''Dungeon Hack'' is a 1993

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed by

DreamForge Intertainment DreamForge Intertainment, Inc. was an American computer game developer. History DreamForge was founded as Event Horizon Software, Inc. by the computer game developers Thomas Holmes, Christopher Straka and James Namestka in Greensburg. Until its ...

and published by Strategic Simulations for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

and NEC PC-9801. The game is based in the '' Advanced Dungeons and Dragons'' world of

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as ...

. It blends gameplay elements of

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player charac ...

s and the '' Eye of the Beholder'' series.

Gameplay

''Dungeon Hack'' features a three-dimensional, randomly generated dungeon; SSI claimed that "over 4 billion" different dungeons were possible. The game features a pseudo-3D game screen based on '' Eye of the Beholder'' series. Like ''

Rogue A rogue is a person or entity that flouts accepted norms of behavior. Rogue or rogues may also refer to: Companies * Rogue Ales, a microbrewery in Newport, Oregon * Rogue Arts, a film production company * Rogue Entertainment, a software co ...

'', dungeons are randomly generated whenever a new game is started. As a result, virtually all dungeons generated by the game are different. However, players can share random seeds used to generated a specific dungeon. Dungeons can be customized for difficulty, such as limiting the number of traps, puzzles, and powerful enemies. Unlike ''Eye of the Beholder'', players control only a single adventurer. ''Dungeon Hack'' uses the rules mechanics of ''AD&D'' 2nd Edition.

Permadeath Permadeath or permanent death is a game mechanic in both tabletop games and video games in which player characters who lose all of their health are considered dead and cannot be used anymore. Depending on the situation, this could require the p ...

, in which all saves are erased upon character death, is an option, like traditional

games but unlike other graphical ''AD&D'' games such as '' Pool of Radiance''). Unlike traditional roguelikes, ''Dungeon Hack'' has a complex character creation system, but it offers pregenerated characters to speed up the process of recovering from permadeath.

Plot

An adventurer (the player's character of choice) is sent by an evil sorceress on a mission to find and retrieve a mysterious magical orb located within an ancient dungeon. After defeating the final monster, the ending cinematic shows the adventurer leaves the dungeon with a wheelbarrow full of treasure, the sorceress waiting outside for him. The hero gives her the orb, and she gives him her thanks and says it time for them to leave. The hero remains behind during the credits to sort through his spoils. After the credits, the sorceress tells the hero to hurry as she is leaving and the adventure is over. The hero remarks on his treasure and that his adventure has only just begun, and moves his wheel barrel off screen dropping a coin, before quickly coming back and picks it back up and goes back off screen.

Reception

SSI sold 27,110 copies of ''Dungeon Hack''. Reviews at release were fairly positive, though some criticized the game for its lack of plot or difficulty in finding essential supplies in the dungeon. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly throug ...

''s Scorpia in 1994 liked the game's flexibility and inclusion of all ''AD&D'' 2nd Edition character classes and found that "a 10-15 level dungeon is probably the best". She concluded that "in spite of some weak points, ''Dungeon Hack'' delivers what it promises: the chance to create your own, specially-designed, hack-n-slash paradise". The game got 3 out of 5 stars in ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...

''. Cory Brock of Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote that the game plays it safe by not changing the gameplay of the ''Eye of the Beholder'' series, but it is "a solid adaptation of the traditional roguelike". ''Dungeon Hack'' won '' Computer Game Reviews "Most Replay Value of 1994" award. According to

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the Ga ...

's Allen Rausch, if "random creatures and meaningless hallways are your thing, you'll love ''Dungeon Hack''the rest of us like at least a little story to justify our monster butchery." Ian Williams of '' Paste'' rated the game #9 on his list of "The 10 Greatest Dungeons and Dragons Videogames" in 2015.

References

External links

* {{Dungeons & Dragons video games 1993 video games DOS games DreamForge Intertainment games Dungeon crawler video games Fantasy video games Forgotten Realms video games NEC PC-9801 games Roguelike video games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Strategic Simulations games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games using procedural generation