Eye of the Beholder 2: Legend of Darkmoon
| Eye of The Beholder 2: Legend of Darkmoon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original title | Eye of the Beholder 2: The Legend of Darkmoon | ||
| Studio | Westwood Associates | ||
| Publisher | SSI | ||
| Senior Developer | Brett W. Sperry (Director) | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1991 | ||
| platform | DOS , Amiga , PC-98 , FM Towns | ||
| genre | Computer role playing game | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| medium | Diskette or CD-ROM | ||
| language | German | ||
| copy protection | Manual query | ||
| Age rating |
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Eye of The Beholder 2: Legend of Darkmoon is a 1991 computer role-playing game released by Westwood Associates and the sequel to Eye of the Beholder . It was published by SSI and initially appeared for MS-DOS and Amiga , later also for PC-98 and FM Towns . In 1993 the sequel Eye of the Beholder 3: Assault on Myth Drannor was released , which no longer came from Westwood, but was developed internally at SSI.
action
The group of heroes of the first part returned to a tavern in the city after their experiences in the sewers and undergrounds of deep water. The well-known magician Khelben "Black Staff" Arunsun asks you to investigate the strange happenings around the Darkmoon monastery. Aruns previous informant Amber had not returned from her fact-finding mission. Black staff teleports the heroes into the forest in front of the monastery. In fact, the clerics do not want to allow the heroes entry, so they have to force it. As it turns out, the monastery complex is just a camouflage. In fact, the high priest Dran Draggore is gathering a large skeletal army around him, with which he wants to march on deep water. The heroes advance into the sanctuary of the temple to find that Draggore is a red dragon they must defeat.
Gameplay
Compared to its predecessor, no major changes have been made. The player can create a new group of four heroes or import it from the previous game with the help of a saved game. The character level cap is level 15, with newly created heroes starting at level 6. Legend of Darkmoon mainly reduces the gameplay weaknesses of its predecessor. The level sizes were reduced and the complexity of the maps reduced, teleporters and vortex traps, which made orientation difficult, were used to a lesser extent than in the previous version. This made the exploration more straightforward and significantly reduced the constant back and forth. Other aspects of role play, such as dialogue options or individual puzzles, have been expanded and the cutscenes have been designed with animated graphics. The storage options have also been expanded and now allow six storage states instead of just one.
reception
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The game received mostly benevolent reviews.
“Despite the technical standstill, the temple hunt ensures pleasant showers. The atmosphere is incredibly dense and will ensure many sleepless nights ... "
“You can clearly see that SSI and the programmers from 'Westwood Associates' have taken the sometimes harsh criticism of Eye of the Beholder 1 to heart. Especially in terms of story, the successor was spiced up. A little more text as well as the graphically splendid intermediate scenes upgrade 'Legend of Darkmoon' compared to its predecessor. […] For this reason there is also a significantly better rating. Otherwise, the Beholder veterans can expect little new. "
"Overall, Eye of the Beholder II: Legend of Darkmoon is a more substantial game than its predecessor. There is more to do, a bigger variety of critters to fight and a large area to explore. Graphics are a bit finer than in EOBI . Sound effects are about the same. Some of the problems with the earlier game (poor ending, lack of save positions) have been fixed, although the combat interface remains a sore point. "
“Overall, Eye of the Beholder 2: Legend of Darkmoon is a more substantial game than its predecessor. There's more to do, a wider variety of creatures to fight, and bigger areas to explore. The graphics are a little better than in EOB1 . The sound effects are on the same level. Some of the problems with the previous game (pathetic ending, lack of memory) have been fixed, although the combat interface remains a sore point. "
Allen Rausch described the legend of Darkmoon as a classic example of when a developer used the reactions and reviews constructively to improve the next game. When presenting the story, Westwood chose a cinematic approach, which was also used as a pattern in her later games such as Command & Conquer . In retrospect, Legend of Darkmoon is considered by most authors to be a design- technically improved version of the first part with few, but effective innovations.
In commercial terms, sales fell from 129,000 copies for the predecessor to 73,000. After the game, Westwood and SSI parted ways as Westwood was acquired by Virgin Interactive . The successor, Assault on Myth Drannor , was created internally until 1993 with an engine that was developed in-house. Westwood, on the other hand, published the technically and playfully very similar Lands of Lore , based on Eye of the Beholder , also in 1993 .
Web links
- Eye of the Beholder 2 at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Amiga Joker 05/1992
- ↑ a b ASM 02/1992
- ↑ Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser: The Role of Computers . In: Dragon . No. 179, March 1992, pp. 57-62.
- ↑ PC Joker 02/1992
- ↑ a b Power Play 03/1992
- ↑ Power Play 06/1992
- ^ Scorpia: Scorpion's View . In: Computer Gaming World . April 1992, p. 44. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
- ^ Allen Rausch, Miguel Lopez: A History of D&D Video Games - Part II. In: Gamespy. August 16, 2004, accessed July 15, 2019 .
- ^ Matt Barton, Shane Stacks: Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games . 2nd Edition. CRC Press, 2019, ISBN 978-1-351-27339-8 , pp. 264–267 ( google.de [accessed July 10, 2019]).
- ↑ Gamespot's History of AD&D: Eye of the Beholder II: Legend of Darkmoon . In: Gamespot . Golden Empire Publications. March 1993. Archived from the original on October 19, 2004.
- ↑ Cory Brock: Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon. In: Hardcore Gaming 101. November 20, 2011, accessed July 15, 2019 (American English).
- Jump up ↑ Jimmy Maher: Opening the Gold Box, Part 5: All That Glitters is Not Gold. In: The Digital Antiquarian. March 31, 2017, Retrieved July 15, 2019 (American English).