Description A new evil has fallen upon the peaceful city of Waterdeep, and you have been called upon to uncover its source and destroy it. As you embark on an epic odyssey with a band of fearless adventurers, you’ll need to prepare yourself for confrontation with countless enemies and obstacles. Do you have the skill and bravery required to save Waterdeep from this unspeakable evil? Go forth brave warrior, the adventure of a lifetime awaits!
Summary: I had read some pretty bad things about D&D EofB. But for $10 I'll try it myself. Often I ended up liking games that got really poor reviews.
I didn't bother to finish it. But I thought I would add some comments to the fray.
There is a lot to like, with oldschool gameplay and D&D rules leading the way. However, RPGs are probably the hardest games to make, requiring huges amount of code and math for all the variables dealing with armor, weapons and spells. Well... it seems something went wrong with D&D.
Summary: The GBA's Eye of the Beholder title is... Almost good.
It seems to be taking elements from several titles both D&D and non-, and smashing them all together into one. The first-person dungeon crawling aspect(no smooth animations here, just kachunk-kachunk-oh look, another wall), 3/4 birds-eye combat perspective, and merchant systems all reek of RPG's past.
Nonetheless, it _is_ an almost fun game, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's willing to shell out the money for yet another mediocre license product with the TSR/Wizards of the Coast label slapped on it. I'm bound to be playing it for some time.
I will warn anybody who isn't versed in Dungeons and Dragons to either pick up the 3rd Edition Player's Handbook or skip this game, because the instruction book is absolutely horrible in describing the mechanics of combat. They -are- mostly true to 3rd Edition, but a good example of what's lacking is when you discover Attacks of Opportunity - you may find yourself wondering 'what the heck is a threatened area?' It's only mentioned in the booklet in passing.
Summary: This is like the traditional game for the PC to start. But when i say traditional im not talking Baulder's Gate, more like the first Pool of Radiance. It impliments 3rd additon rules quite well but some of the mnajor turn offs will be the graphics ad choppy control. Well i was willing to work past that and just see how things turned out, but to my dissapointment, i think it just got worse. I think i was hitting enemys about 10% of the time unless it was with a magic spell. Now for some reason i feel that a thief with a 19 dex should hit more often with missle weapons than 10% of the time.
Summary: First let me say I have had this game for less than one week and so far have only made it to level 6, so my review will be based on my opinion on what I've seen to this point. Like I said to those who have played either the PC, Super Nintendo or Sega CD versions (I've played all 3), there are quite a few changes made to this version, mostly for the better. The most dominate change is the battle system. In previous versions of EotB battles take place in a first person perspective where the monster would be standing directly in front of you and you attack by clicking on the weapons and spell icons adjacent to your characters portrait. In the console versions this was very cumbersome trying to select the correct action icons with a joypad, and if you used a missile weapon such as a crossbow or throwing weapons like rocks or spears, you would have to collect your arrows and such one by one at the end of each battle, a real time consuming pain, you had to do this in the PC version too, but it was much easier with a mouse than with a joypad. In the GBA version you switch to an overhead view during battles in much the same tradition as other AD&D PC titles such as Pools of Radiance or Dark Queen of Krynn. This system works much better for a system with a joypad, and you don't have to waste time re-collecting arrows and such. In the original version your party of adventurers had to find food to survive, but has been eliminated from the GBA version. I still have a clue book from the EotB PC game and thought it would be useful for this game, but not so, as all the maps are new and so are the choice of adventurers. New spells have also been added as well as new classes and professions. There are numerous other small changes that I wont go into as my review is limited to 1000 words, but most of the changes are good. You can almost say this is an entirely new game. Now your probably wondering with all these changes, is the game fun! In my opinion the answer is yes, particularly once you party has gained a few levels of experience. Is this a perfect game? No! For one, the graphics look very dated and much as they did in the original PC version that came out in 1990. The sound is similar to the original also, but with a few new effects such as distant screams and breaking glass, the monsters also roar and grunt during battles, but overall the sound is nothing to be impressed over. Movement through the dungeons is very smooth and fluid, but on the battlefield party members are slow and unresponsive at times until they build up experience, after which they move much easier. However to the good side, this game is full of challenging puzzles and traps, and is often frustrating. I will often get stuck for long periods trying to find my way to the next level just as in the original, but I never loose interest as I know there's a solution. I find myself being sucked into the AD&D world just as much as I did a dozen years ago when I played the PC version for the first time. All I can say is if you played and enjoyed the original PC or console versions, and don't mind the dated graphics and sound, the GBA version of Eye of the Beholder is just as fun and challenging if you are patient enough to allow your party of adventures to level up a bit. It's like a blast from the past with some new twist's.
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