Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection One

Eye of the Beholder Many parts are agonizingly tricky, but there is always enough information given throughout the course of the game that if you reach a seemingly dead-end you can rest assured that you're either missing an item or your team just isn't strong enough. So as a solution, all floors eventually can be reached if you have to back-track, providing you have the magic key in your possession. This game is just plain fun, and VERY gratifying when you win. https://youtu.be/DZlhAVY0rF8 Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon An amazing game with surprises around every corner. However BE WARNED! Make sure you save healing potions that you find early, for there is an entire level where you cannot rest to heal your characters. This game can be TOUGH! Save often! The inventory system is easy and speedy. Be extremely careful, things are not always as they seem. Fighting requires patience, fast moves, and leading the enemy to an area where you can't be boxed in! There are no dead-ends. All floors can later be reached if you find you're missing a crucial item, in fact there are times the game itself will warn you if you're not ready for a certain level. So much fun to play as well as a gratifying ending, including a final plaque of your heroes who made it through to the end! This one is hard, but ohhh so good! https://youtu.be/s2qeI1EQ6Xk Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor The third and final of the series. Some new elements are introduced; an outdoor level that requires clearing some trees to progress, and an underwater level where you need to act fast before you run out of oxygen! Enemies are faster and therefore harder to defeat, especially the final battle! There is a level where you cannot rest to heal, but THIS TIME you can rid the level of its curse enabling you to do so. Very cool indeed! https://youtu.be/LYlxl0mmfj4 Just hilight the above and CTRL C then CTRL V into your browser.

Played the first two titles all the way through with no issues, brought back so much nostalgia, but I ran into sound issues with the third title. I was experiencing loud repetitive popping sounds when attacking and also during other sound effects. If you're experiencing the same popping sounds, then I found a really simple fix to this sound issue in the comment section of this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/-7qljh3RWbI in the comments, Luca L supplies this download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/bdz62njjxa0q5eo/EOB3_32K.ZIP Download and extract EOB3_32k.zip, locate "DOS4GW.EXE" (you don't need ANY of the other files) and copy, paste, and replace the one in the Eye of the Beholder III directory. This will fix the sound popping issue. I hope this review helps someone else having this issue, absolutely great games and worth playing if you have a fondness for these types of old school dungeon crawlers.

These versions are basically the old Floppy Disk versions ran through DosBox.... The games are very enjoyable and the music is lively, the controls are a little iffy (for me) and it did take me a little time to find-out how to hit things (just click your weapon).. but once that was down the game fun began (you could re-map the keys to a controller for easier gaming & that is what i will do). Graphics? well ok it does show its age.. but who really cares? if a games enjoyable it should not be just about graphics. Note: Maps are normally drawn by hand for these games & that can take sometime as they can be like a confusing maze (which may not be for some people and could put people off sadly).. However thanks to some very clever people..There IS a fix, search for and grab "THE ALL-SEEING EYE" this is a great and very helpful tool. To be honest these games remind me of the elder scrolls games such as "The Elder Scrolls Travels - Stormhold" (which despite a few flaws is still a nice game). I still have my original Floppy Disks of these games, all bagged & boxed with manuals and scribbles/colour tags etc (from a friend) so i am pleased to have this version also as having to fiddle with Disks can be a slow process (especially if the windows version or drive dislikes the disks for some reason). Worth the money?.... yes, there games you can poor hours into (you could also get lost for hours)

I have been working my way through these again recently, having never finished the first one back in the day. EOB 1 is actually fairly straightforward, quite basic but ultimately reasonably fair. EOB 2 my god, it's brutal. You're going to be constantly reloading due to deaths and status effects. Early on it's poison, this soon becomes trivial with potions and spells. However later on you have multiple beholders with insta-death spells and tight corridors. Then you have petrifying basilisks and very soon after that - medusas. These are a massive problem because you can at most have about 6 items which can cure this status (4 of which are pixie dust bags aquired at the very beginning of the game with NO indication of what they're for), the spell for it is locked at the highest level of mage spells for some reason, so it's very unlikely you'll get there by the time you need it, if at all. Now ordinarily you could reasonably try to battle your way through all this with careful avoidance etc, unfortunately they decided to make monster infinitely respawn on every level, so you're going to be constantly bombarded while trying to get through the levels, with plenty of backtracking this soon becomes a massice chore. I havn't made it to EOB3 yet, I might have to take a break... but can it be any worse than 2? I remember enjoying it. We shall see. It's highly recommended to use all seeing eye for automapping, but even with this and a guide, you're going to be in for a slog of a challenge.

This trio of games is perhaps amongst the best of SSI's CRPG experience, with a first person perspective. You venture into classic regions from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, solving mystery after mystery in order to progress both in the campaign and as adventurers. Adventure in the legendary Underdark of Waterdeep and Myth Drannor. The puzzles in these games are amongst some of the best in CRPG gaming and really tie in with the plot lines of the stories involved. SSI were legends who essentially brought AD&D to computer and console gaming. A tradition that has been carried on by developers like Bioware, Atari, Beamdog and more recently by Larian Studios. Great character development, especially if you're into the pen and paper version of AD&D. I believe that these games were written using AD&D First Edition, so it might be a bit of a different experience for those who aren't familiar with the original ruleset. If you're an AD&D fan, I'd highly recommend these. Also, look for the Darksun Saga, from SSI.