Dungeon Master screenshots
You're located in category:
Review 1:
This is undoubtedly one of the most renowned role playing games in history. It was originally created for the ST in the early 80s and was one of the more successful Dungeon Crawler Games. The Graphics are not a lot to look at but considering how old the game is who cares!! The Game play and the spell system for this game is quite unique having to figure out what spell does what assembling them from Runes symbols. The object of the game is to travel down through the various Dungeons (7 I think) to confront Chaos. There is a vast amount of creatures to Battle with granted. Graphically sad for this day & age but it still gets to u with the sound effects. The game is so compelling you actually get pulled into it. One minute everything is silent and the next thing you hear is the snort of the Dragon. I think I can safely say I was not the only person in the world to jump out of their skin!! Another amazing feature of this Game is with the 4 characters which you pick in the hall of fame at the beginning. When your characters become injured by a stray Fireball or a Lightning Bolt your characters will actually slow down as if injured for real. I haven't seen this attribute on many games and this adds a realism which surpasses such games as Eye of the Beholder & so on. You can also become encumbered with weight which also adds a unique realism to the game. FTL made the mistake of joining Psynosis who were not interested in the game play but graphics and they haven't changed after all these years. How many people ever saw the end of Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga? I rest my case. I strongly recommend this game to anyone who has not yet played it.
Review 2:
The grandfather of all dungeon crawlers. Dungeon Master was the first game using the now famous game engine using the 3D view. This game is the reason for the later famous games like Eye Of The Beholder, Lands Of Lore, Descent To Untermountain etc.
You have one single mission in the game and that is to destroy the evil lord. Before you can do that you will have to explore several levels in the dungeon and you will of course meet many different monsters and they are getting tougher and tougher the deeper you go in the dungeons. Over all a must for all roleplay gamers.
Review 3:
Dungeon Master - the first Realtime-RPG - it set standards! Much of modern Gameplay evolved from this classic. First there was Eye of the Beholder, then there was Ultima Underworld and so on. Even those Doomlike 3D-Shooters are more or less children of Dungeon Master (at least I think so!). The story is simple - you got to defeat Lord Chaos - to do this you got to go deeper and deeper in his dungeon. The monsters you meet grow more dangerous and deadlier the deeper you go. I am not THAT a big fan of those realtime-RPGs, but if it has to be one, then it's got to be the original - it has to be Dungeon Master!
Review 4:
Without a doubt one of the best RPGs ever made for any computer, FTL's Dungeon Master is an epic RPG masterpiece that revolutionizes and rejuvenates the genre in much the same way as Baldur's Gate did over a decade later. More than anything, the game epitomizes the "gameplay over graphics" tenet that is fading fast in today's preoccupation with 3D accelerated games. At the time when the game was released (whether Amiga, Commodore, ST, or PC), there were many better looking RPGs on the market. Few, however, could match the game in sheer addictiveness.
The premise, which isn't one of the game's strong points, is very tenuous and simple: you control a party of up to four adventurers of various races who must find their way through a 12-level dungeon and defeat its owner (an evil wizard, of course). There are naturally all sorts of encounters along the way that will enable you to improve your character's strengths and skills, and pocket a few nifty magical items. It's a dungeon crawl, nothing more, nothing less, played from a first person perspective. So what's new?
What Dungeon Master lacks in terms of storyline and writing, it more than makes up for with sheer playability, ingenious puzzles, and incredible atmosphere. The puzzles go above and beyond simple "find key to unlock door" puzzles of a typical RPG-- they include fiendish riddles, physical puzzles, and inventory-based puzzles that fans of adventure games will appreciate. No matter how difficult they are, though, they are very logical and addictive. I fondly recall the number of nights I've laid awake in bed, thinking about how to past that blasted mysterious door.. on nights that I wasn't hooked with the game far into the wee hours of the morning, that is. The game's immersive atmosphere is achieved by a combination of real-time play (allowing the monsters to attack you by surprise, for example), great sound effects, and depth of role-playing features. Many races in the game had hitherto been unavailable in any RPG, and high-level spells are very imaginative (these are not your run-of-the-mill Lightning Bolts). The game's anal-retentive attention to detail, such as the fact that you must always pay attention to your party members' thirst and hunger levels and feed them when necessary, may be a nuisance to beginners or casual RPGers, but for anal-retentive gamers, it's a dream come true.
Overall, Dungeon Master is one of the most addictive RPGs you'll ever play. Although the game's depth and scope may scare beginners away, its adventure-game style puzzles that take precedence over pointless combats should entice them to try it out. For an in-depth dungeon crawl, there's no better game in town. Don't consider yourself an RPG fan if you've never played this classic. Too bad FTL never ported the sequel Chaos Strikes Back to the PC.
Review 5:
I remember playing this many years ago on my Atari ST. Dungeon master is a real time, first person RPG, really easy to get into to very difficult to master.
The Story: "As the story unfolds, your master, the Grey Lord, was seeking the Power Gem. Through dark experiments he finally gained what he saught, or so he believed. What he wasn't prepared for was the incredible power of the Magicks involved; he rends himself in two and tears the world apart. The Grey Lord now exists as two distinct entities. One of these forces, Lord Chaos, has taken it upon himself to bring the world under his iron grip, while the opposing life force Lord Librasulus has come to you to help restore order.
