or 45 EUR, several thought the content was thin for the money and told others to wait: "At $20 I would recommend the game, but there just isn't enough content to justify the high price at the moment." Later buyers add the cost of the many DLC packs. Reviewers who bought it on sale often call it good value.

Minion AI, pathing and nonstop interruptionsMedium

Units get stuck on corners, healers wander into melee, and Thalya walks into fights on her own. Workers have no task priority, creatures stop working to eat, sleep or collect pay, and they go on strike if a need is missed. On many maps, constant hero raids, monsters dug out of spider or dragon nests, and timed objectives pull the player away from building: "Would have been allot more fun if the developer wasnt so obsessed with constantly putting time limits on the missions". Players who like to build slowly say they feel rushed.

Thin or dead multiplayerLow

Multiplayer drew complaints from launch: no matchmaking or server browser at first, room codes shared through chat, no AI opponents for groups, a competitive mode that is only a race for Evilness, and no way to attack another player's dungeon. Some later reviewers say it no longer works at all: "Multiplayer doesn't work. Should be removed from the store page as it's no longer part of the game."

Small caps and missing toysLow

A handful of players want a larger army cap than 20 creatures and more workers, a possession mode, a way to summon the Ultimate Evil, a map editor or Steam Workshop support, and more graphics options.

The review pop-upLow

A few players complained that a main-menu pop-up kept asking them to review the game: "Devs put an annoying pop-up on the main menu that doesn't go away until you leave a review."

3. The player conversation

The tone is warm, nostalgic and forgiving. 8% of reviews are negative (573). Many positive reviews are a line or two about the fun, the narrator or finally having a Dungeon Keeper again, and the longer ones often list real flaws (controls, repetition, easy difficulty) while still recommending the game.

Different players raise different things. Negative reviewers who played an hour or less most often bring up the humor, along with the long tutorial dialogue and clunky controls, and some of them mention a refund. Players who finished the campaign write about repetition, trap balance, ease on Normal, and the lack of anything to do afterwards. Dungeon Keeper veterans argue about tone and missing features, Dungeons 2 fans argue about the merged factions, and couples and friends write short, glowing co-op reviews.

Reviews have been less positive since 2021. Those written in 2017 are 94.8% positive, and each year from 2018 to 2020 stayed between 92% and 95%. From 2021 on, each year landed between 85% and 90%, with 84.9% in 2026 (a small sample of 86 reviews). The later negatives shift from game design toward the game not running: the launcher, startup crashes, the Mac build and multiplayer that no longer connects. Comparisons with Dungeons 4 became a regular theme after that game released, with reviewers split on which one is better.

4. What the developers could do

1. Overhaul the camera and dungeon controls. Reviewers ask for a wider zoom, box selection and attack orders inside the dungeon, attack-move, a pause or speed setting, and a pinnable spell bar.
2. Make the Kalypso launcher optional and fix startup crashes. Players locked out by the launcher, by driver-related crashes or by the Mac build write angry reviews because they cannot play at all.
3. Cut the repetition between campaign maps. Players who went deep into the campaign complain about rebuilding and re-researching every map and winning with the same army, so carried-over research, faster opening phases or missions that reward different builds would answer that.
4. Rebalance traps and add a middle difficulty. Early traps feel worthless and late crushers make defense trivial, while some find Normal too easy and Hellish spiky in places, so a balance pass and more difficulty settings would serve both camps.
5. Give players control over the dialogue. A separate volume for Thalya and a lighter-commentary option would keep fans of the script happy while helping players put off by the jokes or her scream.
6. Fix or delist multiplayer. Reviewers report that online play no longer works and ask that it be repaired, with AI opponents and dungeon invasions, or removed from the store page.
7. Bundle the DLC at a fair price and smooth its difficulty. Buyers complain about the number of packs and the jump in difficulty inside them, and some reviewers only recommend the base game on sale.
8. Remove the review pop-up. A few players complained about the main-menu prompt asking for a review, and one gave the game a thumbs down over it.