Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder

"This game never should have left the PC"

Right away I want to tell you that I did not like this game. ''Eye of the Beholder'' is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game that Capcom released on the SNES in 1994. Originally it was a PC title, and it should have stayed that way. The conversion over to the SNES was a very poor decision on Capcom's part. Just trying to manipulate the controls will try your patience, and this isn't even mentioning the game's other flaws. If you are an AD&D fan and feel that you really have to play this game, get it for PC. Otherwise, just stay away from it.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

This is THE ONLY redeeming quality of this game. The enemy sprites were fairly detailed and each had several frames for movement and attacks. Not only this, but they could clearly be seen at different distances down the halls. Magic and projectiles could easily be distinguished as they flew through the air. Every aspect of the battles used the utmost power of the SNES at the time.

The walls on the other hand were as pallet swapped as they could possibly be. There were five different types of walls (they changed every 3 or so floors) and only about 2 different images of them. The only real variations came with secret buttons, very seldom abrasions, and shelves. What all of this amounts to is a very quick way to get hopelessly lost in an eyesore of a maze.

SOUND: 5/10

At first I thought that the sound was going to be fairly decent. When I came to the 4 floor and the music got a little creepy I got excited. This was before I realized that there were only 5 tracks to go with the 5 types of walls. Each track became just as forgettable as the one preceding it, and even the final boss music left a feeling of horrible regret over having ever picked up this game. The sound effects were just as nonexistent as the variation in music. There couldn't have been more than 10 different sounds, and there were a variety of spells that the game had to work with. Shame on you Capcom.

CONTROL: 1/10

That's right, the control was as bad as it could possibly be. However, this was only because it was on the SNES. This game was meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard. It was kind of like playing ''Lethal Enforcers'' with a controller instead of a light gun. Switching back and forth between the item select mode and the walk mode became tedious and was always inefficient. But, there were also certain flaws that would have been prevalent on the computer as well. For example, when a character used a bow and arrow (or any projectile weapon for that matter), after the monster had been slain, the player then gets the joy of placing every individual item back in their character's inventory. That means if you fired 20 arrows at an enemy, you have to manually click and drag every individual arrow back into the quiver. This made the use of any projectile weapon very annoying.

GAMEPLAY: 4/10

First of all don't play this game unless you are familiar with AD&D. I wasn't, and it was the bane of my gaming existence. There is no way of knowing what weapon or armor is better than any other except by the order they are found. Later on it is possible to identify nameless rings and necklaces, but only a person familiar with AD&D would know what said items do. After finishing the game I still don't know if I had on good equipment or not. I shouldn't have to do extensive research on the game I am playing.

Aside from this the game worked like a 1st person-maze crawling-action RPG with a hint of turn base. Weapons can only be swung once every couple seconds. Magic has to be relearned after every casting by resting the party. One interesting factor, though, is the food bar. If characters aren't given rations on a regular basis then bad things happen.

I guess that one of my bigger problems, though, was the utter and complete lack of a map of any kind. Even the small and simple levels of the maze required a good bit of wandering to navigate through. And, with the constant warpings and such that your party will undergo, this lack of map will also become very frustrating.

STORY: 3/10

What a stupid and ridiculous story! Your party is commissioned by the counsel of the city of Waterdeep to go into the sewers and see what is wrong with the city. Once you get inside you become trapped by a cave-in and must try to find an alternative means of escape. As you journey you discover that a giant sorcerer eye is brewing up evil and you have to go stop him. The intro aside, there are probably 4 parts in the entire game where the story is further explained. Wow.


Please don't play this game for SNES. I beg of you. Don't buy it, don't rent it, don't even play it. I really don't even recommend it for PC if you want to know the truth. Game time maxed out at around 20-30 hours of mind numbing badness.

Recap:

GRAPHICS: 8/10
SOUND: 5/10
CONTROL: 1/10
GAMEPLAY: 4/10
STORY: 3/10
TILT: 1/10

TOTAL: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/03, Updated 03/10/03