Various attempts have been made to bring down Lord Chaos; all have failed. The doomed heroes who attempted this task were have been within the "Hall of Champions." In a last ditch effort your master has awakened your life force to rescue four heroes and lead them against the Darkness. It is up to you to enter the Hall, revive four champions and lead them into the depths of the dungeon, to find the Firestaff, the one object with the power to defeat Chaos and restore order"
As I said before Dungeon Master is very easy to get into. At the beginning of the game you must choose your party of adventurers by clicking on portraits in the Hall of Champions, once you have a combination that you are happy with it's off on your quest. While in the dungeon it is important to remember the basics - food and water are essential, carrying too much equiptment will make you fatigued and unable to function effectively, basic stuff reallt :)
As your quest progresses you gain experience points for each monster you defeat (it's a dungeon, of course there are monsters). Once you have enough experience points you gain a level in an of four classes - ninja, fighter, priest and wizard. The great thing is that each character is not limited to one class only, so one of your party can be a level 1 wizard and a level 4 fighter.
The equiptment you find in the dungeon also has different benefits depending on class or skill. So a certain sword be cause more damage in the hands of a high level ninja than anyone else. It really makes the game more interesting.
One thing that really stands out about the game is the magic system. Each spell is composed of upto four symbols or runes - a power symbol which determines how powerful the spell is and how much mana it will use up, an elemental symbol, and an action symbol. It means that you get to experiment with differnt combinations of runes and that you can attempt to cast any spell at any time, all that will happen if it is too powerful is that the words "need more practice" will flash up on the screen. It's a great system it adds a whole new level to the game.
I want to wrap this up so i'll just quickly mention the games intuitive interface, interesting monsters, huge range of weaponry and equiptment. It's a great game folks and if you have even the slightest interest in dungeon RPGs then you must give Dungeon Master a try.
Review 6:
Dungeon Master isn't just a game, it's a religion. Even though the game was made in 1987 for the Atari ST (and a PC port was made two years later) the fanbase is quite big today. This 'mother of all rpg's' was certainly groundbreaking when it appeared, both in gameplay and graphics. The 3D first person perspective was still rather unheard of in those days, as most games were side- or topview. The fact that you'd have a team of 4 characters that you could each specialise and the huge dungeon to explore made it an instant hit. The sheer amount of ports for this game for every operating system and 3d engine you can imagine proves that Dungeon Master isn't forgotton at all!
Story:
Your master, a wizard, has been doomed to a life in limbo, due to an accident with a magical artifact. His evil half, Lord Chaos, has taken control of the large dungeon and your task is to defeat him. The only problem is that you are yourself also touched by the accident and can not take a physcial form. Luckily in one of the first rooms of the dungeon, the souls of many brave adventures can be ressurected. In the 'Hall of Champions' you have to pick up to 4 Champions with which you're going to try an solve the quest. There are magicians, priests, ninjas and fighters to choose from. They al have a lot of different starting skills, stats and equipment.
Gameplay:
There's not much to explain about this game. Everything that's in a decent RPG nowadays is also found in Dungeon Master, only a bit more primitive. After you've chosen your Champions you start to search the dungeon, venturing deeper and deeper. Each character has an inventory with plenty armor and equipment slots as well as a large enough packback. They need to eat, drink and sleep now and again to regain there powers. You can find food in many rooms, and in the remains of some enemies, and water from fountains all over the place.
Naturally, you'll encounter a lot of enemies which you have to fight.This fighting appears to be more or less turn-based. You have to choose which Champion performs what combat action by selecting his or her weapon and an appropriate action. It takes a little getting used to, but works pretty well. Watch your stats though, if you die, you have to be ressurected using a special device on the top floor of the dungeon. One of the other Champions has to carry your bones over there in order to make this happen. On top of all the fights, there are lots of puzzles in the game, varying from long searches for hidden keys, to intricate puzzels using switches and traps.
Sound and graphics:
The sound-effects are acceptable. A creaky door, a shrieking mummy, grunting hero's and a swords clash, but nothing fancy. There's no background music at all. The graphics were, as said, pretty nifty for those days, and are still pretty appealing. They're bright, nicely drawn and there's some animation as well.
Conlusion:
This is a must-have for any RPG or dungeon crawler fan, but everyone else should give it a try as well. Read the background story in the manual to get in the mood and the technical details about spell-casting and you're ready to go! The game 'only' gets a four, because I really missed some moody music in the background. It was probably left out due to memory limitations back then, but still it's a shame. If for some reason you want to try the game in a more modern jacket, you can play one of the many clones (some of which have been made using high-tech 3d engines) or the Java version which is an accurate copy of the original, only with better graphics and sound-effects.
Download full game now:
Dungeon Master screenshots
People who downloaded this game have also downloaded:
Eye of The Beholder 1, Eye of The Beholder 2, Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of the Skullkeep, Eye of The Beholder 3, Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun
