After a brief bit outside in the woods you’ll end up in the temple, the ancient Drow catacombs underneath it and plenty of trap filled mazes in between. While the game uses the same engine as the original at least the environments that you travel through has been given a bit more variety. Let’s just say you can be thankful that this game has loads of new magical and unique items that you can find to help you out. Don’t get me started on the Mind Flayers, Medusa’s, Basilisks and Salamanders either. While the whole point of the original game was to kill one Beholder, in this game you’ll find an entire level just filled with the buggers. This time round there are plenty of new monsters for you to hack away at and trust me some of them are nasty. The person you drop is gone for good so think carefully if it’s worthwhile. You can only have six members in your party so you have to drop someone when you want another person to join. It’s a pity that you don’t learn more about their stories as, for example, I ended up with a Drow mage in my party, but never learned more about his past. You can’t trust them all though and some have to be resurrected first when you find their bones. While you can only create four party members you can recruit two more on your travels and the new guys are quite interesting. You now find a lot more people on your quest and while there still isn’t much character interaction beyond killing monsters it is a bit more involving than the first game. Thankfully there has been some improvements, which fans of the series will appreciate. Combat is once again in real-time with you franticly clicking your characters weapons to attack. The small viewing area and cramped tunnels of Darkmoon can make the game also seem very claustrophobic. Movement is once again step based and you can only turn at 90 degree angles. You can also import your characters from the first game, but since I was so pissed off with the poor ending of that one I just deleted it without thinking about save games, which in retrospect wasn’t so wise! It’s a pity that there aren’t any new portraits, which coupled with the fact that the game uses the exact same engine and interface as the first one, can make it seem that you are just playing the same thing over again. You once again start by creating your own four member party or jumping straight in with a pregenerated party. If you’ve played the original Eye Of The Beholder, then this game should be very familiar to you. Giving the party only a magical coin through which he can contact them, Khelben teleports the party to the woods near Darkmoon, beginning their quest. It seems that an ancient evil is stirring in the temple of Darkmoon and the scout that he sent to investigate has not returned. As your party of adventurers were getting ready for a quiet evening by the fire, they receive a note from Khelben Blackstaff the mage urging them to come see him. After Westwood’s first foray into the First Person RPG market was such a success, it should come as no surprise that they are back with a sequel to Eye Of The Beholder.
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