A retake on the classic MUD genre games, combined with a real-time strategy action.  Empires and Dungeons offers an interesting mix of real-time D&D action, as well as real-time strategy that will keep players occupied for hours on end. 

The player assumes the role of a medieval war lord, who is trying to defeat all other rival lords in a battle for supremacy and control of the map.  In order to raise money to build armies and fortify their own fortress, the warlords must collect resources from the map, as well as venture into the dungeons in search of fame and fortune.  Of course, the other opponents are also trying to do the same, so there is a furious race to be the first person to defeat all the other warlords by razing their fortresses.

On the D&D side of things, Empires and Dungeons offers a simplistic role playing dungeon game that is easy to get into, but lacks in sophistication with limited variety of weapons, items and monsters on offer.  This is a crucial part of most D&D games, but was slightly overlooked in Empires and Dungeons.  The game play and design was fairly well done, but again lacks in variety.  There are basically three types of attacks, and three alternate actions in combat, which makes the game monotonous once you have worked out the best combat strategy against the limited variety of monster.

On the RTS side of things, Empires and Dungeons has the basic elements of RTS games in the resource management and combat.  Again it falls slightly short on variety and complexity, but is easy enough to get into.

Overall, it is the combination of D&D and RTS elements in this game that makes it appealing to play.  There are enough differences in each level to keep the players interested, and the difficulty level increases quite sharply, so it is not an easy or quick game to complete.  With a little bit more variety this game could have easily been quite a treat to play, but as it is, it can still be quite entertaining if you are into both genres of computer games.

Empires & Dungeons - download game page

Empires & Dungeons screenshots (Click to see bigger image)