Menzoberranzan
-
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Masterpiece Collection
(1996) -
Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms - The Archives Collection 3
(2015) -
Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection Three
(1999) -
The Forgotten Realms Archives
(1997)
Description official description
In Menzoberranzan the player takes the role of two adventurers (two more can be recruited) who have just returned from a fight against an evil enemy in the Icewind Dale. A drow raid looking for Drizzt attacks the village the adventurers are staying in and takes several villagers as hostages. Now (probably with the help of the captain of the guard) the adventurers will have to rescue the villagers in an epic that spans to the evil city Menzoberranzan itself.
Menzoberranzan is a first-person, party-based role-playing game that utilizes the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules for character creation, combat, and other gameplay elements. The game is built upon the same engine that was used in Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession. The combat is done in real-time, performed by choosing attack options and clicking on the enemy, allowing the party to execute the commands. Popular characters Drizzt and Guenhwyvar from the books by R.A. Salvatore can join the party during the quest.
Spellings
- メンゾベランザン 闇の紋章 - Japanese spelling
Groups +
- Dungeons & Dragons (D&D / AD&D) licensees
- Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting: Forgotten Realms
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Elves
- Fantasy creatures: Gnomes
- Fantasy creatures: Halflings / Hobbits
- Gameplay feature: Auto-mapping
- Gameplay feature: Paper doll inventory
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
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Credits (DOS version)
40 People (36 developers, 4 thanks) · View all
| Rule Book Writer, Interaction & Game Text | |
| Executive Producer | |
| Associate Producer, Voice Direction | |
| Lead Programming | |
| Game Design | |
| Art Director | |
| Lead Artist | |
| Artist | |
| 3D Artist | |
| 3D Support | |
| 3D Character Generator | |
| Music | |
| Sound Effects, Voice Production | |
| Producer | |
| Managing Doc. Editor | |
| Rule Book Editors | |
| Lead Product Tester | |
| Testers | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 69% (based on 14 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 20 ratings with 2 reviews)
A weak attempt to capitalize on the nascent (at the time) FPS genre.
The Good
Nothing springs immediately to mind.
The Bad
Like so many games, this game wasn't bad. It just wasn't good. The gameplay is similar to other computer RPGs of the time: You guide your party around the landscape and through dungeons and encounter monsters, NPCs, and quests. The gimmick was the use of the first person perspective. The first person perspective didn't really add anything to the game, however, because once you entered combat, the game became turn-based. And your chance to hit was based on a random die roll (assuming you were in range) of the monster. No fancy moves. No sneak attacks. You run around the landscape in a Doom-type graphical engine, until you find something that wants to hit you, at which point you start turn-based combat. Which made the first person perspective kind of pointless.
The Bottom Line
An easily forgotten chapter of the SSI D&D franchise.
DOS · by Afterburner (486) · 2001
An old & good RPG if you go through the beginning...
The Good
**The Bad**
**The Bottom Line**
I saw reviews of people who have played only its beginning but it's not enough to know this game... The start of the game takes place above the ground, near Icewind Dale then you go under the ground through Underdark to finally reach the drow city of Menzoberranzan. Menzoberranzan (or Menzo) is nearly a link between old RPG games like "Eye of the Beholder (1 2 or 3)" and the Baldur's Gate generation. Play it and I think you will understand what I mean. Menzo is (was) a good game, even if it's not a perfect one, and I had pleasure to play it from start until the end... Note two versions of this game exist: CD-ROM and disk-based game. I played the full CD-ROM version with sounds, musics, small movies, and more levels and creatures than the disk-based one... Lucky me.
DOS · by Melliuc (566) · 2006
Trivia
CD Version
Menzoberranzan was released on a CD in 1995. It was several months after the floppy edition. However the player can easily see that CD version is not an enhanced edition but floppy edition was a stripped one. When playing the floppy version the player sometimes can experience clearly visible cuts of some scenes (eg. shorter introduction) or lack of continuity (eg. bartender gives thanks to the team for the dragon fight that did not happen). Some cut scenes also make the floppy edition slightly more difficult (eg. at the beginning of the game, there is a cut scene presenting the assault where the player can see the location of the well - lack of it in the floppy edition makes it more difficult to find).
Cover art
The game box's cover features a painting of famed dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden by artist Jeff Easley, earlier used as the front cover to R. A. Salvatore's 1990 novel Homeland.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Wolfang.
FM Towns added by Infernos. PC-98 added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: Pseudo_Intellectual, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, Infernos.
Game added April 27, 2000. Last modified November 2, 2024.