Dungeons & Dragons Games Vol. 30: Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon (MS-DOS) - Part 1

Developer:

Westwood

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Release Date:

1991

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Systems:

DOS, Amiga, FM Towns, PC-98

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing the second Eye of Beholder game that Westwood released during 1991. And I thought SSI were rushing out their Gold Box sequels a bit fast.

Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon was released in December 1991, just 10 months after the first game, and it came out on many of the same systems. But not all of them. Sega CD and SNES owners were left out, probably because they didn't get a port of the first game until 1994. 

At least the Amiga still got a port! The gap between the PC and Amiga 500's hardware specs kept getting bigger, but they continued bringing Dungeons & Dragons games over for one last year. Hang on, the more powerful Amiga 1200 was released in 1992, they could've released a few games for that!

Anyway, this is going to be the first of four parts. It was going to be two, but I thought splitting them in half would be less of a gruelling test of endurance for you, and it's less editing work for me. Plus I really want to publish four articles a month and I've almost ran out of time! I wouldn't count on me finishing the game though, as... no time, too much to do. Sorry.

I'll throw a SPOILER warning here even though it's not exactly a plot heavy game, just so you're aware of what you're getting into by reading past this point.

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The game begins out on a rainy street at night. This is presumably the Forgotten Realms city of Waterdeep, on the Sword Coast, seeing as that's where the first game took place.

We've been summoned by our friend Khelben Blackstaff and the camera pans across to reveal his front door.

Damn, that's some high quality art for 1991. They're even switching between different angles and close-ups to show off. Westwood were always good with graphics, but this is a lot more impressive than the intro to the first game.

I remember how Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday's VGA art was still based on the unnatural EGA palette, just smoothed out with extra shades, but this clearly isn't letting previous gen hardware hold it back. It is only using less than 100 colours for each shot, but it's making such an expert use of blue and orange that it doesn't need any more than that.

In fact... sorry I should get on with talking about the story. Ancient Evil stirs in Darkmoon Temple and the scout Khelben sent to investigate never returned, so he's sending us to have a look. No time for a gearing up montage this time, he just gives us a shiny communication coin and teleports us right over.

There's some extra information in the manual, along with a bit of a story about an eccentric scholar who went looking for a village he saw in a vision and discovered it had been destroyed years ago. Though it was difficult for me to read, as playing the Gold Box games has trained me to never continue to the next journal entry, and definitely never read them in order!

The scholar hired a halfling guide called Insal and together they came across several shallow grave sites, a couple of unhelpful female warriors, and not much else. Now it's my turn to do some investigation, though first I need some characters.

Unlike the first game there's a quick start party, so you can play as Pericles the paladin, "Stumpy" the fighter/thief, Wolfspirit the cleric and Laurann the mage. But you'll probably want to make your own team.

Turns out that the Character Generation screen is identical to the one in the last game. So this is how you get a sequel out in less than a year: don't change anything.

It's got the same six races, the same six classes, and even the faces are exactly the same without any added portraits. You can still modify your ability scores after rolling as well, and it's still 2nd Edition so female characters have exactly the same stat limits as male ones. Though there is one big change for this game: new heroes start at a higher level.

You need a full set of four characters, preferably balanced for melee, magic and healing, though you can recruit some other party members later to make up for the skills you're missing. In fact, I could pick up some party members right now... 

There's a 'import progress' button in the launcher that simplifies the process of getting your Eye of the Beholder 1 characters across into this game. I'm hoping their equipment gets imported as well, as I had some really nice +5 gear.

Showing off the launcher also means showing off the box art, and as usual for D&D it's been recycled from another project (The Magister tabletop supplement). It's also got skeletons on it, like every Eye of the Beholder cover.

Oh, plus I should mention that I have The All-Seeing Eye set to 'on', which means I have enemy stats and an automap displayed around the DOSBox window.

Oh no, not my items! Couldn't it at least put them in a museum or something, why do they have to be deleted?

