Dungeon Hack

Moby ID: 992
DOS Specs

Description official description

Combine the gameplay ideas of Hack/NetHack with the Eye of the Beholder III game engine and you get a graphical version of Hack: Dungeon Hack. Largely based on a construction set, the player can create their own dungeons and then crawl through them.

This is the ultimate dungeon crawl with over 4 billion possible dungeon configurations thanks to the random level generator. The generator has the ability to regenerate the entire dungeon structure, or just the items, the style, monster frequency, trap frequency... or any combination thereof.

Also includes a permadeath option that, when a character dies, completely deletes the character and saved games.

Spellings

  • ダンジョンハック - Japanese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

26 People · View all

Cover artwork by (uncredited)
Event Horizon Rule Book Writer
Producer
Programmer
Creative Design
Artists
Music & Sound Effects
Development Support
Rule Book Editors
Producer (SSI)
Associate Producer
Product Testers
Test Support
Graphic Design and DTP
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 64% (based on 13 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 28 ratings with 1 reviews)

The ultimate in Dungeon Games? Not quite...

The Good
Dungeon Hack is a venture into a random dungeon generator game. Similar to the old ANSI games Rogue and NetHack, Dungeon Hack tries to bring the classic format into the graphical age.
The heart of the game is basically adventuring through a HUGE dungeon. The catch is that when you play the game, the dungeons are completely random. Not only are they random, the dungeons are customizable. Scroll and food frequency, number of levels & monsters, trap frequency, etc. are all set before the game starts. So you'll never play the exact game twice.

The Graphics, control and sound are on par with the Eye of the Beholder series and Lands of Lore. So be prepared to see a lot of columns, brick walls, fountains and such.

The Bad
Playing the game can be as frustrating as play Rogue. Remember in Rogue and NetHack when you would get down a few levels, have a really cool character, and suddenly find that you are rapidly running out of food? The same applies here. Adventuring past the 5th levels of the dungeons can be difficult (unless you are playing a cleric) due to lack of food. Even at the highest food setting, I found that food was hard to come by.

Another quirk I didn't really like is the way keys/doors work. This one is really nitpicking, but I really can't help it. Usually during a dungeon crawl, you need to click on the button/lever/knob to open the door. In this case, you can basically click anywhere on the door. Sorry, but that one oversight really ruined the experience for me.

Games (especially HUGE games) can take hours if not days to complete. Anything over 10 levels is time consuming.

The Bottom Line
The game makes a commendable effort in its ingenuity, but the gameplay suffers in it repetiveness. If you find it cheap, it's a cool game, but I wouldn't have spent the full price for it.

DOS · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

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  • MobyGames ID: 992
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Chris Martin.

PC-98 added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Rik Hideto.

Game added March 7, 2000. Last modified March 12, 2024.