Eye of the Beholder
1991 · Dungeon Crawler · Amiga / DOS
Overview
Eye of the Beholder (1991) is Westwood's first-person Advanced Dungeons & Dragons dungeon crawler for SSI, in which a party descends beneath Waterdeep to face the beholder Xanathar.
Deep Dive
Adventurers descend beneath the city of Waterdeep, past clans of dwarves and drow, to reach the lair of Xanathar, a beholder. The party starts with four characters and can grow to six by recruiting non-player characters or resurrecting skeletons found in the dungeon. Exploration and combat are seen in pseudo-3D first person and controlled by pointing and clicking.
Developer Story
Westwood Associates developed the game for SSI under the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons licence, and it was released for MS-DOS and the Amiga in 1991. Computer Gaming World scored the DOS version 96%. Westwood made the sequel, The Legend of Darkmoon, the same year, while SSI developed the third game itself in 1993.
Did You Know?
- The original DOS version ended with a small text window; the Amiga version added an animated ending.
- In 1991 SSI ran a "Beholder Bonus" contest in which players hunted for 12 hidden easter eggs.
Sources & further reading
- Eye of the Beholder (video game) — Wikipedia
