Beware, here lurks my virtual shrine for Dungeon Keeper 2, the 1999 real-time-strategy game by Bullfrog Productions.
Besides being a fansite, this unholy temple aims to be an accurate resource for the game and its mechanics. With that said, come inside, and don't forget, it's good to be bad.
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As the title suggests, you're tasked with building and maintaining a dungeon. You're given imps as your workers, and once they dig out a portal, you can attract an entourage of fiendish minions. You have to give these creatures food, housing, and livable wages. Each creature is unique, with its own strengths, weaknesses, and quirks. Failing to care for your creatures will cause them to leave or start rebelling in your very dungeon. Every map contains gold tiles, which will be your primary means of Dungeon Keepering. Depending on the map, gold can either be comfortably abundant or worryingly hard to find. On some of these maps, you can find Gem Seams, which are a source of infinite gold. These can be a lifeline in the game's harder levels or a fun treat to play with in the game's sandbox mode.
As a being of evil, your enemy is anything that doesn't consider ransacking adorable hamlets a fun pastime. Expect the typical Dungeons and Dragons party archetypes, and dark gods forgive me... fairies. Like your creatures, they come with their own strengths, weaknesses, and quirks. Thankfully, these wretched fools can be dealt with in more ways than simple bloodshed. They can be thrown into prisons to starve and turn into skeletons. They can be tortured into obedience and join your army with a bit more meat on their bones. But, if you wish to kill and be thrifty about it, build a graveyard so their corpses spawn vampires. If you want more flair than that, sacrifice those fools to the Unholy Temple for gifts from the dark gods.
The game has a main campaign of twenty levels. During this campaign, you are an up-and-coming Keeper set up by a group of unknown forces. Your goal is to conquer the land of Harmonia, which is recently recovering from a slew of Keeper raids. The main obstacle of this quest is a set of magical crystals known as the Portal Gems. Their spell keeps the lot of you underground, and it can only be broken by stealing all of them. Your other obstacles will be the Lords of the Land, and Harmonia's king, King Reginald. When you're not clashing horns with Lords of the Land, you're up against rival keepers. These pathetic wretches also want to do some conquering, so you best put them in their rightful place. Can you claim all the portal gems and reach the surface? Or will you be just another lamb for the slaughter?
Alongside the main campaigns are a handful of side-modes to play with. Skirmish allows you to simulate battles on maps of your choosing. My Pet Dungeon is a sandbox mode that allows you to build, fight, and do things at your leisure. It even has a multiplayer mode if you and your pride can handle it.
We were first shown this game by a relative. He collected a lot of old computer games and he'd let us play them in the comfort of his dusty book-room. We spent many afternoons and evenings in that little room....Which, for some reason, had a sink. By the time I had to go home, we'd hide under the table so we could keep playing. We felt it was very hard as a child, and to our later amusement, this relative of ours did too. We spent a lot of time in My Pet Dungeon, where we'd spam the "Make heroes happen" button. Then we'd panic as waves of the buggers poured out of the gate to murder everything they got their hands on. Our favourite creature was always the Salamander, and we adored using Possession. When we weren't basking in the atmosphere, we'd possess chickens and wait for a creature to come and eat it. When you're eight years old, it's the funniest thing ever. Looking back we shouldn't have actually been allowed to play it. Violence, torture, BDSM dominatrixes and all...but it was terribly good fun.