''Dungeons & Dragons - Eye of the Beholder'' is a video game released for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

in 2002, developed by American studio

Pronto Games Pronto, stylized as PRONTO, is the second-generation contactless payment system for automated fare collection on public transit services in San Diego County, California. The system is managed by the San Diego Association of Governments, operat ...

and published by

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...

. It is an adaptation of the 1991 game of the same name.

Plot

The once peaceful city of Waterdeep now suffers from raids every night by the Undermountain factions, who have somehow become reunited and organized. The raiders are led by Xanathar's Guild, who have returned to take over Waterdeep. Lacking in manpower from the city Watch, the leading Lord of Waterdeep, Piergeiron the Paladinson summons a group of adventurers to investigate the city sewers, uncover the evil entity and if possible destroy it.

Gameplay

The games uses a stripped-down version of the 3rd edition ''D&D'' rules" with only four basic character classes and several traits, feats and skills. It is not a port of the original game, though it possesses roughly the same plot. It bears stronger resemblance to the original

Gold Box Gold box may refer to: * Decorative boxes made in gold *'' Gold Box'', a series of video games of 1988 to 1992 * Gold box (phreaking), a phreaking box to create a bridge between two telephone lines {{disam ...

games, such as ''

Pool of Radiance ''Pool of Radiance'' is a role-playing video game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) in 1988. It was the first adaptation of TSR's ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D'') fantasy role-playing game for home computer ...

''. Navigating through the dungeons is done in first-person mode, where the characters can make use of their skills to get through difficulties and have very limited use of spells. When an enemy is encountered, the game mode switches to an isometric topdown view, where the player does turn-based combat against monsters. Killing all enemies ends the combat mode. In some places, the player can recruit up to two additional characters, gather information and buy or sell items. Using items requires the player to equip them in a menu-driven inventory system.

Reception

Critical reception

The game received moderately negative reviews compared to the original computer game. It was given a 41% rating by

NGC Magazine ''NGC Magazine'' (''N64 Magazine'' until October 2001 (issue 59)) was a British magazine specialising in Nintendo video game consoles and software. It was first printed in 1997 and ran until 2006. It was the successor to ''Super Play'', a magaz ...

, criticizing it for its slow pace between exploration and combat, its bad interface and confusing menus, while highlighting only its variety of spells and character customization, that give the game some level of depth. According to GameSpy, this game "only managed to be a curiosity for older gamers and an annoying Western-style RPG for a new generation of Nintendo fans who had no idea what a Gold Box game was".

Promotion

The game was showcased at the 2002

Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...

and presented at the DunDraCon XXVII the following year, where the company president and game designer Randy Angle was interviewed.http://www.dundracon.com/DDC_Files/DDC27ProgramBook.pdf

References

External links

Official GBA website
* {{Dungeons & Dragons video games 2002 video games First-person party-based dungeon crawler video games Forgotten Realms video games Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Infogrames games Pronto Games games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender