Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection One

First off, I love this series. The colorful dos graphics, the interface, the story lines; which gets better as the series progresses and just the overall nostalgia feel over it. I am a huge fan of AD&D (especially old school first edition) and these games were ahead of it's time. I have only one complaint, and unfortunately it encompasses a meaty aspect of the game. It's the combat. You have your party in the front, where you need to right click on their weapons to hit creatures, then you have your party in the rear, who can only use spells or ranged weapons. This is a small annoyance, but the biggie is that the game tends to freeze constantly when selecting to attack or in between selecting to attack. I am sure this is a design of the game providing turns for everyone in the battle. As realistic or true to paper and pen version of AD&D this is, it can be disconcerting against high level creatures. Especially with mages and clerics, when you are trying to look for an effective spell through your spell book, then when you find it, it's time for the front party to attack or you can quickly select the spell to cast, then :*FREEZE* then right click on your fighter's weapon to attack *FREEZE* then right click on the other front player to attack, *FREEZE*. This can work with low level goblins. But Death Knights?...not so much. What I feel the game needed was a pause button during combat, so you can choose what everyone in the party will be doing that round and then unpause. I know it's a pretty old game, and I probably would have not had this complaint, when it was released. I'm sure modern rpgs have spoon fed me over the years. Overlooking this huge issue, it is a great set of games and made me feel like I was actually in the dungeon. I still would recommend these games to any fans of dungeon crawlers.

I have played the first game in this series in the form of two of it's console ports, and it is a fine game. I would have to I prefer the GBA version best since more is added including a tactical battle system and merchants with whom to buy and sell, though I would have liked random battles and respawn for enemies better, which is in the PC and SNES versions. I am currently playing through the SNES version on my channel, mithrswd, on Youtube under the name "Eyeful of the Beholder." The controls are a bit finicky and I dislike having to move the mouse about to each button to perform actions I would have thought to need more intuitive activation, ie combat or spell casting, and the spell casting is a bit encumbered since the menu is capricious in how it keeps your place, and since spells generally require something like three buttons minimum to cast. But the fact that you can load up all of your characters not on the front row with missile weapons with ammo that you can recover and use again is a very handy feature. And beyond all this it is a tremendously fun game.

I got this because one of my favorite games of all time Legend of Grimrock was based on it. And they have not failed to disappoint. They are still enjoyable to this day. However I can't give 5 stars because there's some weird control issue in EOB2 when using the numpad to turn where you can do it once and then there is a huge delay before you can do it again (but clicking the rotate button works fine with no lag) and only on right turns. It's bad enough that it ruins my enjoyment of the game. EOB1 did not have this issue.

Siento no poder hacer una crítica constructiva ni racional 100% porque, como para muchos, esto tiene más que ver con sentimientos revividos. Descubrí los Eob I y II siendo un chaval, la edad ideal para quedar atrapado por el mundo nuevo de la fantasía épica... a ello ya había contribuído sobremanera el "Lobo solitario" de Joe Dever, pero esa es otra historia. Más de 25 años después uno se da cuenta de las limitaciones del asunto: la trampa en la generación de personajes, la aparente futilidad de subir de nivel si no eres mago o clérigo, el truco cobarde de combate... Pero recupera parte de esos sueños perdidos, de esas sensaciones que en el fondo quería recrear cuando cayó rendido ante BG, ID o NWN. Han pasado más de 25 años, sí, me acerco a los 40 y la magia de EoB sigue ahí... sobre todo si dejas jugar al corazón, no sólo a la cabeza. Gracias GOG! ¿Debería mentar EoB III? No, no estropeemos esta bonita historia de amor que os acabo de contar. Sorry but I won't be able to write a constructive review 'cause, as to many of us, this is related to a reminisce of deep feelings. I discovered both EoB I and II as a kid, the perfect moment to get trapped by epic fantasy... along with Joe Dever's "Lone wolf", but that's another story. More than 25 years later one realizes the whole limitations of the gameplay: cheating on the characters' creation, the useless upgrading unless being mage or cleric, the "coward mode" for combat... But also recovers part of those dreams he thought lost, those sensations that in the end he wanted to recreate again and again when surrendered to the charm of BG, ID or NWN. More than 25 years passed by, yep, I'm close to my forties and EoB's appeal (like a magic spell... or curse?) is still there... mostly if you let your heart play. Thanks GOG! Should I mention EoB III? No, I won't ruin the beautiful love story I just told you.

You learn chess like combat movement. Scout out the area move blockers up and assult with your fireballs until you can make traps with delayed blast fireball. When you got that one down high lvl spells you trick bots with your ranged into kill zones.