Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon

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Eye of the Beholder II:
The Legend of Darkmoon
Eye of the Beholder II The Legend of Darkmoon cover.png
Amiga Cover art
Developer(s) Westwood Associates
Publisher(s) Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Cybille (FM Towns)
Capcom (PC-98)
Composer(s) Frank Klepacki
Platforms DOS, Amiga, FM-Towns, PC-98
Release date(s) 1991 (DOS)
1992 (Amiga)
1993 (FM Towns, PC-98)
Genre(s) Role-playing video game
Mode(s) Single-player

Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon is a 1991 computer role-playing game and the sequel to Eye of the Beholder. It used a modified version of the first game's engine, added outdoor areas and greatly increased the amount of interaction the player had with their environment, along with substantially more role-playing aspects to the game.

Plot

After the adventures of the first game, the heroes head to a local inn to rest and enjoy their new found fame but a note gets slipped to them from Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun (Archmage of Waterdeep) who says that he sent a scout (Amber, a female elven thief/mage of neutral good alignment) to investigate reports of evil brewing in a temple known as Darkmoon but she has not returned. Khelben then transports the heroes to the temple to find Amber and continue the investigation, but it soon becomes apparent that not everything is as it seems.

Gameplay

The gameplay remains within the confines of the temple but players have to explore the vast catacombs beneath, the upper levels of the temple, and the three towers...azure, silver and finally crimson where they can fight the evil Dran Draggore. Like the first game in the series, this one was also ported to the Amiga systems.

Music

The game's music was composed by Frank Klepacki, and was one of the first games he worked on.[citation needed] To write the music, Klepacki used Visual Composer by AdLib for the AdLib YM3812 sound chip.[citation needed] Paul Mudra, who composed the music to the first game, did not have any involvement with the music, and worked only on sound effects along with Dwight Okahara.[citation needed] The PC-98 version contains all the songs from the DOS version with the inclusion of new in-game songs for each main part of the game.

Reception

The Lessers (Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk) reviewed Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon in 1992 in Dragon #179, giving the game 5 out of 5 stars.[1] Scorpia of Computer Gaming World in 1992 again criticized the sequel's user interface, noting that monsters attacked in real time while the player searched through spell books, but stated that the game had a "fancy ending". She concluded that it was "a more substantial game" than its predecessor, with "more to do, a bigger variety of critters to fight and a larger area to explore".[2] That year the magazine named it as one of the year's top role-playing games, stating that it followed in "the strong graphic and solid play-balance tradition of the original".[3] In 1993 Scorpia reiterated her criticism but stated that the game was "a definite must for all EOB fans".[4] GameSpy stated that Eye of the Beholder II "sported a completely original ending, something that was badly needed, considering the game's biggest flaw -- the almost insane level of difficulty".[5]

References

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External links