The Prime Evil has returned! And this time, with an help on the inside...
The sequel of Dungeons 2 and the third chapter of the Dungeons game series by Realmforge Studios, published by Kalypso and released in October 2017, built on the second one, featuring a different dungeon system based on all the three factions of the previous games and a brand new campaign of 20 scenarios.
The story picks up when Dungeons 2 ended: The Ultimate, Chaotic and Corrupting Evil set aside their differences, joined forces and combined to give birth once again to the Prime Evil. The combined forces of the Horde, the Demons and the Undead crushed the leftovers of the Alliance, defeated Meltysand's cult of the Red God and conquered the land. Victory was his, at last, but soon enough, the Prime Evil slowly fell into a spiral of depression and angst... with no enemy to fight and no challenge to accept, the Bored Evil locked himself into his private laboratories for a long time... before figuring out that since he was in a sequel, there had to be a new land to explore! And so the Conquest-Hungry Evil sets his eyes on a distant eastern continent, ready to be plundered. However, the invasion ends in an embarassing failure when the fleet built by the Prime Evil's servants sinks mere meters away from the coastline, forcing the Exasperated Evil to change his plans and send his people-possessing Shadow abroad. On the new continent, the Shadow spots Thalya, a Dark Elf sorceress raised by the paladin of the Empire Tanos as a good person, and decides that she could be the perfect vessel for his evilness. With the help of Thalya, the Dungeonhearts and his new combined forces of evil, the Renewed Evil faces the armies of Tanos and the other Imperial heroes in this new land.
As mentioned above, the gameplay is based upon the second game's one, this time taking even more hints from Dungeon Keeper (which is actually lampshaded), but instead of using a single faction with peculiar needs and gimmicks you have access to all the three factions (Horde, Demons and Undead), each specialized in his own gimmick (Horde forge traps and training, Demons deals with Mana and research, Undead deals with reviving, prisons and magic toolboxes). The Dungeonheart is back, as well as Neutral Buildings to deal with treasury, toolboxes and food for the creatures. Furthermore, unlike its previous title Dungeons 3 has a truly random casual game mod, allowing you to play into a ranfomly-generated world (well, Underworld) each time. Oh, also the Narrator from the second game makes a return in his usual role.
Like the second game, it received a series of DLC Campaigns introducing minor extra gameplay mechanics, such as the possibility of creating Outposts in the Overworld, Heroes establishing bases in the Underworld and expanding infestations of enemies. Also, the night/day cycle which was present only in a single mission was implemented into normal gameplay.
The sequel, Dungeons 4, was released on 10 November, 2023.
For the Characters, go here.
Dungeons 3 contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: The second Once Upon a Fairy Tale scenario has Thalya, at the very end, admitting that this scenario (which involved a mist which turns heroes into harmless sheep for some time) was indeed funny.
- Adapted Out: Certain aspects and creatures from the second game weren't adapted in this one, like the power ups for the creatures, certain types of traps and creatures (Trolls and Shadow Demons).
- Affectionate Parody: Still going strong and steady, though some points of the main campaign are surprisingly deep and gloom for the genre.
- The Alcoholic: The creatures of the Horde develop a strong liking for Beer, which they can produce for their personal usage. The Ogre in the main campaign ends up consuming 100 barrels of beer during the course of the scenario.
- Animate Dead: Not only you can use the spell "Undead Rise!" but if you have a Graveyard, slain heroes will be dragged her to become Zombies. If you also have a prison with enough space, dead prisoners will transform into Skeletal Archers. Both form packs and do not count towards your population limit.
- Anti-Hero: Again, the Empire and its heroes are not really heroic, quite the opposite, to the point that it could be considered a Deconstruction.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Thalya's Running Gag has her shouting three orders to her minions with this structure, like "Kill them! Gut them! Give them wedgies!"
- Avenging the Villain: Clash of Gods has Admiral Overproud coming out of retirement to lead the remnats of the Empire and avenge his daughter Yaina.
- Baa-Bomb: The final mission of the Once Upon a Fairy Tale DLC has you sending waves of sheep strapped with dynamite against towers that will automatically turn your units into sheep. The Narrator lampshades that video game logic has proven that explosive sheep are both hilarious and effective tools.
- Bears Are Bad News: Bears are encountered on the surface as enemies. Parodied in Mission 4: when Thalya starts narrating the events herself, the Narrator takes offense and summons a pack of bears to attack Thalya. The second time this happens, Thalya apologize and the narrator suddenly describes how the bears are felled by an incredibly precise storm of lightning.
