Anvil of Dawn

About Anvil of Dawn

Anvil of Dawn (1995) is DreamForge's pre-rendered first-person dungeon crawler, playable with just the left mouse button, named the best RPG of 1995 by Computer Gaming World.

Anvil of Dawn in Depth

The world of Tempest has been overrun by an evil warlord, and the last castle of the good is under siege. The player's hero is teleported into the occupied, devastated land to defeat the warlord and his minions. One of the last dungeon crawlers with step-by-step movement in a semi-3D world, it shows a real-time first-person view, with fully spoken dialogue and pre-rendered cut-scenes on CD. The player chooses one of five heroes at the start and controls only that character, meeting the others pursuing the same quest along the way. It is mostly action-oriented with some puzzles, has no experience points, as abilities and spells improve with use, and has several endings.

DreamForge focused on atmosphere and immersion, pre-rendering its 3D environments because real-time 3D dungeons of the day looked "flat and pixellated" to the team. Outdoor areas were lined with movement nodes and pre-recorded mini-cinematics to make travel seamless. The interface was simplified, with few on-screen icons and automatic quest logs, spellbooks and maps, and the whole game could be played with the left mouse button, which in turn led to a single hero instead of a party. Combat is pseudo-turn-based: enemies attack at set intervals but counter each of the player's blows, so attacking quickly speeds them up and attacking slowly slows them down.

Making Anvil of Dawn

DreamForge Intertainment developed it and New World Computing published it for MS-DOS in 1995. It was critically acclaimed: Computer Gaming World singled out its "playability and balance", Computer Game Review called it "an excellent job all the way around", and Arcane described it as "hack-and-slash raised to an art form". PC Gamer US found it "attractive and enjoyable" though it did not stretch boundaries far, and Computer Games Strategy Plus argued faster and deeper games were available. Historian Matt Barton later praised its "careful pacing, splendid music, and ... superior interface".