

I like EOB for what it is, but DM is a superior playing experience. Still, maybe that's nostalgia talking: if you look objectively at the DM puzzles today, there's not a huge amount of innovation going on as you progress through the game - it just somehow feels more real than EOB. EOB2 was better in that regard, but they were both a bit flat. There are distinct areas and puzzles in DM that everyone remembers but I can barely remember anything unique about the EOB levels. DMs magic rune system was (and still is) a great piece of design and EOB comes nowhere close. I got used to it pretty quick and it was perfectly usable but it just felt a bit too obvious and samey, especially the magic. However, the gameplay is average compared to DM. I liked the addition of intro music and stuff but I don't think the sound effects were anything special. And that's a lot of what EOB is about: looking good.Īll the things that set EOB apart from DM are on the aesthetic side: more colours makes for better imagery and things like the intro screens, party selection, wallsets and monsters all looked great in a true 32 colour palette, even better in 256 colours on the PC. I played EOB on the Amiga and immediately appreciated the improved graphics over DM. The game was deep and had many nice little twists in story and areas and puzzles, but then again the combat and D&D mechanics just made it feel like a slog at times, and in the end despite the different monster attacks it just became two square damces, and cursing when you had to retreat, learn the spell, and use it after sleeping eight hours. (Having to waste eight hours game time to get back your spells all the time, so boring, and also the fact of the damage done to critters being perfectly mapped from D&D, when obviously the game senario pitted you against an insane amount of enemies compared to a normal tabletop RPG so it was such a trawl) Too, they stuck too much to the AD&D mechanics, especially the spell interface. They dedicated too much of the screen to the compass, party layout, etc which robbed it of one of the thigns that made DM great. While there were some nice touches (party talking to itself, and the plot screens and swapping out members, and some extra inventory slots) the interface just didn't feel right. How did you experience the release of EOB back then? Did anyone of you think it was just as good or even better than DM? Or did you know people who preferred EOB? To me, the game was never on the same level as FTL's masterpiece. It seems the game garnered reviews above the 90% mark left and right, and with all the little flaws in EOB, especially when compared to DM, I just don't understand how this was possible. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that lots of magazines called EOB a "step up from DM"! They cited the pretty graphics (agreed), the better sound effects (I'd like to disagree here), the easier interface (?) and the better magic system (I was shaking my head in disbelief at this). My friends who had played both had a similar opinion, that DM was truly great while EOB was merely good. It was a good game that lacked the detail, novelty and genius that made DM a timeless classic. While I don't actually agree with EOB being too easy - the poisonous spiders so early on were an especially huge pain in the ass the first time I played it -, I always had a similar take on EOB. They criticized it for missing details like not being able to close doors when a monster is under them, for being too easy and missing an automapping feature, arguing that automapping could have complemented the low difficulty to make it a great game for RPG newcomers. The magazine I read in 1991 when EOB came out (to all those Germans: the Powerplay, of course!) gave it 79% (in comparison, they gave DM 95% and CSB 92%). The little historian in me crept out again and went to look at some reviews of Eye of the Beholder from magazines "back in the day". Of course, the question in the title is rhetorical, as every sane person (and most of the forum members) would agree that DM is a better game than EOB.
