Review Vakil 3/5 · Nov 7, 2021
Still with me today
I still remember this game and think of whenever I play a dungeon crawler game. I had to play it in black and white because my Apple II didn’t have a color display.
Dungeon Master (1987)
Amiga · Apple IIGS · Atari ST/STE · DOS · FM Towns · Sharp X68000 · Super Famicom · Super Nintendo Entertainment System
3.76 from 34 ratings
96 members have it in their collection · 31 backlogged · 27 wish listed
Dungeon Master established several new standards for role playing and computer games in general. Dungeon Master was a realtime game instead of the traditional turn-based approach that was prevalent until then. Instead of using text-based commands to interact with the environment, players directly manipulated objects and the environment by clicking the mouse in the enlarged first-person view.
Abstract Dungeons and …
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Dungeon Master established several new standards for role playing and computer games in general. Dungeon Master was a realtime game instead of the traditional turn-based approach that was prevalent until then. Instead of using text-based commands to interact with the environment, players directly manipulated objects and the environment by clicking the mouse in the enlarged first-person view.
Abstract Dungeons and Dragons style experience points and levels were eschewed in favor of a system where the characters' skills were improved directly via using them. It also introduced some novel control methods including the spell casting system, which involved learning sequences of runes which represented the form and function of a spell's effect. For example, a fireball spell was created by mixing the fire symbol with the wing symbol. This kind of attention to detail and focus on the user interface was typical of the game and helped create an often captivating sense of craft and ingenuity. Other factors in immersiveness were the then-revolutionary use of sound effects to indicate when a creature was nearby, and (primitive) dynamic lighting.
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Details
- Developers
- FTL Games
- Publishers
- FTL Games, JVC Musical Industries, Psygnosis, Victor Musical Industries
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG)
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy
- Series
- Dungeon Master
Release dates
- Dec 15, 1987 (North_America) Atari ST/STE
- 1988 (North_America) Amiga
- 1988 (Europe) Atari ST/STE
- Nov 01, 1989 (Japan) FM Towns
- 1989 (North_America) Apple IIGS
- Jan 26, 1990 (Japan) Sharp X68000
- Dec 20, 1991 (Japan) Super Famicom
- 1991 (Europe) Amiga
- 1992 (Europe) DOS, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
- 1992 (North_America) DOS
- Jun 1993 (North_America) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Related
Standalone expansions
- Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back (Dec 1989) · AMI, AST, FMT, X68K
Rating distribution
5 stars
9
4 stars
12
3 stars
9
2 stars
4
1 star
0
Community All Reviews Statuses
Review Mazinkaiser 2/5 · Dec 1, 2019
Dungeon Master: In a Hurtful Place
NOTE: This is for the Amiga version. If you say there's music or something you're probably referring to a different version.
Dungeon Master is a game proud of its own painful and agonizing design. Taking the dungeon crawler formula it creates 14 floors of mind-numbing frustration that gets old fast but doesn't stop unless the player intimately knows every angle …
NOTE: This is for the Amiga version. If you say there's music or something you're probably referring to a different version.
Dungeon Master is a game proud of its own painful and agonizing design. Taking the dungeon crawler formula it creates 14 floors of mind-numbing frustration that gets old fast but doesn't stop unless the player intimately knows every angle of the game or quits.
Sending warriors down into a dungeon to retrieve the Firestaff to defeat Lord Chaos for a wizard, you select up to four champions to traverse down 14 floors. The game is quite obtuse about its stats so you won't quite know what you're choosing before it's too late, and the weapons (no stats so what item's better again?) are just as confusing. Combat is done in faux real time, with the player being able to click or use numpad keys to turn, move, and fight. Clicking around is awkward and the pacing is frustratingly one step away from real (think of actions as on a slow-ish timer that feels delayed). Spells are cast by using runes and learned in scrolls throughout the game - each syllable must be clicked and wasted syllables mean wasted spells, in a very aggravating system. Combat and pretty much any skill is done via repeated action, and whiffing attacks/failing spells are much too common.
The layout of the dungeon is maddeningly complex and obtuse, with pits of death abound, tiny and incredibly inconspicuous switches and a sheer lack of audio design meant to trap the player in invisible teleporters and corridors that unlock a whole map away. Given that the dungeon must be fully mapped by hand, mapping out the whole exercise is a nightmare without a hintbook of some sort handy.
Aesthetically the game is quite dull, with the same grey corridor and enemies that aren't particularly stylish (some are strange looking but nothing sticks out), with ghosts and elementals that need special weapons/spells, thieves, and giant knights/golems among the many things that will likely get in the player's way more than provide a satisfying challenge, especially when the player and the enemy get into a whiffing contest. There is no music in the original version, making everything feel incredibly dull. This comes with some sound effects that may spook the player into wondering what's around the corner but it gets boring fast.
This game has a lot going for it with the unique real-time system and puzzles laying about, but it's wrapped up in frustrating systems, dull looks, and an excessively complex design that only makes the most obsessed feel good about their accomplishments. It exists as a historical curiosity but you'd be better off with a dungeon crawler with a few more quality of life improvements.