Eye of the Beholder - Review @ CRPG Addict

CRPG Addict finished his play through the classic AD&D dungeon crawler Eye of the Beholder, his first RPG from 1991. The final rating according to his own scoring system is 42/100.

I'll say right away that Eye of the Beholder is not a better game than Dungeon Master, and if it rates higher than Dungeon Master on my GIMLET, we'll know that the GIMLET is broken or I rated the previous game too low. What Beholder gains through NPCs and better quests, it loses in fundamentally worse character development, combat, magic, and puzzles. I'm sure it's possible to blend Dungeons & Dragons rules with an action dungeon-crawler, and Beholder is an important step in that direction, but it's not the destination.

As usual, his experiences were recorded with lots of attention to detail, sprinkled with historic facts and philosophical musings. In chronological order:

1. Game 189: Eye of the Beholder (1991)
2. Out of the Sewers, Into the Spiders
3. Made It This Far
4. Oh Great. Drow.
5. Stuck!
6. Flayed and Quartered
7. Won!
8. Final Rating