- Big Bad: Tanos the Paladin, the strongest hero of the Empire and the main antagonist, though by the final scenario he has devolved into a more classical insane Well-Intentioned Extremist, only with a great deal of less good intentions.
- DLC Clash of Gods has Admiral Overproud and the Goddess.
- Black-and-White Morality: At first, it seems to be played straight, though near the end of the campaign, Tanos' fall into madness and a few of Thalya's actions ends up turning the scale into a Gray-and-Gray Morality, as even the Prime Evil and Thalya ends up looking like heroes compared to a crazed Tanos, who performs incredible acts of cruelty and destruction while still believing himself to be the good guy.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The first scenario of the Fairy Tale-based DLC has the Good Fairy sending magical potions to her heroes, while the following one has a fog which turns heroes into sheep. The final scenario has the Prime Evil using transformed sheep imbued with explosive potions to lay siege to the Fairy's domain.
- Break the Haughty: Tanos squares off against the Prime Evil in a cutscene during a two-hour battle... which turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle against Tanos, who's forced to flee and, not too long after that, snaps.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Played for Laughs with Yaina Overproud and her capitalistic capital of Dollaran on Termite Island. Even Tanos mentions that she would sell her mother for a handful of dollars.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Neutral Chambers are colored Yellow, the Horde is Green, the Demons are Purple and the Undead are Blue. Fallen Heroes are marked with the color Red.
- Combat Tentacles: The last scenario of the DLC Evil of the Caribbeans has the local equivalent of Cthulhu who, offended by the Arrogant Evil's insults, proceeds to summon his tentacles across Turtoga and smash the island like a bongo to destroy the Dungeon Heart, with the scenario's objective being cutting off all eight tentacles. One of the unlockable spells allows you to summon one in your Dungeon to attack enemies.
- Composite Character: Tanos, the Big Bad, combines the traits of the main antagonists from the previous title, Krowtoes the Demigod and Meltysand the Red Priestess, resulting into an armor-clad warrior of good with a phoenix-themed armor and powers over fire who owns his power to a Goddess and can either protect himself with an invincible barrier or attack with fire.
- Darkest Hour: The missions 16 and 17: Tanos is cornered by Thalya's forces, but loses his mind and decides to destroy everything with fire in order to extinguish evil, forcing Thalya to run for her life helped by a Grave Golem. Then, when she's about to escape, Tanos catches her, kills the Golem and imprisons Thalya, trying to force her to become good once again with torture, forcing your creatures to start a timed quest to save her before she's killed.
- Demonic Possession: In the very first mission, the Prime Evil's Shadow can possess heroes for a short while to ride into their bodies and avoid torchlights. This is also how it reawakens Thalya's latent evil side.
- Deus ex Machina: When Tanos is curb-stomped by the Prime Evil and about to die, the Goddess herself appears to grant him invincibility, enough to let him teleport to safety.
- The Dragon: Thalya becomes this to the Prime Evil, since the latter cannot move permanently to the new lands to lead things by himself. This means she's effectively the Dragon-in-Chief as well.
- Elemental Rivalry: Invoked in the penultimate scenario, when Thalya obtains the power of Frost Nova to use against Tanos' power over flames.
- Enemy Mine: After Tanos' Faith–Heel Turn, even Good!Thalya, who had been trying to persuade her Evil!Self to return to the light through most of the campaign, is disgusted to see how low he went and decides to fully support her other self to take Tanos down. In the final scenario, if you rescue the reluctant heroes from Tanos' Firewalls, they will immediately join your side as Fallen Heroes.
- Epic Fail: The Not-Buoyant Evil's attempt to sail the sea to reach the new continent has the whole fleet sinking when it's still in sight of the shore. Apparently, his minions do not do well at building buoyant vessels. In fact, when you have to cross the sea in the Campaign, you have to steal the ships from an Imperial city.
- Escort Mission: A few times you have to escort either Thalya or another important Titan unit to safety or towards an objective. Most of the bonus objective are about keeping the escortee's health above a certain maximum.
- Evil Is Hammy: Evil!Thalya is loud, bombastic and scenery-chewing. Tanos brings this up to eleven when he becomes unhinged.
- Evil vs. Evil: The final conflict pits the forces of the Prime Evil and Thalya vs the forces of the now-insane Tanos
- Face–Heel Turn: Happens to Thalya at the end of the first mission. And to Tanos himself during mission 16.
- Fallen Hero: If you have a Prison and a working Torture Chamber, heroes will be dragged to it and tortured by Succubi until they either die or the convert to the cause of Evil, joining your forces as an Evil Counterpart to the normal heroes. They also do not count towards your Population Limit, though you can only have three (upgradeable to five) of them around.
