Dungeon Master Reviews

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Here is an english translation of this review [Credits: Trantor]:

Dungeon Master

There are games that you should have seen. And then there are those which you just cannot miss. Poetically spoken: On the long road of role-playing games, FTL left a highly visible milestone!

Dungeon Master sort of reinvented the dungeons - a huge deal of later fantasy adventures is based on this classic among classics! With games like Bloodwych, Eye of the Beholder or Xenomorph, this can be seen on first sight, but even colleagues from other genres (like Rings of Medusa 2) can’t deny a certain similarity. So let’s look back into the year of 1988 when a jolt went through the dungeon walls of this world…

In order to understand the buzz that Dungeon Master created back then, you have to know that the good old block graphic ruled the role-playing games back then. The sound was on a similar level: with all the bleeping, you could never be sure if a monster just died or if it was your speakers! And for the controls, you usually had three quarters of the keyboard used, most of it unlogically. But suddenly, fantasy was not fantasy anymore: beautiful 3D graphics, excellent ambient sound and an interface that is still exemplary today fulfilled long-fostered adventurer dreams! First, only the ST owners were to enjoy, a year later, the new role-playing age also dawned on the Amiga. Only the PC users still wait for their version, even if FTL is supposed to mean “Faster than Light”… ((this shows the article was written somewhat before 1993 or 1994)). On the Amiga, Dungeon Master was one of the first games to require 1 MB memory - one of the few unpleasant innovations of the program, especially since the announced 512 K version hasn’t come out until today.

After this banter now on to the story: Lord Grey, a true wizard through and through, overstrained a bit and created some sort of magical maximum credible accident. While experimenting with the “Power Gem”, his bad half suddenly made itself independent and terrorized the lands as “Lord Chaos”. Add the fact that the Power Gem has vanished, and we all know what the player’s task is…

Before the quest for the crystal commences, a visit in the Hall of Champions is due, where 24 heroes that are frozen in mirrors and have 4 character classes (Fighter, Wizard, Ninja, Priest) expect us. You choose 4 of them and then march into the dungeon - which consists of 14 levels! The adventure begins relatively harmless (on the first level, you practically only meet cannon fodder), but rises greatly to a Grande Finale that challenges the last of the player’s skill and cleverness.

The finely tuned difficulty level is but one of the reasons for the legendary reputation of our dungeon master; without claim of completeness, here are some more: The fighting sequences which take place in real time are fine-tuned to the last detail. You see mummies, worms, dragons etc. crawling along from a distance, you can use any item you want for their destruction (for example, the mobs can be lured under a portcullis!), and the fighting itself is pure fun thanks to the elaborate mouse controls. Add a for that time revolutionary magic system that works like a construction kit, an inventory management that is just as brilliant, countless of secret passages and findings in them, and traps en masse.

Enough praise, now to the weak points of the game: You cannot talk, there are no locations to explore apart from dungeon (always with the same wall-look), and the genre-typical gauges for the characters stats are also missing - there is only a short message when you gained a level of experience. But the possibilities of development are nearly unbounded, it is perfectly possible to turn a wizard into a super-ninja via tough training. And such mega-heroes are needed at the latest in:

Chaos Strikes Back

The expansion disk mainly differs in difficulty from the main program - it is extraordinarily hard! Apart from a good intro, (almost) nothing has changed in terms of graphics, sound, and controls, there are just even more monstrous monsters, even more puzzling puzzles, even more magically spells and even more malicious traps. Even hardened veterans are known to have thrown in the towel, even though two little easements were built in: An “oracle” gives you hints how to proceed, and you may import old veteran characters from the first game, only a mix of old and new is sadly not allowed. The portraits of the heroes can be altered with a little editor.

Because of the close connection to the veteran, the rating box also goes for the new dungeon - with one exception. “For advanced players” should read “for super-experts”.

Amiga: The main difference to the ST version is the stereo sound.
ST: Completely in German (as Amiga), but the translation could have been better. Also runs with 512 K. Color monitor required.
C64: Sorry, no chance.
PC: One can still hope…

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A transcription of this article is available here

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A transcription of this article is available here

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Online reviews§

Dungeon Master first review in The Amiga Games Database
Dungeon Master second review in The Amiga Games Database
Dungeon Master third review in The Amiga Games Database
Dungeon Master review on A2central.com
Dungeon Master review by Quandary
Dungeon Master review at www.textfiles.com
Dungeon Master for Amiga review at www.emunova.net (French)
Dungeon Master for Super NES review at www.emunova.net (French)
Description of Dungeon Master on the Gros Pixels web site (French)
Dungeon Master review on Atari Legend
Dungeon Master review on Armchair Arcade
Dungeon Master review on ‘The Joy of Sticks’
Dungeon Master for Atari ST Review published in Disk Magazine ‘ST News’, Vol 3 No 2 06 April 1988

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