This is the import screen where I get to pick four characters from the six available. The first Eye of the Beholder only has the one save slot, so these are all from the same party... which means that this is letting me import my recruited characters! That's not normal, at least I don't think it is.

I think I'm going to have to stick with my core four heroes though. They've been through a lot together, so they'll be a higher level than the other two.

Alright I got my crew back!

I've played a lot of D&D games with a lot of different characters, but these are the only four to successfully complete their game. Okay I also finished Heroes of the Lance, but those guys never levelled up, so their next game didn't need an import feature.

FOREST

Well, it definitely looks different to the first game, but not by much. The HUD texture has changed, the compass has slipped down a bit and Chidi's got a slightly different "C" in his name. I've read that the game uses a modified version of the same engine, and I can believe that. They didn't modify it to play any music though.

Actually there is one big thing that's changed in the months between games: I've forgotten what all my spells do.

Some sequels find an excuse to reset your skills and equipment, but all this has done is taken away some of the more overpowered spells and items. Otherwise I'm continuing right where I left off, like I've stepped into another area in the same game. Not that the first game had any outdoor areas.

The important thing is that I've started off knowing "create food", so the game's hunger system can be safely ignored. I'm sure "dispel magic" is useful for something too, though I can't remember what. "Magical vestment"... is that new? I don't recall seeing that in a spell list before.

Okay the manual tells me that it's a magical armour spell. It doesn't stack, but it does get stronger as my cleric levels up. Though I think clerics can just wear regular armour.

Either way, it's not that important, as enemies generally attack the front row. My top two guys are melee powerhouses wearing tank armour and as long as they're the ones facing the enemies, the rest of my team can just dress casually.

Though I probably should nap for a bit to memorise my other spells before I head into the temple.

Damn, I guess I'm not going to be able to camp out in these woods. Not without getting a wolf to the face. They just keep coming over and bothering me.

Though they're basically here to give players a chance to get the hang of combat, as they're effortless to kill. Well, effortless for me to kill; maybe a level 7 fighter with +1 weapons would have a harder time.

The combat system is entirely unchanged from the first game. It's real-time and I'm free to move around the world, though movement's on a grid so if an enemy's in my way I can't get past. To get rid of them I have to click everyone's weapons and then wait for the cooldowns before I do it again. Plus I have to remember to right click or else I'll just take their sword or spell book out of their hand instead.

Hey, there's an NPC in the woods at the start of the game! This is different. There are people you can chat with like this in Eye of the Beholder as well, but you have to get several floors down before you meet any of them.

The dialogue system hasn't changed, as my options are still 'give me more text', 'attack', 'leave'. They haven't even have a 'sarcasm' button. I suppose I have to wait a little longer for more RPG developers to have played Monkey Island before I'll get to choose my own lines.

They characters asked her about Amber, Khelben's scout, but she finds it unlikely anyone else could've been here or else she would've seen her.

The woman kindly offered to lead us to Temple Darkmoon and I accepted, so I don't have to go wandering around the woods anymore!

Though I think I probably would've found it myself, as the building's hard to miss.

I mean look at the place! That's a pretty hardcore looking temple. In fact it's halfway to being Dracula's castle from Castlevania, it just needs more bats flying around the towers.

But I can't go in yet. I need to fully explore the woods first, as the wolves could have a secret treasure stash somewhere. 

Well I've found some of those graves I heard about. Maybe I could dig them up and get a new NPC! No, Chidi doesn't have any resurrection magic.

Hang on, Chidi just had a line! I don't remember my party members ever saying anything in the first game. No one's replying to him, but this is good, I like it.

Now Jason's got a line too! "The bushes to the south look strange. Perhaps we should investigate". They look the same as all the other bushes to me, but okay.

Secret stairs!

It's a good thing I brought someone with high perception. Wait, perception isn't a stat in D&D. Plus he's not a ranger or a thief, and his intelligence and wisdom are the lowest of anyone. I suppose any character could've noticed this.

