Retro D&D Beauty is in Every ‘Eye of the Beholder’
Let’s behold the beholder in today’s D&D Retro Spotlight as we take a moment to remember 1991’s MS-DOS classic, Eye of the Beholder.
It’s 1991, you’re jonesing for some D&D, and you have no dice. What do you do? you reach for Eye of the Beholder, of course. This is a ridiculous scenario, I know, there’s no way you don’t own multiple entire sets of dice. But given the popularity and warm critical reception of Eye of the Beholder, there’s a better-than-good chance that you gave this game a shot.
Eye of the Beholder Then
The plot is simple and classic enough. Your group of adventurers is hired to enter the sewers below Waterdeep to investigate claims of general evil, only to be trapped in a collapse. Now your party must travel even farther below the city until you eventually meet and defeat Xanathar, the eponymous beholder.
Character creation and gameplay were both relatively open-ended. You had a number of options for each of your characters and loads of possible portraits to choose from. Plus, an equipment cataloging and equipping system that I’ve seen it still used on much more recent and sophisticated games.
Fighting is rudimentary. Every character in your party has a few options to choose from for you to click on during battle. But, spells, rest, and food are all listed clearly and concisely. The game makes sense to play. Sometimes you pick up a game and the controls are overthought and unnecessary. Eye of the Beholder doesn’t ever fall into that pit.
Throughout Eye of the Beholder, you can increase your party size from four to six by adding up to two NPCs to your group. This concept feels very much like pen and paper D&D. Plus, the dungeon’s 3D space is cool and something you can use in battles as a strategy. Also, the graphics were really good for ’91.
The game received generally very positive critical reception including a five out of five stars from Dragon Magazine, and I can completely see why.
Eye of the Beholder Now
Since its 1991 release, there were two sequels and a couple of remakes, including a 2002 Gameboy Advance attempt which I very specifically remember looking at at the store and eventually leaving be. Eye of the Beholder proved itself to be a class of retro D&D and computer games with features and story aspects we’re still using in gaming to this day.
If you’re in the mood to relive the early 90’s check out some of the playthroughs on Youtube or dig up that old computer. I’m sure you won’t regret that walk down memory lane.
Are you feeling nostalgic to look into the beholder’s eyes? Have you played this or one of its remakes?
Happy Adventuring!
