Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder

"A worthy RPG"

Many D&D games have been made for many different consoles, but Eye of The Beholder is definitely one of my favourites.

Gameplay 26/30

At the beginning of the game, you create four characters and dump them into a dungeon. Although only four of the D&D classes are in this game (Fighter, Rouge, Wizard, Cleric), you can still make quite a few different party combinations. Fairly soon after the start of the game, you can recruit two more characters into your party bringing the total to six.

The majority of the game can be broken into two parts: exploration, and combat. I found the exploration to be quite fun. The Waterdeep dungeon is a very large place with many teleporters, doors, switches, and trick walls. You can spend a lot of time trying to get a complete map of every level. Combat, the game's other half, is done quite well. It's alot like Tactics Ogre in which you see a battlefield with your characters and the enemies represented by miniatures. The battles are turn based and they follow 3rd Edition D&D rules. The main thing I like about this type of battle system is how it incorporates range. This is one important tactical attribute often left out by RPGs. Also, it's cool how all the battlefields are shaped like room or corridor that you're in. If you're in a narrow corridor, you can easily protect weaker characters (Wizards) that are in the back, but in an open room, you can quickly surround and destroy your enemies.

Also, you can see monsters from a short distance while you're in exploration mode, so in some cases you can chose what direction you want to assault them from, or you can avoid them altogether.

Length 16/20

This game isn't that long compared to some of the other D&D games out there, but it lasts for a good length of time. I wish that the characters could go all the way to level 20 instead of stopping at level 7. Your characters often reach level 7 a fair bit before the end of the game. They should've made it go to at least level 10.

Control 12/15

Not much to say about control, you use the D-Pad to move, and A and B to select and cancel. The L and R buttons are used well for navigating through menus quicker.

Replay 9/15

You probably wouldn't play this game that many times, but you may want to go through with again with a different party. There are 4096 different party combinations available (class-wise), and there are 28 possible class/race combinations for each character. With the different feats and skills, you can customize a character in many different ways.

Storyline 6/10

The storyline is very strange and kind of confusing. There really isn't that much of a storyline, but it doesn't really detract much from the gameplay.

Audio/Visual 7/10
--Graphics 4/5
--Sound 3/5

The graphics in the game are fairly good. Battles look nice and the animations are simple, but well done. The dungeon looks a bit pixelated, but it's still good.

As for sound, there's no background music, but there are some very... er... strange sound effects. While you walk around you keep hearing strange things like squishy noises and people screaming and evil laughter and stuff.

Total: 76/100

All, in all, this game's quite fun and I think all RPG or D&D fans should try it out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/03, Updated 05/19/03