War for the Overworld - Heart of Gold Expansion

Heart of gold is the campaign the original game should have had, albeit shorter. It lets you be an actual overlord, it lets you plot your attack and scheme, you're only forced into confrontations because of resources, not because of an arbitrary timer. Hats off to subterranean games, I hope you'll continue to make strides in this direction above all else.

Just finished my first playthrough of "Heart of Gold" (~5 hours). In my opinion the levels are more interesting than those of the main campaign. Each level features around five achievements promoting replay. I believe a completionist can get ten hours of gameplay from this DLC making it a great bargain. I'm looking forward to future campaigns.

Large varied levels that doesn't rush you like many of the base game levels. If you are a completionist you can easily spend 10+ hours on the new campaign.

It's a small expansion. 3 decent missions. 1 bad one. (the final one is a chore to finish... it isn't fun.) Even though its been over a year since its been released I encountered several bugs. (Problems with the voice overs and the last mission locked up during the winning cutscene... had to kill the game) If the fun level for War for the Overworld was 10 this would overal be a 4-5. If you liked War for the Overworld.... it might be worth it to pick this DLC up on sale. But otherwise, skip it.

The campaign stopped for me at the second mission, when the artefacts i was supposed to recover refused to spawn. The pedestals are there, they can be claimed, Mendachaus says that i have to "click" on them (incidentally, even for an "ironic" game such blatant breaking of the fourth wall still looks janky), but i cannot do that because there`s nothing to click, and even trying to hitscan the area where the model of the artefact is supposed to be does nothing. Reloading resolved this once, but then it stopped working. Buyers beware.

A solid expansion. Would be nice if gold was easier to pick up, since one of the mission objectives requires this. It would also be nice if the gold water you see in the screen-shots actually moved, rather than being static as it is.

It's a little short and while the levels are fun, the achievements are just ... no. "Complete this level without getting spotted." "Do X within Y minutes." Takes the fun out of the game. I prefer to be methodical in my approach to evil. That said, it's worth the money if you like the base game.

Great DLC. It may seem short, with only 4 missions, but the puzzle-like nature of each level kept me interested. I thought the patrol mission, where you could beat the entire level without ever alerting the enemy, was a creative way of turning the usual goals on their head. It was a good place for the imps to shine. I thought it was very much worth it, and will enjoy replaying some of those levels with different tactics. Oh, the only downside was many things from the main campaign were disallowed, especially certain traps. Still great.