- Fantastic Racism: A plot point, since despite being the "good guys", the heroes (especially Grimli) are incredibly prejudiced towards Dark Elves, and some of them don't really trust Thalya and fear that she may turn back to evil. The Prime Evil uses these feelings to persuade her to join the Dark Side.
- Forced Transformation: The Good Fairy from the DLC turns a traitorous hero in a frog, while the following scenario reveals that her factories inside the Enchanted Forest expel a thick fog which periodically transform all the heroes and creatures of the Overworld into harmless sheep. The final mission has towers that immediately transform any of your units in range to sheep, which you counter with explosive sheep since they're already sheep.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The theme of the DLC campaign Once upon a Time, which has the Prime Evil marching against the Fairy Godmother and runs into various references to fairy tales along the way.
- The Ghost: The Prime Evil himself in all his Tin Tyrant glory... doesn't make a direct gameplay appearance, outside of cutscenes. Justified because he lacks a physical way to travel all the way to the Eastern Continent permanently.
- Giant Spider: They once again return as an obstacle casually buried somewhere in the Dungeon. Once you clean up their lair you can reclaim their space as yours. A new trap introduced in the DLC allows you to build a nest of tamed spiders and unleash them at the enemy.
- Gimmick Level: A few levels in the campaign have unique mechanics. For examples, "The End of Burger's End" have periodic caravans appearing on the map that you have to destroy, while "Crossing" has a Night/Day mechanic which determines whether the heroes are awake and powered up or asleep and harmless. The level "Up and Downs" have sections of the Overworld subjected to flooding, which instantly kills all the creatures caught by the rising water.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Technically, the Prime Evil himself is one to Thalya and his invading forces. The ending highly implies that the Goddess of the Empire is this both to Tanos and possibly, Thalya and, given the similarities with the previous game's Alliance and this game's Empire, possibly to Dungeons 2 own Alliance.
- Greyand Gray Morality: Surprisingly, considering what a celebration of evil the game is. Both Good and Evil, specifically Tanos and Thalya, in no particular order:
- Torture the agents of the opposing side to force them to betray their friends.
- Burn down the homes of innocent people in a bid to kill their enemies.
- Employ/Are racists who publicly espouse their racist beliefs without ever being called out on it.
- Have genuine friendships and seek to avenge the deaths of those friends.
- Save innocent people, mostly by accident.
- Raise the dead to add to their armies.
- Deliberately target each other's emotional vulnerabilities. Thalya murders the only friends Tanos has, and Tanos responds by telling Thalya to her face that he never truly cared about her.
- The Horde: The Horde returns from the previous game, now dealing with the production of traps and doors in the Dungeon, as well as the production of Beer, the guardhouse and the training Arena. They also need the Crypt to survive if they're killed.
- Our Goblins Are Different: Goblins are part of the starting package: stealthy, small, Dual Wielding teal humanoids with large noses and ears. Normally an Ignored Enemy due to their small size, a power upgrade let them ride a Mini-Mecha and ditch stealth.
- Our Orcs Are Different: Orcs are coming back as well as powerful, axe-wielding brutes. Researching the correct upgrade turns them into Ironhides, much tougher and capable to force enemies to attack them.
- Snake People: Naga return as more snake-like than before, as well as being the only creatures who can heal others.
- Our Ogres Are Hungrier: The new Titan Unit, the Ogre is the healthiest of the Titans, capable of outliving the others as he crushes enemies with his club. Also, he's a Dreadful Musician and a Big Eater.
- Hypocrite: Tanos and his companions fancies themselves as heroes and servants of good, but they see no problem in engaging in evil acts on their own, and don't even recognize that they're doing so.
- Interactive Narrator: The "Famous Last Words" DLC has the Narrator finally losing his patience with the protagonists and decide to fight them, complete with his own faction, ability to randomly declare challenges and an Author Avatar as his Hero Unit.
- Irony: As she's being defeated, Yaina laments that this is unfair, as Good always triumph over Evil. Given Tanos' grandiose turn to madness and evil-masqueraded-as-good, she might be right...
- Kick the Dog: After going insane, Tanos proceed to turn against the very people he was supposed to protect and guide, massacring them by hundreds if he suspects that they're not fighting evil hard enough.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Tanos adopted the Dark Elf Thalya after killing her parents, in order to prove he could raise her to be Good. It did not go well.
- King Mook: Each faction has a Titan Unit: they're bigger than other units, do not count towards your population Limit but do not work in the Dungeon, only serving as powerful units. Plus you only have one of each category at the time.
