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Classic dungeon crawling awesomeness!

Anvil of Dawn, a classic DOS-era dungeon crawler with first-person perspective, sprite graphics, a vast and rich world to explore, and dozens of hours of great and motivating gameplay, is available on GOG.com for only $5.99

Every fantasy land needs a hero, it seems. There's always an evil entity of some sort that menaces the realm and its people. Surprisingly, the people never stand up to it. They prefer to wait for a group of adventurers, or even just one champion who knows the importance of wearing leg armor around archers. Inevitably someone comes to the rescue and saves the realm one spider-infested cellar at a time. Schematic as it may sound, we love to relive those adventures over and over again. Even if one dungeon looks pretty much the same as any other, you still get this rush of excitement when making your first steps on its dusty floor. It's not about originality of the concept. It's about the involving gameplay, that lets you forget about the world around you. Here's a perfect game to do just that!

Anvil of Dawn has everything you ever loved about 1990s role-playing games. It presents you with a large and diverse gameworld, full of monsters and enemies to slay, riches and powerful items to loot, quests to carry out, weapons to wield, spells to cast, and an evil overlord to challenge. It was praised for its great pacing allowing to keep the gamer entertained and intrigued, always presenting him with something new to do and achieve. The imaginative sprite-based graphics, solid gameplay mechanics, and many classic gameplay ideas make this title a shining example of well executed cRPG design that makes us call its period "the good old times". Highly recommended!

If a true old-school cRPG experience is what you're looking for, you simply can't afford to miss Anvil of Dawn, for only $5.99 on GOG.com!
Hmm. Not really my type of games. I guess I'll just wait Thursday release. Reus and Chaos Overlords. I don't know if still have money to purchase those two. Maybe I'll just pick one.

After that I guess I'll just wait for end of year sale. or perhaps if there is any crazy or good discount on GOG.
Anvil of Dawn is actually pretty expensive on Ebay ranging anyhwere from 40 pounds to 100 pounds (60-150 dollars)

I was actually lucky enough to find my boxed copy for roughly 20 euro a year ago
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Fever_Discordia: Aww man I just found out that when Dreamforge shut down in 2000 they were working on an RPG based on the White Wolf Werewolf pen and paper RPG
No wonder there are so few games based on White Wolf's IPs then, if they're connected to the demise of not one but two great CRPG studios. The Bane of the White Wolf ... ;)
Never heard of this. Do I have/get to listen to Anvil while I play this? \m/
Brilliant game.
Great to see it available for download on GoG. Spoilers in the screenshots though! :o
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kalmis666: Never heard of this. Do I have/get to listen to Anvil while I play this? \m/
Feel the Strength of Steel and clashes of Metal On Metal as you go Back to Basics with Plenty of Power at the Speed of Sound. This Hard n' Heavy classic is Worth the Weight and Still Going Strong!

You'll be Plugged In Permanent !
FINALLY! Listen not to the haters at all, as AoD is pretty cool beans. I'll buy this at some point down the road, as I got my CD up and running on DOSBOX recently and have a nice save going. It's definitely a lot more interesting and fun than some here are saying. It's like Lands of Lore only in terms of visual style and the movement/combat being real-time. The bigger gameplay area makes it easier to appreciate the sprite artwork and yep, those death animations are pretty cool.

The writing is great and as it's you against the hordes, you'll need to be cautious when exploring. Basically, you CANNOT get lost if you pay attention to (and make notes on) the map (which is as noted, one of the best in this type of game), make sure you clear out dungeons by working your way carefully around (rushing into rooms just gets you killed), figure on one or two of the rock puzzles giving you grief because you weren't paying attention and maybe there's a boss or two that's cheap because you're not using magic or trying to hit it with melee attacks when ranged works better.

Now that I've been (re)playing this over the last week or so, I keep thinking this would be an excellent game to remake or port to consoles just to speed up the spells with modern touch screen options. Granted, I like that magic takes time to cast, as you learn to "lead" enemies into some of your spells. As for healing, sure, it's slow, but hey - try to get hit less and you have less to worry about, I say. The first time I played this, my character only died once and it was because I got a bit too overconfident and got bashed by a boulder while backing up from a really strong enemy (oops)...
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kalmis666: Never heard of this. Do I have/get to listen to Anvil while I play this? \m/
No, you get to listen to the Black Gnarl Sing-A-Long, though.


Possible spoiler I suppose, so don't watch if you do not wish to see this part of the game yet.
Awesome! This is one I've been waiting for. Next up, Dungeon Hack? Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession / Stone Prophet?
Post edited May 14, 2013 by fooziex
I never played it, but it's regarded as a true classic by many. Glad it's here now.
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jalister: Wizardry 1 is the first one I played, but it was Dungeon Master on the Amiga 500 that really impressed. Plus Chaos Strikes Back which was never officially released in PC. I loved the EoB series also, and Wizardy 8 is one of my all time favorites.

I have the Wizardy Collection on disk, which is 1 thru 7. I believe it's DRM and copy protection free. So I'd really love to see Wizardy 8 first.
Anyone remember Bloodwych? It was a Dungeon Master-a-like that they somehow managed to make a C64 version of!
That was the first one I played, before I upgraded to meh miggy
Aaaand Mobygames says there was a DOS version (and a Speccy version too eugh!)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/bloodwych
Shame the expansion was Amiga and ST only though...
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kalmis666: Never heard of this. Do I have/get to listen to Anvil while I play this? \m/
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dae6: No, you get to listen to the Black Gnarl Sing-A-Long, though.

Possible spoiler I suppose, so don't watch if you do not wish to see this part of the game yet.
Ok, I might actually buy this game just for that... I don't like FPP Doom-style graphics as a rule, but I might have to give this a shot.
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fooziex: Awesome! This is one I've been waiting for. Next up, Dungeon Hack? Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession / Stone Prophet?
Dungeon Hack is another "abandonware" game from Dreamforge, but I think the versions online are missing the awesome (and hi-larious) intro movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvodJIJdDi8

My ancient DH disc STILL installs and runs on XP (and you don't need it to play the game once installed), but it would be cool to see it here on gog, as I know that disc might give up the ghost one fine day...
So cool! I started this one in the 90s and never got to finish it. Now I can! Thanks, GOG.
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Bloodygoodgames: I think Stonekeep was the third game I ever bought and almost 20 years later is still one of my favorite games of all time. Bought it again last year on GOG and it holds up SO WELL. An awesome dungeon crawler in every sense.
This is probably already mentioned somewhere up above in this thread, but I think if you like Stonekeep you really should give Anvil of Dawn a try. I myself have not played Stonekeep but I remember back in the day the review in Home of the Underdog actually mentioned this game being better than Stonekeep.

And no matter which character you choose from the line up, you'll meet the other characters along the way. Quite interesting IMHO.
Post edited May 14, 2013 by tarangwydion