Dungeon Keeper 2

The sequel to Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2 carries over many gameplay aspects, and adds new ones. Like the original, Dungeon Keeper 2 places the player in the role of a malignant overlord bent on world domination. The player controls the world with a hand, performing actions such as moving creatures around the map, casting spells, and interacting with specific items. All the underground lands in the kingdom must be conquered to recover the portal gems.

The kingdom itself takes the form of a large table containing a 3D map where the player selects where to attack from the highlighted regions. There are twenty main levels in the campaign. Some levels have multiple versions with differing methods of attack, allowing the player to choose the method and sub-region.

The Kingdom of Harmonia, ruled by King Reginald, has been under siege from Dungeon Keepers for a while, and his wizards have devised a device known as a Portal Gem to confine evil creatures to the Underworld, while still allowing good forces access. Reginald has twenty Portal Gems, each assigned to a realm and safeguarded by its guardian, the Lord of the Land. These devices have forced even serious dungeon keepers into retreat. An evil warrior known as the Horned Reaper (or "Horny") believes he has the ability to remove Portal Gems from Harmonia, and has enlisted the player's assistance in conquering its realms so he can claim the Portal Gems.

Bullfrog Productions developed Dungeon Keeper 2 with a team of around fifty people. The team included people involved in the original Dungeon Keeper, including Richard Ridings and programmer Alex Peters. Electronic Arts wanted to capitalize on the original game's success. Producer Nick Goldsworthy believed the key to success was carrying over aspects of the original game and adding new things. A project manager from Mitsubishi assisted the team in management of attaining milestones, and according to Goldsworthy, this taught the team a lot about the practices employed by major companies regarding game development.

It was known the game needed to use 3D graphics with hardware acceleration to keep up with trends. The goal was to have a 3D renderer good enough for deathmatch. The team was also aiming to have a software renderer for lower-end computers. The team used DirectX to improve the lighting effects.

Dungeon Keeper 2 received favourable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. The improved graphics in particular were noted. Trent C. Ward of IGN complimented the "amazing" graphics and commented that it looks better than the first game, but criticized the lack of major changes.

Greg Kasavin of GameSpot too praised the graphical improvements over the original, and also highly commended the sound, but criticized the lack of gameplay changes compared to the first game. The gameplay was praised as "outstanding" by William Harms of the American PC Gamer magazine, but he also commented that multiplayer has glitches and oversights such as not being able to get back to the main menu after a game. Jason Cross of Computer Games Strategy Plus commended the gameplay and echoed others' views on the graphical improvements, but criticized the high system requirements. A reviewer from GameRevolution liked the graphics, scenarios, and humor.