It's just a little cellar, not a secret passage, but there's some stuff down here for me to grab. Wait, does that say 'rotten food'? Is the game trying to trick me into giving my party food poisoning?

It turns out that I'm still carrying the wands I was hoarding at the end of Eye of the Beholder, so those weren't taken from me. In fact I'm loaded up with all kinds of junk right now. There's no weight limit, only a limited number of tiles to put things in, so I typically grab everything I can and then sort through it later. 

You can see the equipment slots on the right, I put things into them to equip things. Also there's my character's health and hunger at the top. I should camp down here where it's safe, memorise "create food", and make sure everyone's well fed before heading inside the temple.

DARKMOON TEMPLE, LEVEL 1

Oh, I've found a couple more NPCs waiting to greet me at the door. Hey, aren't you the actor Andreas Katsulas? 

Nadia and her brother Joril seem friendly and only slightly creepy, but I feel like I know where this is going. Though I'll resist tapping the 'attack' button for now as we're the good guys! You can create an evil party if you want to, but there really doesn't seem to be a point. You spend most of these games in a maze slaying malevolent creatures to make the world a better place, and there's not really an evil way to do that.

Hey they're in the game world as well. They're a bit fidgety.

The party asked them about Amber, but they also claimed not to have seen her. I think I'm going to snoop around this lobby for a bit and then I'll head in through the door and see if they have any objections to that.

So far I've discovered that they've got very shiny floors in here, and some nice decorative windows. Plus there's a stone carving over there of some clouds.

Whoa, suddenly another NPC out of nowhere! I thought the priests said they hadn't seen anyone here lately. To be fair she definitely wasn't visible in the game world. In fact that might be why there's no attack option this time.

I thought this might have been Amber, but she's actually a warrior looking for her missing sister Calandra. I wonder if she's one of the "female warriors" mentioned in the scholar's journal. I'll have to add "find Calandra" to my own journal... which I guess is this article I'm writing, seeing as there's nothing in-game keeping track of my goals.

Okay I'll have to open the door in the back to continue my investigation.

It turns out that Nadia and Joril don't want us to go any further into their temple, big surprise. I wanted to discuss it with them, maybe suggest that they come with us, but my only options are to "Ignore him" or "Obey".

So I clicked "Obey" and my cleric apologised, saying that we didn't know the area was restricted. And we didn't! Usually temples in RPGs let me go in and roam all over the place. Also wouldn't my cleric count as a "member of the cloth" anyway?

It seems like the temple door is my only way in, but just for the hell of it I'm going to do another lap of the woods to see if there's a secret passage. Plus the warrior said that her sister disappeared in the woods so maybe I'll see her around!

Damn, there are way more wolves here than there was when I came through here the first time. I hope that old woman didn't get eaten.

You can see in this picture that I'm actually playing the game in a DOSBox window, with The All-Seeing Eye bolted onto the side, giving me enemy health bars and an automap that gets filled in as I walk around. You really need a map in this game, so you can either get out the graph paper, use an automap, or just rely on the maps in a walkthrough. It's either that or get lost in identical passageways, walking in circles.

Well it seems like it's the temple door or nothing, though at least it let me try another option. It's not like Alone in the Dark or Resident Evil where trying to leave the building is the quickest way to die. Though before I start a fight with the priests I'm going to save. Unlike the first game this gives you multiple save slots, so there's less risk of accidentally saving in an unwinnable situation.

Oh no, Joril and Nadia are firing off some kind of magic at me! I don't know what spell exactly, the message box at the bottom of the screen only shows the actions that I've taken. The action I'm about to take now is to click on a different page in my mage's spell book so I can cast fireball.

I have to admit, I already knew two things about the game before I started playing and the priests being evil was one of them. It's not exactly a big twist though and I doubt any players would've been caught completely off guard. Though they may still be a problem for newly generated characters, especially for players who haven't found a spot to rest and memorise some spells yet. They were not a problem for me.

Alright now I've got three options: I can try the stairs going up, the stairs going down, or the mysterious secret button I just spotted on the wall. I'm gonna go check the dungeon!