So on the whole I found this to be a *decent* DLC. It's neither essential nor a waste, and if you enjoy(ed) the base game and campaign then I would overall recommend this DLC, even at full price. The Good: The campaign pushes the limits of scripted progression within a single level, offering some genuinely original campaign content, and each of the 4 levels offered here are distinct not only from each other but from everything in the base campaign too - each level is also a decent length (well, depending on which achievements you are going for; 3rd can be quite short and 2nd can become almost too long) and overall they are longer than the base campaign missions, especially when achievement-hunting. I should also mention that Mendechaus makes a return with the same amazing voice-acting we have enjoyed since the days of Bullfrog, and the writing and dialogue present in these missions helps them to shine (special shout-out to Mandalf, the least manly character to ever have the word man in their name). Kasita's dungeon theme is gloriously decadent and her obsession with gold offers a different slant on managing your resources, however... The Less Good: The focus on gold-hoarding is completely undermined (not a pun) by the absurd abundance of the stuff in every campaign level. In the final (4th) level, I built an army of 12 lvl10 Sentinels + the Colossus with which I rampaged through the enemy stronghold with ease, spamming gild (a healing spell with zero mana cost - couldn't possibly be overpowered, could it?) 10 times a second, and still finished the mission with over 500k in my coffers. And it's like that for each of the other missions too. The campaign introduces you to Sentinels, which you can (and will) abuse the crap out of for every mission present. Their "prohibitive" wage and healed-by-gold mechanic are both total non-factors in levels that contain more gold than earth, along with a plethora of minor and major gold artifacts. The cheese-of-the-day I used to clear the 3rd level with laughable ease was actually quite different (I won't put it here just so that readers can experience the game and think for themselves, but it's nothing revolutionary) but I still felt like both the cheater and the cheated after finishing it - after all, surely I am supposed to maximise the tools given to me by the game? You should also take note that if you are solely a fan of the classic base-progression focus in campaigns, you may be disappointed here. Each level has a very definite "theme" that sets it quite far apart from the way you would normally play the game ( as much as I enjoyed the "stealth" focus of the 2nd level, I can see it genuinely annoying some players who will probably end up ignoring it and forfeiting the achievement) and I found myself caring much less about the layout and maintenance of my own dungeon whilst playing through these levels. Other Stuff: If you play other game modes, the balancing of the new powers in modes like skirmish is very on-the-edge. If you can absorb the gold costs then Sentinel+Gild becomes a ridiculously overpowered combination. The base heal spell itself is very powerful and reason enough to sell off all your traps when you make a final push for core, but gild takes it a step further. So long as you have money, your units can't die and the Sentinels themselves are incredibly powerful melee fighters that are immune to lava and cannot be imprisoned/converted, making sentinel-rush tactics far beyond those of beast-rush. I can't help but think that gild should have incurred a mana-cost AND a gold-cost in order to be even remotely balanced. The one-dimensional nature of Sentinels makes mixing them with other troop-types completely unnecessary and often even detrimental (they appear to not be healable by Cultists but ARE healable by Witch Doctors, though mixing them with other offensive fodder would force you to constantly switch between gild and heal whilst on the attack). In conclusion, this is more WFTO campaign - an undeniably good thing that adds new units, new spells, new rituals and new constructs. Out of the 3 main content DLC for the game, this is the only one with a focus on campaigning so if that's your favourite aspect of WFTO then this is going to be the first DLC you go for - just bear in mind that using massive amounts of gold to win may leave you feeling hollow (a metaphor of some kind, perhaps?).

A mostly enjoyable experience, however, it is extremely easy. You are not pressured at all, and it's almost impossible to fail any of the missions. It did kill a few hours and for this price point that's OK.

Heart of Gold offers a few more hours of gameplay, depending on how quickly you realize what you have to do in each level. It took me a bit lower. I like the slow, methodical approach, and that is exactly what HoG lets you do. While it only has 4 levels you can take your time in each and build up a mighty dungeon without being pressured. Only 1 mission is pretty annoying with constantly respawning enemies, but that's kind of the gimmick here. Still, hated it. Apart from that, however, HoG doesn't offer enough to warrant 8 euros. The voice acting is exceptionally poor compared to the base game. As I said it only has 4 new missions, which can be created relatively quickly with the map editor, so that's not where to production value has gone into. There are no really new units or rooms, only 1 new gadget to use and a titan at the end who doesn't really do all that much. All in all it's not a "bad" DLC, but I just can't recommend full price purchase either. The story makes no sense at all and is simply boring as fuck. They also turned Mendechaus into a slapstick figure... While the level design is good and the performance seems to have been miraculously improved (wonder why the base game still lags as fuck and has micro stutters all over the place even though it's the same engine...and the same game version...), there's not really anything NEW and SHINY. Get it during a deep sale. I got it for like 7 bucks and while not regretting it, there's much better stuff you can get, unless you really need more DK 2 fix. You can always just play sandbox instead for that anyway. Edit: Almost forgot. Game breaking bugs still included, so yeah. The game just froze at the end of level 4 for example.

This DLC still has lots of bugs, several heroes seem to have glitched run/walk cycles and just glide around, if you convert them they just constantly seek pay and take all your money, if you put them in combat they'll just crash your game. Maybe buy it if it's on sale but otherwise don't do it yet until they fix the bugs in this DLC and possibly even the main game.

