Interface

Click and play

Most of the game you spend looking at your dungeon in a 3rd person, out of body view. Your cursor is the hand of evil which you can use to pick up your monsters, cast spells and lay out how you want your imps to tunnel. You can also use the hand to pimp slap your monsters and get them to work faster (don't do it too much or they become unhappy or angry). The first several missions walk you through the different monster types, spells, rooms, and traps slowly to get you acquainted with how the game plays. While this tutorial is good for getting new players acquainted with everything, it drags out a bit too long - by around the fifth mission you are wishing they'd just let you use everything already.

Pimp slap that imp

Warlock goes in the hatchery for lunch

Camera

Another thing you'll need to get used to is the camera. You can change the camera view's zoom level, pitch, and rotation to any given angle. It's a cool feature, and your dungeon always looks good no matter how you view it. Moving the camera around is a simple thing, and besides the three preset camera views, you can program three of your own and assign them to hotkeys. Control freaks rejoice - this game knows what you want.

More training

A pair of Dark Elves in center left

The one thing that makes Dungeon Keeper a bit unintuitive, at least for RTS vets, is that you can't select and move your monsters wherever you want. You have to pick them up and drop them in (but unlike the original one, dropping monsters dazes them momentarily) where-ever you want them to be, so long as it's in your territory. Then you rely on their AI to do the work. Sometimes this restriction is annoying and makes it difficult to raid enemy bases. To do that, it's easier to go into first person mode, select a group of monsters to follow you and lead them into battle yourself.