- Knight of Cerebus: Compared to the more comedic, flat heroes from the previous game, Tanos is much more threatening and dangerous, especially when he becomes insane and performs acts of evil far greater than Krowtoes or even Meltysand.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Constantly, especially when the Interactive Narrator argues with Thalya or comments the other characters.
- Legions of Hell: The Demons this time are integrated in the forces of the Prime Evil and mostly produce Mana, do research, torture heroes and spends their free time lounging in literal Mana Pools.
- The Imp: Imps are small, crouched demons seemingly made of magma and capable of attacking from a long distance by spitting balls of fire.
- Spider People: Arachnids are tougher in melee and can attack from a distance with balls of web.
- Succubi and Incubi: Succubi are back as sexy winged demonesses in skimpy clothes, manning the Torture Chamber to turn heroes to evil.
- Big Red Devil: The Titan Unit, the Pit Fiend is a massive, fiery monster who hits like a truck but is not as tough as the others.
- Lemony Narrator: Like in the second game, the Narrator loves to make irony over the situation, arguing with Thalya and going off topic.
- Malevolent Architecture: A brand-new series of traps and infernal devices to use against the heroes. They also have magical counterparts you can build over the already-existing ones.
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: The Crusher trap is a sideway example. Includes the Frozen variation.
- Annoying Arrows: The Arrow trap, attached to a wall to shoot volleys of bolts at the enemies, can be powered up to shoot fiery darts.
- A Sticky Situation: Tar traps, perfect to slow down heroes as other traps whales down on them. The magic upgrade automatically repairs itself.
- Epic Flail: The Thresher is back, though it must be manually activated. The upgrade is powered up by ice magic to freeze enemies.
- Kill It with Fire: Not one, but two different automatic traps that spew torrent of fire at the heroes.
- Schmuck Bait: The chest filled with explosive to the brim is back. This time you can activate it manually, to make sure that all the heroes are hit.
- Deadly Gas: A new DLC traps which showers the heroes with noxious fumes... which happens to be highly flammable and deal a boatload of damage if the enemy is already on fire.
- Shock and Awe: The DLC bring back the Voltaic Spire from 2 as a manual trap which stuns all surrounding enemies.
- Mooks: The Little Snots are used again as cheap labour force for the Dungeon, though they cannot fight.
- Moral Myopia: Tanos and his companions abhor and condemn Thalya and her evil actions, though even the fact that they destroyed her hometown and killed her parents just for being "evil" is never brought up. It's pretty much intentional though, given the "heroes"' characterzation.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Invoked with Thalya, who was adopted by Tanos and raised as a good person. Deconstructed when Tanos admits that it was only to show to the world that he could redeem even "evil" races in spite of how worthless they are.
- Night of the Living Mooks: The Undead are back from the Expansion to an available faction. A Graveyard and Prison allow you with have your personal army of Zombies and Skeletal Archers, whose packs do not count towards your Population Limit. They also allows you to have a Crypt to resurrect Horde Creatures, a laboratory to build Magical Toolboxes from Toolboxes and Mana, and a Temple to increase their level and obtain bonuses with sacrifices.
- Our Banshees Are Louder: Banshees are the base undead unit, with melee attacks and a powerful shout.
- Our Liches Are Different: Skeletal sorcerers that can attack from a long distance with powerful ice blasts.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are closer to Classical Movie Vampire types, fight in Melee and can heal themselves in combat.
- Golem: The Titan Unit, the Grave Golem, is a massive, ice-encrusted stone golem carrying tombstones on his body. He's the most armored of the three and can even shield the other creatures.
- Pet the Dog: In Mission 16, Thalya accidentally saves some desperate heroes from Tanos' fires, and in the end not only the Grave Golem takes the bullet for her, but she actually mourns his demise. In the following scenario, the Prime Evil's forces decide to save her all the same despite, well, being a Card-Carrying Villain with no obligation to do so.
- Pyromaniac: After losing his mind, Tanos indulges in discipline and purification... based on intense use of fire and flames.
- Real After All: While in the previous game the "Red God" worshipped by Meltysand is implied to exist and empower her is never seen, the Goddess the Empire prays to does reveal herself in a cutscene to save Tanos from the Prime Evil. She also decides to take measures against the Prime Evil's onslaught and becomes the central antagonist of the "Clash of Gods" DLC.
- Religion of Evil:
- Invoked with the Dungeon's Temple room, where experienced Undead units periodically enter in order to worship the Prime Evil, and it's required in order for said units to advance beyond Level 3.
