Dungeon Lords: The Next Action-RPG Company: Dream Catcher Dungeon Lords is a role-playing game of huge proportions. The action filled game has you hacking and slashing your way across many different terrains as you uncover plot twist after plot twist. This game is highly customizable and allows you to start your character off as one of seven races. You can play as humans, dwarfs and elves, or you can choose to be one of four demigoth races. These demigoth races are demonic-like creatures that have their own strengths. Which character type you choose drastically affects how your character performs in battle and what skills he/she excels in. The equipment system uses a simple interface to let you quickly and efficiently outfit your newly created character with the best weapons, armor, spells, and other items. Which items you can place on your character (or more aptly, which ones you should place on your character) depends greatly on the skill set of the character you created. If it leans more towards the wizard side of things, then you can equip a magic wand, or you can give your warrior a sword and shield. Dungeon Lords spans locations ranging from forests to mountains, Arctic tundras to swamps, castles to, of course, dungeons. Along the way you face everything from ogres to skeletons and dragons, so you will need to keep your wits about you as you travel from town to town looking for the next piece of the puzzle. What is the story? One of the great wizards has been killed within the Circle of Mages. And with his ally gone, the Lord Davenmor must struggle to keep his kingdom in one piece and out of the magician?s killer?s hands. In order to keep the other kingdom at bay, Davenmor promises his daughter?s hand in marriage. But she has vanished. Now it is up to you to find out what happened and get the girl back. Dungeon Lords uses real-time combat instead of the role-playing tradition of turn-based. This means that you don?t have time to sit and ponder your next attack. You have to hit your enemies fast and hard if you are going to survive. Though the game uses a 3rd-person perspective, the controls scheme is based off of the 1st-person PC layout. You move your character with the W, S, A, and D buttons and aim/look with the mouse. This scheme lends itself well to the game?s setup and makes it easy to just jump in and start playing the game. Dungeon Lords is like most RPGs in that you have to level up your character in order to use all of the skills, weapons, and spells that the game has to offer. You won?t be able to learn everything because the more you travel down one path, the further you go from the others. As you learn more and more magic, you find your ability to carry the heavier armors lessen. Dungeon Lords looks like it will be a good, in-depth, and captivating Action-RPG. Look for it to hit the shelves in April 2005. -J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer Related Links: Dungeon Lords Website DreamCatcher Games Heuristic Park