DOS

Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep

Med grafik och ljud som lätt slår konkurrenter i samma genre, är DM2 ett mäktigt rollspel som kan glädja mången erfaren äventyrare en lång tid framöver.

Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep is a fine game, but it would be much better without the significant flaws. Still, it shouldn't be missed by anyone who likes the roleplaying genre or the first Dungeon Master.

Wie schon beim Vorgänger wirkt die Dungeon-Welt "echt", da sie bestimmten Regeln und Gesetzen gehorcht. Alte Fans wissen, was sie erwartet: Viel Geduld und Hirnschmalz ist mitzubringen, um die Geheimnisse von Skullkeep zu lüften.

Dungeon Master ist technisch sicherlich nicht brilliant, aber muß ein gutes Rollenspiel wirklich über Spitzengrafik und mitreißenden Sound verfügen? Wie bei guten Produkten aus dem Genre Strategie, sollte man den Inhalt verstärkt in den Vordergrund rücken, um nicht nur ein kurzes und oberflächliches Spielvergnügen zu garantieren. In dieser rollenspielarmen Zeit präsentiert sich Dungeon Master 2 auf jeden Fall als willkommene Abwechslung.

Dungeon Master II was supposed to be the great, much-anticipated sequel to the original game Dungeon Master, released in 1987, by Faster Than Light (FTL). Then, Dungeon Master was well ahead of its time - it was one of the first 3-D perspective games, improving upon the graphically-limited Wizardry series in both look and game play. It incorporated innovative features such as pits that actually lead to places, switches that could be pulled with the throw of an object, artifacts, weapons, and armor of every conceivable kind, as well as monsters that acted with semi-intelligence, puzzles for even the most clever adventurer, and spells that lit up the screen with special effects.

I had some fun playing Skullkeep and especially in the latter part, but on the whole it was disappointing. It was a bit on the short side and, I am sorry to say, quite outdated. Maybe I have been spoiled, but I do like to step into an evolving and involving story and see it through to its end, but the story of Skullkeep was mapped out from the very beginning. It didn't grow at all in the telling and there just weren't enough puzzles to keep me totally entertained. I strongly suspect that if I ever want another fix of Dungeon Master I am much more likely to return to the original or even to its lesser known sequel, Chaos Strikes Back.

The slow, frustrating interface and dated--painfully dated--graphics of this fantasy RPG make one very, very aware of just how sophisticated we game-playing types have become in the last decade or so. Created very much with its ‘80s ancestor in mind, the fantasy world of Dungeon Master II is complete, well-structured...and sloooowww. Simple controls, combat-party layout designation, an atypical magic system, and a selection of female characters—who for once function as more than party-rounding fodder—make some steps toward making DMII a good game...but the steps just aren't big enough. The serious RPGer raised on lunchtime D&D games in the high school library will find the game's challenges entertaining, true to form, and reasonably intelligent, but the computer gamer will easily be able to find better-looking, faster-playing, more immersive fantasy games out there, without the epic yawn-factor found here.