- The cult of the Goddess seems overall okay and positive... then Tanos whips out the Inquisition to torture Thalya into being good again, and for that level the heroes actually gain a bonus from Thalya's torture.
- Resurrective Immortality: Demons and Undead can revive at will in their respective lairs when killed, though the former needs Mana and the latter takes a long time. The Horde and corrupted Heroes die for real, unless you have a Crypt and a Defibril-o-Matic ready to revive them.
- Self-Deprecation: At one point of two, the Narrator and Thalya poke fun at the game itself and its prequel. A good example is the third mission: when the fourth Gehenna Stone is revealed, Thalya complains about how there were only supposed to be three of them since games should have three goals. The narrator counters by saying he meant good games. Thalya concedes the point.
- Sequel Hook: Or the very least, an Expansion Hook like the second: Tanos is dead, the Empire is in ruin and the forces of evil are partying... but now the Goddess has decided that she must take actions... and appears in the eyes of a meditating Thalya, sitting on the tip of the Mountain of Destiny... Said hook is dealt with in the "Clash of Gods" DLC.
- Sequel Snark: In Clash of Gods, after asking himself if the Ultimate Evil would now turn his attention to the Northern Kingdoms in the South (having just conquered the Western Kingdoms on the Eastern Continent), the Narrator claims that they'll probably use this plot for game 4. Or 5. Or 29.
- Skyward Scream: Parodied in the cutscenes where Tanos cries over the deaths of Grimli and Yaina: he uses the Wilhelm Scream.
- Shout-Out: Like the previous game, there are plenty of nods to other series and franchises, including The Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, Dungeon Keeper, Diablo, Dragon Ball and much more.
- Soul Jar: The Dungeonheart allows you to control your creatures and revive Thalya. If it's destroyed, it's game over. Furthermore, Thalya can be Killed Off for Real if she's not near the Heart.
- Standard Fantasy Setting: Lampshaded. Talos is shown in arriving in a town sporting a sign that reads, "Welcome to beautiful GENERIC FANTASY CITY," in the style of the famous Las Vegas sign.
- Super Drowning Skills: None of your creatures are able to swim, not even being capable of building buoyant ships.
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Some of Tanos' lines after his Faith–Heel Turn can be genuinely serious and threatening despite the general parodistic nature of the game.
- Surrounded by Idiots: The Narrator constantly wishes to "Work with real professionals. Just for once..."
- Take That!: After admitting that the Dungeonheart mechanic is a tad too similar to that of another similar game, the narrator points out that at least in this game you can actually go out of the Dungeon to do something concrete.
- After the destruction of Twistram, one of the guards points out that Vinnie's Vegan restaurant was burnt to the ground... then claim that's not a big loss.
- The duel between Tanos and the summoned Prime Evil is described like "one of those Anime duels where the fighters spends whole episodes staring at each other before something happens."
- When Tanos's about to torture Thalya, he pulls out a copy of Twilight from his pocket. The same scenario also have one at religious extremism in general, with the Narrator casually remarking that he can't tell apart "purification" from Cold-Blooded Torture when fanatics are involved.
- In the DLC, sometimes the Narrator will point out that a Pokémon got lost in your dungeon and urges you to catch him, only to be disappointed when you apparently point out that the hype is gone since long.
- A Taste of Power: When the Prime Evil first possesses Thalya, she yells that her power "is over nine thousand!" and begins casually slaughtering dozens of heroes. And if you check her stats, her base attack for that scene is indeed 9001 damage.
- Trademark Favourite Food: The Prime Evil has developed a taste for Unicorn Kebab. Your creatures meanwhile fancy Gobblers or Beer if they're Horde Creatures.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: A few missions are played on the Overworld only, controlling Thalya and a handful of creatures across the scenario. The DLC Lord of the Kings has you playing as the heroes of King Arcturus, there to reclaim the land.
- Walking Wasteland: You can turn the Overworld into one by conquering the Islands of Good. However, this time heroes can reverse the process if they conquer the Isle back.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Thalya's good side does this to Tanos after his Faith–Heel Turn.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: The resources in this game include Gold (used to pay your creatures, hire them and buy upgrades), Gobbles (to feed your Horde creatures, Demons and Fallen Heroes), Mana (To cast spells and for the Mana Pool and Vortex), Toolboxes (For building traps, machinery and Magical Toolboxes), Evilness (Produced by the Isles of Evil and by torturing heroes) and Magical Toolboxes (To build magical traps and machinery). Also, Gold is limited, since you can exhaust Gold Mines unless you run into a Diamond Mine, which is inexhaustible.
