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Forgotten Realms CollectionEye of the Beholder (1991) vs Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (1991)(7 posts)(7 posts)
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Posted December 27, 2016
The Legend of Grimrock series got me into this style of RPG a few years back. I started with the Might and Magic series and have so far have beaten the first 3. I really enjoyed Isles of Terra and as I'm about to start Eye of the Beholder I'm curious about how people think these games compare, especially at the time.


MM3 had things like a huge world to explore with varied locales, towns, shop, temple, inn, hirelings.... mainquest/sidequests... and a really nice (IMO) MT-32 soundtrack.

How does Eye of the Beholder compare? I think the game just takes place in one dungeon? Ultima Underworld seems to be the same case but that was released a year later and had a revolutionary engine. Was EOB considered 'Meh' at its release when compared to other offerings at the time?

What makes the series unique/great ?

Thanks for sharing
Posted December 27, 2016
I liked EoB back then, although it was in most respects a decline compared to Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back, although it had some novelties like more varied dungeon graphics, recruitable NPCs and general NPC interaction. But trying to replay it some years ago, I realized that shoehorning the AD&D system into a DM clone was not a good idea, and the combat didn't feel right. In turn based AD&D game your armoured fighters can go toe-to-toe with low level enemies with not much risk of being hit. But in EoB you are forced to use the "two step dance" even againts Kobolds.
EoB was definitely not considered "meh" when released, but was IIRC a greater financial success for SSI than their turn based Gold Box games were.

MM3 is a better game IMO (or has at least aged much better), but it suffered from a disappointingly simplified combat system compared to the more tactical combat in MM1-2.

But it's hard to compare the two games directly. One is a real time dungeon crawler, the other is a turn based (althought with combat so simplified it could just as well have been real time) open world game.
Posted December 27, 2016
When you encounter kobolds the first time your party is very weak and that's why you need to be on your toes around them. Should you return a few level ups and some better equipment later (there's no reason why you would, though), you can just stand there and let your frontline characters hack them to pieces. It's just a matter of enemy placing compared to your party's strength.

I think the lack of an automap makes EOB much harder than MM3. EOB has one complex dungeon with teleporting gates that make the game quite non-linear and will lead to you getting lost, if you don't have a cluebook or write your own maps.

On the other hand I always felt much more directly in control of my party and like actually being in the dungeon in EOB than in MM3. EOB always felt more immersive than MM3 to me.
Posted December 27, 2016
EoB was tested a few months earlier so they didn't compare it to MM3. SSI was big, AD&D was big and the game was highly anticipated and received very high ratings in magazine reviews for graphics, sound and overall.

In spite of them looking similar at first glance EoB is essentially a real-time first person shooter while MM3 is turn based.

EoB had only Dungeon Master which it was pretty much cloned from for comparison, a game relased a few years earlier for Atari ST with only 512 KB RAM, not even available for PC yet.
Posted February 14, 2017
It seems Wikipedia and MobyGames were actually incorrect and both of these games were not released in the same year.

Some research shows the first Eye of the Beholder came out April 16, 1990. This makes a lot more sense because than EOB I and EOB II having both come out in the same year. EOB II was released December 12, 1991.

I can't seem to find the month/date of Isles of Terra's release, though.
Posted June 10, 2017
I do not have exact release dates, only months of reviews by Computer Magazines.

The German magazine "Power Play" (closed down in 2001, I believe) ran a review of Might & Magic III (PC version, Amiga followed about 6 months later) in their December issue of 1991 and gave it 84% overall score (79% for graphics, 73% for music). The same issue also seems to have had a preview on Eye of the Beholder 2 (at least it is mentioned on the cover).
Also, this issue had the 6th part of a walkthrough for Eye of the Beholder and a review for Pools of Darkness.

Eye of the Beholder got the marks 79% overall, 82% graphics, 74% music in the issue 5/91 of the Power Play magazine. The two critics gave favorable marks for the good graphics, but criticized the simple playing effort (only running around, killing monsters) and the fact that it was in principle a rip-off from Dungeon Master

Eye of the Beholder 2 was reviewed in issue 3/92 of the Power Play magazine with 82% overall score, 80% graphics and 68% music. The reviewer critized some bugs like respawning monsters where there were not supposed to respawn and the experience level cap. On the plus size he mentioned better cutscenes and more story.

Scans of the reviews are available on kultboy.com
Posted June 23, 2017
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PiercedEye: I do not have exact release dates, only months of reviews by Computer Magazines.

The German magazine "Power Play" (closed down in 2001, I believe) ran a review of Might & Magic III (PC version, Amiga followed about 6 months later) in their December issue of 1991 and gave it 84% overall score (79% for graphics, 73% for music). The same issue also seems to have had a preview on Eye of the Beholder 2 (at least it is mentioned on the cover).
Also, this issue had the 6th part of a walkthrough for Eye of the Beholder and a review for Pools of Darkness.

Eye of the Beholder got the marks 79% overall, 82% graphics, 74% music in the issue 5/91 of the Power Play magazine. The two critics gave favorable marks for the good graphics, but criticized the simple playing effort (only running around, killing monsters) and the fact that it was in principle a rip-off from Dungeon Master

Eye of the Beholder 2 was reviewed in issue 3/92 of the Power Play magazine with 82% overall score, 80% graphics and 68% music. The reviewer critized some bugs like respawning monsters where there were not supposed to respawn and the experience level cap. On the plus size he mentioned better cutscenes and more story.

Scans of the reviews are available on kultboy.com
Yeah turns out they were the same year, after all. EOB I and II were both released that year. It's hard to take those reviewers seriously though considering EOB1 had the highest score for music when it only had like two tracks (intro and character creation) and they were Adlib. Contrast that to a full soundtrack for MM3 on MT32/Sound Blaster.
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Forgotten Realms CollectionEye of the Beholder (1991) vs Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (1991)(7 posts)(7 posts)
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