Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
| Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon |
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Amiga Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Westwood Associates |
| Publisher(s) |
Strategic Simulations, Inc. Cybille (FM Towns) Capcom (PC-98) |
| Composer(s) | Frank Klepacki |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Amiga, FM-Towns, PC-98 |
| Release |
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.
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 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. While battling their way through the temple's clerics and other inhabitants, the players discover that the high priest, Dran Draggore, is assembling legions of skeletal warriors to attack Waterdeep. The players need to pass an acolytes' test to gain access to the inner parts of the temple. In the final confrontation Draggore turns out to be a red dragon.
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.
The game's music was composed by Frank Klepacki, and was one of the first games he worked on. To write the music, Klepacki used Visual Composer by AdLib for the AdLib YM3812 sound chip. 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. 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.
SSI sold 73,109 copies of Eye of the Beholder II. The Lessers (Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk) reviewed the game in 1992 in Dragon #179, giving the game 5 out of 5 stars.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". 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". In 1993 Scorpia reiterated her criticism but stated that the game was "a definite must for all EOB fans". 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".
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