Dungeons 3

Dungeons 3 is a dungeon building video game with real-time strategy elements. The primary task is to build a dungeon, an underground lair which serves as a home to the player's units and their base of operations. In dungeon building mode, the player controls the world with a hand, performing actions such as moving creatures around the map, casting spells, and interacting with specific items. The hand is also used to designate parts of the underground for excavation and to create rooms.

Commands are carried out by little imp-like creatures called snots, which are constantly regenerated by the dungeon heart which is the center of the dungeon and represents the player's health. It is the primary target for attacking heroes and its destruction leads to a game over. Additionally, the dungeon heart room stores gold and features a trap door that can be used to get rid of unwanted units.

The game's story takes place a short time after the events of Dungeons 2 on a new continent ruled by the good paladin Tanos with the help of his friends, racist dwarf king Grimli, the vain paladin Elric the Pretty, and the greedy Yaina Overproud. Tanos has also adopted a young dark elf sorcerer named Thalya in an attempt to cure her inner darkness and prevent her from doing evil. The player's goal is to conquer the empire for the Dungeon Lord using Thalya as their lieutenant.

After conquering the lands above, the Dungeon Lord becomes bored and attempts to invade a new continent which fails due to the minions' incompetence in boatbuilding. The Dungeon Lord casts a spell that allows him to control Thalya, awakening her evil side. After she slaughters the people in her home village, she decides to let her dark side take over and begins serving the Dungeon Lord as its chief lieutenant in her quest to punish Tanos for attempting to convert her.

Kalypso Media announced the development of Dungeons 3 on February 21, 2017, with a press release and an announcement teaser. The game was shown to reporters at Game Developers Conference 2017. According to the developer, the introduction of the over-world as an area to be captured in Dungeons 2 has proven a successful addition to the formula which is why Realmforge Studios concentrated on expanding upon this concept while keeping the changes that players liked from the last game.

Dungeons 3 was released worldwide and for all supported platforms on October 13, 2017. It is the first entry in the series that was released on multiple platforms, i.e. Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, at the same time. A port for Nintendo Switch was released on September 15, 2022.

The Windows version of Dungeons 3 received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic; the Xbox One version received "mixed or average reviews". Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 63% of critics. Multiple reviewers opined that Dungeons 3 was the closest the developer has come to creating a successor to Bullfrog Productions' iconic Dungeon Keeper series.

Most reviewers noted the graphics and audio positively. Eurogamer.it emphasized that the game's cartoonish look and feel are consistent with the humor of the game and highlighted how the world is peaceful and idyllic when the good heroes rule it but instantly turns dark, gloomy and oppressive when the player's units capture parts of it. Other reviewers also lauded the colorful world and especially noted the level of details when units are in combat and magic effects are used. However, some critics also argued that improvements compared to Dungeons 2 were almost non-existent, making Dungeons 3 merely a polished version of its predecessor. Console versions were rated worse than the PC version, with 4Players especially criticizing the Xbox One version's graphical errors.