An exellent expansion this is how you do dlc right. You get new aspects a fun 4 level campagin(and more dialogue from richard ridings the narrator which is always good) and 3 new themes all for the price of 8.00 dollars I hope to see more expansions in the future hopefully one where you can play as the empire:)

A DLC done to a GOLDEN standard. Ok puns aside this is a great add on to WTFO, interesting and unique aspects, a campaign with 4 large, open levels (a different direction from the main campaign) and challenging acheivements adding more to the replay value of the campaign. There are a few bugs but I am sure those will be patched quickly. A steam sale is a GOLDEN opportunity to pick this up.

This is the DK... I mean WFTOW experience I was looking for. If you have an itch that wasn't quite scratched by the base game, the makers more than made up for it here. This is a calm experience that doesn't rush you as you set up your dungeon the way you like it!

Four missions each with a unique twist. Each mission took me between 90 and 120 minutes to complete. Some of the voice acting is a bit rough tough. If you enjoyed the base game you will probably like this short campaign as well.

This expansion is definitely worth buying. The base game feels like an Demo compared to this. The levels in this expansion are designed to be played for a long time

I really enjoyed Heart of Gold, each missions has their own gimmick/theme and are more exploration based than the base game. It reminded me a lot of the original Dungeon Keep campaign. Except for the missions themselves, there is not much else new here. It took me about 4-5 hours to complete all 5 missions.

yes its more of the same, more of the fun! thats a good thing! I tough that the heart of gold campaign seemed more cohesive, feels more fleshed out... has a good DLC should be! Although i wished there were more levels, this new campaign seemed a bit too short

The team at Brightrock Games further improve their craft with this carefully designed DLC, which I might add was free for backers and early adopters, though I would have paid money on day one for it anyway. Some of the challenges and the map design harks back to Dungeon Keeper designs

So happy they made this game. So like DK made by bullfrog back in the day. WAITED FOR THIS GAME :D:D:D:D

I thought I would love everything about this game, but this DLC is way too tedious for one, and for another [spoiler] The Collosus on the last level is absolutely broken. My first attempty I was watching it like a hawk and it suddenly disapeared from it's rally flag, next thing I know it has ended up 3 rooms over and had was killed. Over an hour wasted mission failed. Attempt #2 I just left it in my dungeon. It spent the entire game safe in the middle of my dungeon cheering my minions in the training room. I don't use any rally flags the entire game. I bide my time and after killing 2 of the 3 children of the emprorer game is failed because it has been killed. Somehow it had wandered far from home and had been killed by 2 level 1 stone knights! No warnings or anything, just your colossus has died game over. This time 3 hours down the drain. [/spoiler] Absolutely infuriating. Should have bought the UnderGames instead.

It bugs and is quite poorly balanced and boring.

Class-RPG's inverted, instead taking on the role of the monsters the heroes come to fight. You control an Overlord, who recruits minions and builds a dungeon where they live, work, fight and die for your amusement. For those that loved the class Dungeon Keeper games - this is right up your alley.

Not a bad expansion, save for one little detail. It ruined how bots work and how the game no longer is so much about getting good creatures as it is "how fast can YOU spam build sentinels?". Cause at the end of the day that's what wins or loses you the game. Not that level 10 succubus or vampire. The 5390 sentinels which you stacked up with your assembly and avarice rituals. Payday comes along? Don't matter they're fodder anyway, just build more if they die or get unhappy. Still, fun little single player campaign - Fucked up the bot AI for skirmishes though. 4/10.

an expansion for the slow player. players who love metholodical approaches will enjoy this expansion. ive already spent 5 hours on the first 2 missions and i havent had any fun at all. im probably gonna replay the original campaign it was way funner than this.

