Eye Of The Beholder 2: Legend Of Darkmoon

Introduction

Eye Of The Beholder 2 (EOB 2) is similar to the prequel in the graphics and sounds departments. Anyone who has played the first game should feel right at home here within the first few minutes of game play. But don't get too comfortable! Although the individual levels in this dungeon are generally smaller and less complicated than those in the first game, this is no cakewalk.

Survival is the biggest challenge in the game. You may generate new characters for this game who will start at about level 7, or you may elect to transfer your more powerful party from the first game. Don't expect to see a lot of character advancements. New characters will probably advance to level 10 or 11 by the end of the game. This was no doubt planned in the design phase in anticipation of a third game in the series.

Combat is very tightly balanced. Some monsters overwhelm your party with sheer numbers while others can cast magic spells that can destroy most of your party in the first round. You will need to devise special strategies against different enemies, even spells and items to be used against them should be planned out ahead of time to insure success.

Unlike the first game in which there was a specific number of monsters on each level and they did not randomly regenerate, most monsters do regenerate in this sequel so that you can never clean out a level and expect to explore in peace.

One very useful tactic in fighting really deadly monsters is the melee-sidestep tactic. Here's a brief description for those not familiar with it: when your party encounters a specially powerful monster, back up immediately after each blow to keep out of melee range. Check your map and look for any nearby area that is at least 2X2 in size. Continue to attack and then back up and lure the monster into the area you have chosen.

Once you reach this area, attack the monster and then immediately step to one side. If the monster also sidesteps to face you again, hit it once and them immediately sidestep again. Do not try to strike more than one blow as that might give it enough time to make an attack. The idea is to keep attacking and staying out of its range. It's tedious, but very effective against monsters that can do serious damage with just one blow. Timing is often critical when you use this tactic. You might wish to use a combination of the mouse and the keyboard or even the keyboard alone. Practice makes perfect!

You should definitely include a mage and a cleric in your party, together with a couple of fighters. Certain rooms can only be entered if you have a thief in your party. The thief however, serves no other purpose and I do not recommend including one in your starting party. You can recruit someone later in the game. I should also point out that the cleric profession in EOB 2 comes with the CREATE FOOD spell, which is essential to completing the game, since it did not appear that there were enough rations to be found in the game. Also, remember to use the Scribe Scroll to Spell book option each time you pick up a mage scroll.

The dungeon levels are quite small, but the stairs gave me a lot of problems as they did not necessarily lead to a different level. I followed this rule of thumb when drawing the maps: whenever I took a set of stairs, if the game stopped to load more data from the disk, then I assumed the stairs led to a new level. I also marked each matching pair of upstairs and downstairs with the same letter in the hope that this would make it a bit easier for you to follow the trail.

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