Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon

Sequel to Eye of the Beholder with expanded exploration and role-playing.

Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon is a role-playing video game developed by Westwood Associates and published by Strategic Simulations for MS-DOS in 1991. It is the sequel to Eye of the Beholder and adds outdoor areas, increased environmental interaction, and more role-playing elements. Versions later appeared for the Amiga, FM Towns, and PC-98.

Quick Facts

Developer

Westwood Associates

Publisher

Strategic Simulations
Cybille (FM Towns)
Capcom (PC-98)

Director

Brett W. Sperry

Designer

Paul S. Mudra
Brett W. Sperry
Bill Stokes

Programmer

Phillip W. Gorrow

Writer

Marc Cram

Composer

Frank Klepacki

Released

1991: MS-DOS
Spring 1992: Amiga
1993: FM Towns, PC-98

Facts from the source article.

Did You Know?

The game's music was composed by Frank Klepacki, using Visual Composer by AdLib for the AdLib YM3812 sound chip.
Paul Mudra, who composed the music for the first game, worked only on sound effects for this sequel, along with Dwight Okahara.

Plot

He reports that a scout sent to investigate evil at the Darkmoon temple has not returned, and he transports the party there. The players discover high priest Dran Draggore is assembling skeletal warriors to attack Waterdeep. To reach the inner temple, they must pass an acolytes' test. In the final confrontation, Draggore is revealed to be a red dragon.

Reception

SSI sold 73,109 copies of Eye of the Beholder II. By 1996, the entire Eye of the Beholder series had combined global sales above 350,000 units. The Lessers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon #179 in 1992. Scorpia of Computer Gaming World in 1992 criticized the user interface, noting that monsters attacked in real time while the player searched through spell books, but called the ending fancy and concluded it was a more substantial game than its predecessor with more to do, a bigger variety of creatures, and a larger area to explore.

That year, the magazine named it one of the year's top role-playing games, stating it followed in the strong graphic and solid play-balance tradition of the original. In 1993 Scorpia reiterated her criticism but said the game was a definite must for all EOB fans. GameSpy wrote that the game sported a completely original ending, 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 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.

The One criticized the game as unoriginal, comparing it to similar RPGs such as Dungeon Master. Jim Trunzo reviewed the game in White Wolf #31 and stated that it kept its promise of being bigger, better, and meaner than ever, making it an even more enjoyable experience than the original.