This is how DLCs should be done. You get a new mini-campaign, a few gold-related aspects (including a golden Titan, which can be really OP if you have a lot of gold, hehe) and 2 new skins, one of which has 2 color schemes (gold and silver), and the other is a long-awaited "Good guys"' theme, complete with dwarves instead of Imps. The campaign is much slower-paced, with focus on exploration and development, opposed to a bit rushy main game's one. These levels are arguably more elaborate and engaging, making clever use of recently implemented neutral creatures, which you can find in hidden caves. Also, keep your eyes open for easter eggs, cause there are quite a few. Fun fact: the protagonist of this campaign had a small appearance in the main game as well. And even though her dungeon skin has changed, her motivations and goals have not. =D Fun fact №2: there are Stone Knights among your enemies in the campaign. But don't worry, they got nerfed quite a [strike]LOT[/strike]bit since their glory days in DKII...

Fun expansion added some fun things, campaign is fun. And feels a bit different from the orriginal campaign, with a more of a \"rewarding feel if you go the extra mile\" attached to it. I bought it and so far did not regret it. :) Keep rocking and keep shining.

loved this dlc the story , style of kasita and her gameplay and levels together made a amazing dlc with more challenges

Pacing in the mini-campaign was better than in the main campaign of WFTO. And hey, all this shiny was awesome, including a chance to don the opulent theme of Kasita which is only available to high-tier Kickstarter backers outside the campaign of this DLC. I particularly loved a mission where [spoiler]you make a big amount of gold to forge a new Titan.[/spoiler]

Very fun levels, but extremely tedious achievements.

[i] Underlord, don't drown by looking at the seas of gold. Return to claim endless riches. [/i]

Short campaign. Does not add much to the original game. Collossus gets stuck often.

While I didnt kickstart the game I got it when it first hit steam a long time ago and I have to say that for the longest time I was disappointed in the original game till it finally released and at least at that point it was better than the years of stuff before release. While I have yet to play the heart of gold campaign I was immediatly disappointed with the expansion even though I got it for free because while the expansion was supposed to add new themes, I was unable to use them in skirmish mode. What is the point of new themes if you cant use them outside of 4 missions? I am hoping that the missions are at least good though really only 4? While this game does an ok job overall at being dungeon keeper 3, it doesn't add anything new to the formula at all. The game is called war for the overworld and yet you don't get to even see the overworld. Dungeons 2 is better in my opinion as it keeps the same ideas as dungeon keeper but adds so much more and has better multiplayer and skirmish modes.

The levels are quite buggy but this is how I wish the game game had been developed as it is more fun level design

I have not yet played this content, but purchased two copies immediately. The basic game BEATS Dungeon Keeper in game play with updated technology tree. Thank you yet again to the team that made a game with passionate love for the original inspiration, Dungeon Keeper. Can you now please do an awesome 4 player version of Magic Carpet or PowerMonger updated!

Love the campaing and the gameplay of this game and DLC. A MUST buy if you like DK2.

This is not a recommendation. But since you can finish this easily it's not even hateable enough. When i finished overworld i haven't finished DK2 yet. But now i had. My claim that Overworld is a bad clone of DK1, was false. Overworld is a literal direct clone of the bad DK2, slightly improved, but way less compelling. I smashed through DK2, but i had to force myself through overworld for months. So, this DLC is a mini campaign of four spacious maps, none of which is an ass. What an improvement. Some of them are kinda built around gimmicks, some of which are stolen from DK2. The levelling is not present in this DLC and it just hangs down there being useless. But, overall, it's the  same old, same old. Get a couple of stations for every profession, get a ton of beasts, get a giant alchemy lab. Once the game starts use the rituals of show all resources, then show all enemies. Now you have the full map, paint it in your colours, using beasts and bottled ice elementals in combat. Convert the enemies to your side, because unlike the stupid DK2 they work even easier than DK1 — there's no racism in overworld.

Really fun campaign, really well priced DLC. Well done with the game developers!

More of the same, but more polished them the first campaign.

hey you'll never guess what gold? yeah, there's a lot of it in here

best DKeeper game to date! make a new populous game ;)

best add on ever nice see games grow and add new little things

Brilliant game if you loved the Bullfrog original

fantastic game! better than dungeons II or III!

This game never launch for me.

Great expansion

BUY IT! ......Hours of fun!