It’s rare to see a 1st person, party based dungeon crawler like Dungeon Hack or The Eye of the Beholder (from where the screenshot at the top was taken — EotB for the Gameboy Advance). It’s rarer still to see two of them. I am sure the last one of these I played was The Legend of Grimrock II, a masterfully done game that didn’t just build on its predecessor but elevated the whole 90s hack and slash genre to new heights. Some call this genre “Wizardry”-type games.
Unfortunately for the genre, perhaps, both these games ignore the Grimrock enhancements and just focus on bringing the 90s games up to date.
Both games are broadly similar. Monsters only move when you move. You can (and should) turn in place to watch your back without the monsters having a chance to react. Using consumables is also free, but mining or harvesting allows monsters to move, as does using any attack action.
In Dverghold, your adventuring party (from which you can select from pre-rolled characters or create your own) is called upon to recover the body of the missing mage who cast a spell blocking monsters from reaching the surface, along with three magic runes. These, of course, are well hidden behind walls that you must chip through with a pickaxe. There are traps galore, and monsters are just smart enough to lure you into them. Luckily, you can do some luring yourself. In my two runs, I’d lure monsters into a damaging aura, taunt with the tank and deeps with the ranger. Resting was as quick as reading a scroll out of combat (something only priests and mages can do).
There were plenty of environmental puzzles; some as simple as pulling switches on a wall, others where exact timing of moves was key. It’s fun to lure a monster into a trap and then turn it on. Baked monster.
I think Scopique must have been playing a different version of the game. I was never attacked by so many creatures at once that I could get surrounded, and when I drew multiples, I just led them to a choke point, as in the screenshot.
Though I didn’t have any particular issue with the fights (I notice Scopique went with a thief instead of a priest or mage, making scrolls impossible for him to use), I did have an issue with picks (necessary to progress) breaking, and lamps running out of oil. Again, town and resupply was as close as reading a scroll, so it was more annoying than anything. Upgrades dropped plentifully, and I was well equipped on all three characters long before the demo ended.
It was fun.
For all that Dverghold is the technically more up-to-date example of the Wizardry genre, Underkeep was just more fun. The retro aesthetic really appealed to me.
In Underkeep, your party of adventurers (which can be drawn from many monstrous or bizarre races) is attempting to reach the Underkeep, but things aren’t that easy. They will need to, in the demo, gather five mushrooms from the nearby forest.
Well, how hard can that be? There’s two dungeons in the demo, one you discover behind a bush, the other one you will literally fall into. Three of the five mushrooms you’re searching for are in the dungeon, along with a vast collection of gear — and you’ll need the gear, because your adventurers are largely unequipped at the start.
Underkeep gives you four adventurers over Dverghold‘s three, but they are somewhat less capable, each having a “free” attack and an attack that uses stamina (for physical attacks) or mana (for magical attacks). Monsters and quest rewards are plentiful enough that all my characters leveled in the dungeon, which allowed me to make the current attacks more powerful, choose new ones, or unlock passive buffs and auras. Many monsters drop food, which you will consume when you rest, and resting is simple and easy and can be done right in the dungeon.
What I like most about Underkeep is the whole vibe. It’s how I remember the old 90s SSI dungeon crawlers looking, as opposed to how they actually looked.
Grimrock sets a high bar and neither of these games cleared it; if you’re looking for the state of the art, play Grimrock. But if you just want to swing at monsters awhile, both these games will do that for you, and Underkeep is the one that really brings me back… to last autumn, when I played Eye of the Beholder.
Check them out. Both have demos and are available as part of Steam Next Fest.
This is one thing that’s on my mind a lot. When I say “I’d really like to play a game like [insert fondly remembered game of yore here]”, I’m not sure if I’m nostalgic for [insert fondly remembered game of yore here], have an interest in seeing what modern takes on the genre are doing, or am batshit crazy.
I’ve tried Dvegenngehtgold, Cyclopean I AND II, and never really got into Grimrock, so I’m thinking maybe I’m in the third camp concerning these games.
I just found out that the game I was probably really nostalgic for, Dungeon Master for the Atari ST, has been ported to Windows and other modern machines.
I think the successful nostalgia brokers will definitely succeed based on how much they bring back what gamers thought they remembered the games being like, vs how they actually were. Certainly, these both are examples. They don’t play the same (Dungeon Master had real-time combat, Eye of the Beholder placed battles on a separate tactical map, etc) but they’re enough to remind me that I had fun with these games decades ago, and that’s probably enough.