CATACOMBS, FLOOR 1

Oh, I was expecting monsters down here, but I've accidentally woken up some guards. Man, I know how they feel, I got like three hours last night and I'm shattered. It's a shame that I'm going to have to kill them in self-defence now, but may they rest in peace this time.

These catacombs below the temple look ancient and evil, at least that's what my cleric thinks. Personally I've been too distracted picking up rocks from the floor to really think about it. I've collected about 10 so far, including the ones I still had on me from the last game. I don't think they'll be needed later, but I do expect that they'll be useful. You can drop them on pressure plates or throw them through the hole in a door to hit the switch in the next room and open it, that kind of thing.

My mage says that she can hear the sound of someone humming to the south and my fighter has realised that it's coming from a locked door. The voice from inside whispers to us, asking for help.

But there's another locked door here and I've only picked up one key. Do I open a cell to save someone or do I use the key to open another passageway instead? Oh, these are one-use keys by the way, because... I dunno, maybe they get stuck?

I did find some lockpicks nearby, but only a thief can use them so that's not an option right now. Though when you find things like picks or spell books in the dungeon, the owner isn't usually far away.

Oh no, I've worked out who's in here. I said before that I knew two things about Eye of the Beholder 2 going in, and this is the second thing. I just need to quickly check the cluebook that came with the game to confirm.

Yeah, the scholar's guide Insal is in there, and he's a contender to be the worst recruitable character in RPG history.

The first time you make camp and get some rest while he's in the party the dude runs off with some of your best stuff. That's probably not a big deal if you've just started with new characters, but he can keep his grubby hands off my EotB 1 endgame gear. Fuck him, I'm using my key to open another passageway instead.

Oh it turns out that there's a second key on a shelf next to his door. Well, uh, I'm still not saving him.

A FEW STONE PASSAGEWAYS LATER

Here's some tactical advice from someone who's played a few RPGs: put your metal pants and chainmail shirt on before rushing out to fight the well-armed party of heroes trying to sneak past your bedroom. They're making this too easy for me.

Though I've also been playing the Amiga version, and my team there didn't do so well. The fight was going fine, but then a pit opened up behind me, and I couldn't step back to dodge their attacks anymore. I'd include a screenshot to show how the Amiga 500 graphics have been downgraded from the VGA PC game due to a lack of colours... but I'm not playing the Amiga 500 version.

I mentioned at the start that the game never got an official Amiga 1200 port, but I'm trying out an unofficial port made by a guy called CFou! that looks identical to the PC game. Except for one major difference:

Eye of the Beholder II (Amiga AGA Version)

The Amiga AGA version has an in-game automap! The DOS version still has the edge because of The All-Seeing Eye's extra features, but if you're not into graph paper then this is incredibly useful.

Look, you can see the pit that opened up behind me, next to the red arrow. I wasn't lying.

CATACOMBS, FLOOR 2

Hey I've found a dwarf who wants to join up with the team... just like I did near the start of Eye of the Beholder 1. This is getting a bit familiar.

Man, even the stones in the walls look similar. Identical in places, in fact. At first I thought it was an elaborate edit of the tileset used in first game, but after doing the research I know that's not actually the case.

It's actually a recolour of another tileset that was already there in the first game. I suppose this is one of the tricks Westwood used to get two of these games out in the same year. They drew a new dwarf in chains though!

This one's a cleric called Shorn, which works for me as I don't need another front row fighter. Plus his name even fits the theme I've got going on. He doesn't have a quest of his own, aside from getting home to warn his people about the priests, so I think we'll get on just fine. As long as he doesn't mind carrying my rock collection, plus this complete set of elf bones I've just found.

Alright, I'm ready to get back to exploring this sinister temple. Hey, I just picked up a potion of cure poison, what am I going to be needing this for...?

TO BE CONTINUED

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There's no need for you to guess what the next game's going to be. It's just this one again.

You should still leave a comment though, I mean if you want to. It feels weird when I'm just talking to myself.