Experience the ultimate staff management challenge in Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master.
Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master is a dungeon management game which leans a little more heavily towards staff management with its mechanics. It was developed by Artefacts Studio, the studio is known for games like Space Hulk Tactics and ATV Drift and Tricks. The Publishers are Dear Villagers who have published games such as Fabledom and Fort Solis.
While Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master has the appearance of a dungeon management game, it isn’t exactly that. It focuses heavily on Staff management, as any little problem with your staff and you’ll have a strike on your hands. When that happens, Zangdar’s patience can wear thin. The campaign is fully voiced with a continuous running commentary about everything that goes on and needs doing. Of course, you can just play the sandbox mode instead of the campaign and unleash your creativity without being dragged through the story.
The campaign has you learning the ropes of the game’s management system as well as introducing you to key characters. For the staff to run effectively and your dungeon to grow in popularity, you need to pay attention to the needs of your minions as well as the facilities you need to build.
For example, you will need to build a canteen for your employees because if they eat in the inn then your revenue goes down for however long they take a break in the inn. The minions also have their own needs regarding food and hygiene.
There are a diverse number of minions for you to hire. Like the dwarves mentioned before, but also Orcs, Goblins, Elves, Drows, and Humans. Their diversity adds to the difficulty of management. For example, Elves prefer a clean working environment and are vegetarians, while Orcs are meat eaters and are messy. As you gain more minions and they level up, you have to cater to more and more demands or fire them and start anew with interns.
This is where Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master is more of a staff management game. You have to focus on what your minions want, and their demands grow as they level up. This is where you have to decide if you want to give in to their demand, such as firing any dwarf employees, or if you will fire the minion that’s making the demands. You will also have to add decorations to rooms such as carpets, benches, and torches to raise the quality of the room.
The construction options are incredibly detailed, and you can place the rooms however you would like when designing them. From taverns to toilets, guard posts and offices of hiring, you have a wide range of building options to choose from as you build up the dungeon. This gives you free rein to design the dungeon layout as you want, as you can easily expand the rooms as well as delete any rooms that have become obsolete.
There are also rooms, such as workrooms, where you have your workers working around the clock. Much like your ordinary minions, it’s best to keep them happy to avoid any possibility of a strike. You will have to deal with what seems like an HOA of dungeons. You have to keep meeting their demands as you continue to build up your dungeon to be the very best.
The higher the quality of the rooms, the more your reputation increases. As the reputation of your dungeon increase,s you can unlock more floors and send minions out on raids and missions to other dungeons. Your dungeon can be raided as well, so it’s always best to make sure you have guards to keep your dungeon protected.
Because there are different Factions to deal with, there are different raid missions to complete, all offering their rewards, and although they don’t change in difficulty, you will still need to keep an eye on your teams’ composition to make sure they’re suited for the situation. In addition to the added raids, as you get a higher reputation, you will also unlock new resources that will enable you to craft new weapons and tools.
There is a detailed economy in Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master. First and foremost, you will have the tavern in your tower to help generate gold. It is rated in the “TRIPADVISO, R” which affects its income amount. The other way to earn gold is to trade with the world outside your dungeon.
As well as producing weapons and tools in your tower, you can gather information using your spies, generate fertilizer from the corpses of your enemies, as well as generate astral energy from the studies of your wizards. An extra income can be generated by automatically selling a percentage of your production. Material storage grants you various bonuses, such as the ability to hire new higher-level guards or summon undead with longer lifespans.
Another important aspect of using the materials and economy is with your spies. Your spies gather intel from other dungeons. You consume different materials for dungeon raids as well, whether it’s just to mess with another dungeon or to steal various artefacts for yourself. Each of the raids has a fluctuating success and fatality rate which depends entirely on the composition of your team. In addition to the money you earn, you will also unlock new decorations after completing a successful raid.
The biggest difference between sandbox mode and the Campaign is Zangdar. In the case of the sandbox, you don’t have to worry so much about his patience drying up as you can disable the option, but in the case of the Campaign, you need to keep an eye on his patience gauge. Keep his room stocked with comforts and do his quests unless you want to head straight into a game over. This means you will have to deal with strikes quickly, as the minions shouting for their rights outside his room can quickly cause it to drop.
When it comes to the graphics of Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master, there isn’t much to highlight, as the Art style is great but in a way seems much like many other dungeon simulators. Nevertheless, these graphics effectively capture the essence of the game’s theme and essentially serve as a visual parody of many different fantasy titles. It’s amusing to witness small characters frantically running around, alarmed because the guards are merely sleeping instead of expelling intruders from your doorstep.
The feature that stood out the most in the sound engineering was the soundtrack. The soundtrack excelled in enhancing the comedic scenarios throughout the game and added a level of immersion, allowing you to play for hours on end.
The title music is equally enjoyable and fitting, despite being somewhat repetitive—an aspect that aligns with the game’s nature and is somewhat understandable. The rest of the sound engineering was just as well done. The biggest impact was the voice acting; each of the voiced characters was well-voiced, and the voice actors managed to nail their roles perfectly.
There weren’t any issues when it came to bugs or anything that could break the game. It was a decently polished dungeon simulator if not a little lacking in some places when it came to actually managing the dungeon rather than the staff.
Overall, while not the most groundbreaking simulator on the market, Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master is a game that delivers abundant laughs and suspense! The game’s tiny Easter eggs are rooted in modern pop culture, and its comedic characters effortlessly take center stage. Simultaneously, the game maintains a commendable level of seriousness and challenge, striking a satisfying balance that will keep veteran players and newcomers alike captivated.
