In this map, you have arrived in a heavily contested realm, where a rival Keeper sits safely behind a formidable fortress. He keeps to himself, relying on his impressive defences to remain undisturbed.
The Heroes have other plans as well. They are establishing an outpost nearby, preparing to launch an attack of their own. Unfortunately for you, they have decided that dealing with your Dungeon first would be considerably more convenient, especially while you are still weak.
And weak you certainly are as the odds are against you. At the start, you have no Portal, limited space to build, limited access to useful spells and not even full control over your own creatures.
Somewhere in this heavely occupied lands lies the secrets and buried treasures you will need to turn your fortunes around. Explore, overcome or avoid obstacles, uncover what has been hidden, and gradually reclaim the power that is rightfully yours while trying to survive.
Let me know if you managed to conquer it on your first attempt. ;-)
Credits for custom creatures/things goes to the original creater as found on the workshop:
- Minotaur, Flying Terror and Traps from benlp
- Beholder from ErminioLucente
- Toad Warrior from Shinthoras0815 I only did adjustments to stats and abilities.
1/09/2026: Update due to minor texture issues due to outdated custom textures (thx Loobinex for the fix). The bug was only visually, didn't affect the map itself.
Alright, here is my full review of Against the Odds - lengthy as always :P
When I started the map and the camera zoomed out of my Dungeon Heart, I kind of knew that this is going to be a very interesting and meticulously crafted level. The walls, the rooms - everything was in a new design which I really enjoyed. Statues, water plants and traps contributed to a great atmosphere and made it feel like playing an RPG. On top of the story behind the level was very engaging and made me want to keep on playing to see how the plot unfolds. Considering that there a lot of great maps with good game play out there, I do think that the small details like decorations and story equally contribute to a great map.
Speaking about game play. The challenge with not being able to fully control creatures was something that hasn't been considered too often. Basically only Loobinex "Shackled Hand" was the only level I can remember in which this mechanic was used. Therefore, it was good to see it return in a slightly modified way which was really refreshing. On the hand I must say that I wouldn't have had problems with only being able to pick up a few creatures but the aspect of not being able to pick them up at certain occasions was something I had mixed feeling about. the problem with this mechanic wasn't really that it made things particularly harder but rather because it added quite an annoying bit of RNG to it. It made me reload quite a bit just because I had an all too curious Samurai wandering off into a trap and despite the fact I was fully aware of the impending doom, I was just able to watch and do nothing.
Regarding difficulty, I found this map to quite hard - in particular at the beginning and then becoming way easier later on. I enjoyed the challenge provided through the heroes' attacks. It kept me engaged and alert throughout the map without being stressed or having the feeling of being overwhelmed. It was just the right amount of pressure and challenge without going over board difficulty wise. On top of that there was a good amount of puzzling and thinking required too - really nice!
I do think that Against the Odds has certainly made it on my list of favorite levels and one of the more memorable ones that I played. I think it shows that it was something that had been made with dedication and heart and therefore I cannot do anything else but giving it a 5-star rating for game play and quality and a 4-star rating of difficulty.
Also I would give an extra star to the probably most polite map maker I have ever seen. Loved the final message after beating your level ♥!
P.S. I forgot to mention the music! Especially at that very particular moment. You know which one!
Dear Chris, thx for this review and your kind words! I do try to appreciate anyone who's made time to play the levels we've made, so a small thank you at the end is appropriate and meanwhile it is a small signature in my case. There is no use in making maps when nobody is playing them, so we need all of you. But I won't lie, the appreciations like this in both ways helps to motivate to continue making more (if a new idea pops up 😆).
It is actually funny as I made this level with no real story in mind (Unlike Varomortis, Escape of The Minotaur or even my first level Under the Woods) and purely as a 'built up' level. Guess the idea of gaining your strength back is a story on itself just without a known antagonist this time?
The difficulty curve throughout the level is something I tend to struggle with every time and I've already learned you can't do well for everyone. Also it is a known Dungeon Keeper thing. I do try my best in every map to limit the OP creatures like Mistresses or the amount of Skeletons to have at once, but don't always want to ignore them. I know the pressure is high from the start with the timed waves, but later on I switch to triggered waves by certain locations. Because I'm afraid somebody might be very good and very quick and I don't want them to launch an attack at the hero fortress with those waves coming possibly at just the same moment by accident. That could be to much, so I do switch at some point on how the waves work behind the scenes but hopefully keep them as a constant pressure as if it is the waves continuing.
I do playtest myself dozens of times, but of course I do have preknowledge of what will happen and what will come or how to trigger and it is hard to switch that trigger. So I playtest in various ways, like in this case I've very often waited untill the first wave to take action (simulation for someone who's reading the intro or looking around the minimap) just to be sure the waves are doable and I avoid using the specials myself.
About the textures: Yes they are refreshing, but credits should go to the original creators who created them, I'm just happy to use them and combine them together in the different locations 😉.
About the stuff you address as annoying I want to reach out to you in discord or something. There are solutions I won't spoil here, some small choices can make your playthrough less annoying 😉.
Not sure if it was intentional but quite a lot of times I was unable to pick up my creatures, e.g. saving them from dying in battle. This wasn't due to the fact that I had a "full hand" already. In the creature information window in which all my creatures were shown some of the crreature numbers were displayed in red, so I couldn't pick them up. This made the map quite hard and chaotic for me.
Dear Chris, Thanks for playing and commenting! As mentioned in the description here on the workshop, at first you don’t have full control off your own units. It is even mentioned in one of the first information boxes when you start the game. So yeah it is an intented challenge to force the player to be more thoughtfull of the actions. (I like to design my maps (temporary) without ‘the obvious things’ where you have to think and work around things.)
Also it is made as an attempt to make a harder/stressfuller map this time and not straight forward, based on my previous map ratings they weren’t rated as ‘hard’, so I knew I could push it a bit.
So do not worry if this time the map wasn’t suited for you 😉. I hope you enjoyed searching your way through this map anyway 😉.
Dear Croky, I get it now - thank you :). I thought it was a bug and didn’t continue playing after about 30 minutes. I thought that being able to pick up only 4 creatures at a time was the only challenge here - silly me! I will give it another go as I really like all of your maps so far!
No worries, enjoy! And thanks for The complement and spending your time on playing them!
I think you could tell I’ve learned a lot throughout the different map designs ;-)