Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon

Did You Know?

• The game's music was composed by Frank Klepacki, one of his first game projects, using Visual Composer by AdLib for the AdLib YM3812 sound chip.
• Paul Mudra, composer of the first game's music, worked only on sound effects for this sequel, alongside Dwight Okahara.

Plot

Khelben Blackstaff sends the party to Darkmoon temple to locate his missing scout Amber. They learn High Priest Dran Draggore is raising a skeletal army to assault Waterdeep. To proceed deeper, they must pass an acolytes' test. The final battle reveals Draggore is actually a red dragon.

Reception

The game sold 73,109 copies through SSI, and the Eye of the Beholder series as a whole had combined global sales above 350,000 units by 1996. In Dragon #179, the Lessers awarded it 5 out of 5 stars. Scorpia of Computer Gaming World in 1992 criticized the user interface for allowing monsters to attack in real time while the player searched spell books, but praised the fancy ending and called it a more substantial game than its predecessor, with more to do, a greater variety of creatures, and a larger area to explore. That same year, the magazine named it one of the year's top role-playing games, citing its strong graphics and solid play-balance tradition. In 1993 Scorpia reiterated her interface criticism but stated the game was a definite must for all Eye of the Beholder fans. GameSpy noted that the game had a completely original ending, which was badly needed given its almost insane level of difficulty. The One gave the Amiga version an overall score of 87%, calling the graphics beautifully drawn and the animation excellent, praising the sound effects and music as suitably spooky and appropriately atmospheric, and describing the UI as tried and true and easy to pick up, though criticizing the game as unoriginal compared to similar RPGs like Dungeon Master. Jim Trunzo in White Wolf #31 stated that the game kept its promise of being bigger, better, and meaner than ever, making it an even more enjoyable experience than the original.