You Don't Kill Heroes In Dungeons. You Farm Them. (2026 Review)
- Niels Gys
- Jul 12
- 5 min read
Quick Verdict
Yes, Dungeons lets you play as the villain, and it does it properly.
You build an evil dungeon, lure heroes inside with treasure and adventure, keep them happy long enough to increase their value, then imprison them and harvest their souls for profit. That's one of the cleverest villain mechanics in strategy gaming.
Unfortunately, the game never quite matches the brilliance of that idea. The campaign becomes repetitive, combat lacks bite, and before long you're less of a feared Dungeon Lord and more of a customer service manager desperately trying to keep visiting paladins satisfied before feeding them into the soul extractor.
Buy it only if you love villain management games and can grab it on a deep sale.
If harvesting heroic souls sounds entertaining, wait until you see what criminals get up to in Los Santos. Before your next dungeon inspection, check out this week's GTA Online Weekly Update and see which businesses are printing money while everyone else is busy role-playing as law-abiding citizens.
What Is Dungeons?
Released in 2011 by Realmforge Studios, Dungeons is a dungeon management strategy game inspired by Dungeon Keeper, but with one enormous twist.
Normally, heroes invade your dungeon and you try to stop them.
Here?
You want them to come inside.
Heroes arrive looking for treasure, magical knowledge, better equipment and glorious battles. Your job is to give them exactly what they're looking for... because happy heroes produce more valuable souls when you eventually betray them.
It's less "defend your dungeon" and more "operate the world's most unethical holiday resort."
What You Actually Do
Most missions follow a simple loop.
You expand your dungeon by digging tunnels, building rooms and placing monsters, traps, libraries, treasure rooms and other attractions.
Different heroes want different experiences. Warriors seek combat. Mages want knowledge. Treasure hunters... well, the clue is in the job title.
As they explore, their satisfaction increases.
Once they're worth enough, you spring the trap.
Kill them.
Capture them.
Harvest their souls.
Use those souls to grow your evil empire.
It's a wonderfully twisted economy. The game literally rewards you for providing excellent customer service before committing several crimes against fantasy.
Can You Play as the Bad Guy?
Absolutely.
You play Deimos, an evil Dungeon Lord trying to reclaim his position after being betrayed.
There are no heroic choices.
No redemption arc.
No "maybe the real treasure was friendship."
Your dungeon contains prisons, torture chambers and soul-harvesting machinery. Heroes aren't noble adventurers.
They're inventory.
Dungeons deserves genuine credit here. Plenty of games advertise an evil route before quietly turning you into an antihero who saves the kingdom anyway.
Dungeons never loses its nerve.
What Works
The Hero Economy Is Brilliant
Making heroes happy before exploiting them is still a fantastic idea.
Instead of treating adventurers as enemies, the game turns them into resources. Treasure becomes bait. Libraries become bait. Monsters become carefully managed entertainment.
You're not defending your dungeon.
You're running a scam.
It's one of those mechanics that makes you wonder why more games haven't stolen it.
The Villain Fantasy Feels Genuine
You aren't misunderstood.
You aren't morally grey.
You're running an industrial-scale soul processing facility.
CRIMENET approves.
Turns out Deimos isn't gaming's only respectable villain. Dive into our Best Games Where You Play as the Villain guide and discover more titles that let you embrace your inner tax-evading, kingdom-threatening menace without a single guilt trip from the writers.
What Doesn't
It Gets Repetitive
The problem is that Dungeons spends the entire campaign repeating its one brilliant idea.
Heroes arrive.
Meet their needs.
Harvest souls.
Repeat.
The system never evolves enough to stay exciting.
It's like discovering a restaurant with one incredible meal, then realising that's literally the only thing on the menu.
You're Weirdly Obsessed With Hero Satisfaction
There's something wonderfully ridiculous about being the supreme ruler of evil while constantly worrying whether a visiting wizard enjoyed your library.
You're supposed to be terrifying.
Instead you're checking customer feedback before throwing people into prison.
It's mechanically clever.
It's also unintentionally hilarious.
Combat Is Forgettable
You can control Deimos directly, but combat rarely becomes interesting.
It works.
That's about the nicest thing that can be said.
Community Feedback
Dungeons has a Mixed rating on Steam, and player opinions haven't changed much over the years.
Most people agree on two things.
The central idea is fantastic.
The execution isn't.
Players regularly praise the unique hero-management system while criticising repetitive missions, weak combat and dated design. Older launcher and compatibility issues also still appear in community discussions, so don't expect a completely frictionless experience on modern PCs.
Should You Buy It?
Buy it if:
You love playing the villain.
You enjoy dungeon management games.
The hero-farming mechanic sounds too weird to ignore.
It's heavily discounted.
Skip it if:
You wanted a crime or heist game.
You're expecting a modern Dungeon Keeper.
You dislike repetitive management games.
Dungeons 3 is sitting next to it for roughly the same price.
Final Verdict
Dungeons has one unforgettable idea.
Instead of stopping heroes, you encourage them.
Instead of protecting treasure, you use it as bait.
Instead of rewarding bravery, you turn it into a renewable energy source.
That's inspired.
The rest of the game, unfortunately, never reaches the same level. Too much repetition, too little variety and combat that's about as exciting as watching goblins argue over workplace safety regulations stop Dungeons from becoming a classic.
It's worth experiencing for its villain fantasy alone.
Just don't expect to stay for the entire shift.
Worth buying today? Only on sale.
If CRIMENET just saved you from buying a mediocre game at full price, consider buying the newsroom a coffee on Ko-fi. It keeps the lights on, the criminal records growing, and the sarcasm fully funded.
Then join This Week in CRIME, our weekly underworld briefing covering the best money-making opportunities, villain news, industry disasters and the gaming crimes too entertaining to leave buried in the evidence locker.
FAQ
Can you play as the villain in Dungeons?
Yes. You play Deimos, an evil Dungeon Lord who builds a dungeon, manipulates heroes and harvests their souls. Villainy is the entire point of the game.
Is Dungeons a crime game?
Not really. It contains murder, imprisonment and exploitation, but it isn't built around criminal organisations, heists or outlaw systems.
Is Dungeons like Dungeon Keeper?
Partly. It shares the dungeon-building concept, but focuses much more heavily on attracting and exploiting heroes rather than simply defending your lair.
Is Dungeons worth buying in 2026?
Only if you can buy it cheaply. The central mechanic remains genuinely original, but the rest of the game feels dated compared to newer dungeon management games.
Is Dungeons 3 better?
For most players, yes. It expands the formula considerably and is generally regarded as the stronger modern entry in the series.
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